A. In order to facilitate the needs of the local customers, an MCS provider shall maintain a customer service office which is both within the City, and easily accessible to customers.
B. The customer service office shall be open at least forty (40) hours per week (exclusive of holidays).
C. Within the forty (40) hours per week that a customer service office must be open, an MCS provider must provide office hours either on at least two (2) evenings (after 5 p.m.), or on Saturdays and/or Sundays (if not prohibited by State law).
D. The customer service office should have an adequate and knowledgeable staff in order to handle the vast majority of customer service inquiries, specifically including, but not limited to: billing inquiries, refunds, service outages, equipment service and repair, payment of bills and other charges, and inquiries from disabled or physically-impaired customers.
E. MCS providers shall for a reasonable charge, provide customers with a monthly, bi-monthly, or weekly multi-channel programming service guide, listing and/or detailing the programs and services available during the time period. In lieu of providing a programming service guide via the mail, or a newspaper, or third party, the MCS provider may disseminate the information over a channel designated as a program preview or program listing channel.
F. At least annually, any MCS provider shall certify to the Council/franchising authority that each customer service representative (CSR) has taken and passed an MCS provider-implemented course designed to train CSRs to handle their jobs in a courteous, efficient, and responsive manner.
G. An MCS provider shall maintain at least one (1) toll-free and/or local telephone number to accommodate normal business inquiries.
H. An MCS provider shall maintain a separate twenty-four (24) hour toll-free telephone number to facilitate calls concerning repair of equipment and extended interruption of service. During any hours that the customer service office is open, the MCS provider must have or make available in-house personnel to address a customer's inquiries. During other hours, a telephone may be manned by an automatic answering device, provided that the use of an answering device or answering service still results in an initial phone call by the MCS provider within ninety (90) minutes, in order to at least determine the extent of the outage. The MCS provider shall not be required to make in-person telephone contacts to subscribers at a rate which exceeds sixty (60) calls per hour, and shall not be required to make such calls between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. for situations other than reports of service outages.
I. A non-exempt MCS provider shall have adequate staff and/or extension lines (except during special marketing promotion periods, peak billing cycles, and service outages) in order to handle call to the general information number to the following specifications:
1. Eighty-five percent (85%) of all customer calls received in a year shall be attended within three minutes by a representative of the MCS provider, or by a device that is capable of complaint or inquiry resolution; and
2. The rate of abandoned calls shall not be greater than fifteen percent (15%) over any consecutive six (6) month period of time. "Abandoned calls" shall in no event be deemed to include calls in which the caller hangs up within forty-five (45) seconds of making the call.
J. With respect to the specifications listed in subsection (I) of this Section, it shall be the MCS provider's responsibility to quarterly certify to the Council/franchising authority that the affected MCS provider is meeting the minimal specifications.