These standards apply to any franchised cable operator.
(A) Telephone and office availability.
(1) (a) Each franchisee shall maintain an office at a location convenient to subscribers and shall establish a telephone service adequate to respond to subscriber inquiries. Every franchisee must at least satisfy the minimum requirements established by the Federal Communications Commission. Each franchisee shall maintain an office and telephone service in accordance with a written plan submitted by the franchisee and approved by the Hopkinsville Cable Television Oversight Authority (“HCTOA”). Failure on the part of any franchisee to have and conform to an approved plan shall constitute a substantial violation of its franchise. A franchisee may propose new plans as often as practical, however, the HCTOA reserves the right to reject any proposal submitted.
(b) Each franchisee shall perform service calls, installations and disconnects at least ten hours per day, Monday through Saturday (except legal holidays); provided that, a franchisee shall respond to outages 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Each franchisee shall establish a publicly listed local toll-free telephone number. The phone must be answered by customer service representatives during normal business hours, Monday through Saturday (except legal holidays), for the purpose of receiving requests for service, inquiries and complaints from subscribers. After such business hours, the phone shall be answered so that customers can register complaints and report service problems on a 24-hour per day, seven-day per week basis, and so that the franchisee can respond to service outages as required herein. Phones shall be answered in accordance with this division (A). Telephone answering time shall not exceed 30 seconds or four rings and the time to transfer the call to a customer service representative (including hold time) shall not exceed an additional 30 seconds. Under normal operating conditions, this standard shall be met 90% of the time, measured quarterly. Under normal operating conditions, customers will receive a busy signal less than 3% of the time. When the business office is closed, an answering machine or service capable of receiving and recording service complaints and inquiries shall be employed. The after-hours answering service shall comply with the same telephone answer time standard set forth in this section.
(B) Scheduling work.
(1) All appointments for service, installation or disconnection shall be specified by date. Each franchisee shall specify a specific time at which the work shall be done, or offer a choice of time blocks, which shall not exceed two hours in length. A franchisee may also, upon request, schedule service installation calls outside normal business hours, for the express convenience of the customer. If at any time an installer or technician is running late for an appointment and believes it will not be able to make a scheduled appointment time, an attempt to contact the customer will be made prior to the time of appointment and the appointment rescheduled at a time convenient to the customer, if rescheduling is necessary. It is the operator’s burden to prove it met the appointment.
(2) The franchisee shall offer and fully describe to subscribers who have experienced a missed appointment (where the missed appointment was not the subscriber’s fault) that the subscriber may choose between the following options: installation or service call free of charge; or one month of the most widely subscribed to service tier free of charge.
(3) With regard to disabled or handicapped customers, upon subscriber request, each franchisee shall arrange for pickup and/or replacement of converters or other franchisee equipment at the subscriber’s address or by a satisfactory equivalent (such as the provision of a postage-prepaid mailer).
(4) Under normal operating conditions, requests for service, repair and maintenance must be acknowledged by a trained customer service representative within 24 hours, or prior to the end of the next business day, whichever is earlier. A franchisee shall respond to all other inquiries (including billing inquiries) within five business days of the inquiry or complaint. Under normal operating conditions, work on outages or service interruptions must begin immediately. Repairs and maintenance for outages or service interruptions must be completed as soon as possible, and within four hours after the outage or interruption becomes known to the franchisee where the franchisee has adequate access to facilities to which it must have access in order to remedy the problem. Under normal operating conditions, work to correct all other service problems must be begun by the next business day after notification of the service problem and must be completed within five business days from the date of the initial request. When normal operating conditions do not exist, a franchisee shall complete the work in the shortest time possible. The failure of the franchisee to hire sufficient staff or to properly train its staff shall not justify a franchisee’s failure to comply with this provision.
(5) A franchisee shall not cancel a service or installation appointment with a customer after the close of business on the business day preceding the scheduled appointment.
(6) Under normal operating conditions, the standards of divisions (B)(4) and (5) of this section shall be met at least 95% of the time, measured on a quarterly basis.
(7) Under normal operating conditions, the installation time standard in § 100.35, and below will be met no less than 95% of the time measured on a quarterly basis. Requests for additional outlets, service upgrades or other connections (e.g., DMX, VCR, A/B switch) separate from the initial installation will be performed within seven business days after an order has been placed.
(C) Notice to subscribers.
(1) At the time service is installed, a franchisee shall provide each subscriber with clear and accurate written information on: the procedure for placing a service call, filing a complaint or requesting an adjustment (including when a subscriber is entitled to refunds for outages and how to obtain them); showing the telephone number of the city office responsible for administering the franchise; the availability of parental control devices; the franchisee’s delinquent subscriber disconnect and reconnect policies; and any other of the franchisee’s policies in connection with its subscribers. A franchisee shall also provide subscribers with a schedule of rates and charges, channel positions and services provided, as well as a copy of the service contract. The same information shall be provided to the subscriber annually thereafter, except another copy of the service contract need not be provided. Copies of the notices provided to the subscribers shall be provided to the city. Except as applicable federal, state and local rate regulations may provide to the contrary, a franchisee shall provide the CAO at least 60-days’ notice and all subscribers at least 30-days’ notice of any significant changes in the information required to be provided under this division. The notice shall be made in writing.
(2) Each franchisee shall take appropriate steps to ensure that all written franchisee promotional materials, announcements and advertising of residential cable service to subscribers and the general public, where price information is listed in any manner, clearly and accurately discloses price terms. In the case of telephone orders, a franchisee shall take appropriate steps to ensure that price terms are clearly and accurately disclosed to potential customers in advance of taking the order. The franchisee must advise potential subscribers that they may purchase a basic service tier and must disclose the price therefor. If there is a downgrade charge to shift to basic service from other service tiers, that downgrade charge must be disclosed to the subscriber before the subscriber takes service. No charge may be levied which has not been properly disclosed.
(3) Each franchisee shall maintain a file open for public inspection containing all notices provided to subscribers under these customer service standards, as well as all promotional offers made to subscribers. The notices and offers shall be kept in the file for at least one year from the date of the notice or promotional offer.
(D) Interruptions of service. A franchisee shall provide 48 hours prior notice to subscribers and the city before interrupting service for planned maintenance or construction; provided, however, that planned maintenance that does not require more than two hours interruption of service, and that occurs between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 6:00 a.m., shall not require such notice to subscribers, however, notice to the city must be given no less than 24 hours prior to the anticipated service interruption.
(E) Billing.
(1) A franchisee’s first billing statement after a new installation or service change shall be prorated as appropriate and shall reflect any security deposit.
(2) A franchisee’s billing statement must be clear, concise and understandable, must itemize each category of service and equipment provided to the subscriber, and must state clearly the charge therefor.
(3) A franchisee’s billing statement must show a specific payment due date not earlier than the later of:
(a) Fifteen days after the date the statement is mailed; or
(b) The fifteenth day of the 30-day period in which the service being billed is rendered. A late fee or administrative fee may not be imposed for payments before the end of the period for which the payment is rendered.
(c) Subscribers shall not be charged a late fee or otherwise penalized for any failure by a franchisee, including failure to timely or correctly bill the subscriber, or failure to properly credit the subscriber for a payment timely made.
(4) A franchisee’s bill must permit a subscriber to remit payment by mail or in person at the franchisee’s local office.
(5) The account of any subscriber shall be credited a prorated share of the monthly charge for the service upon subscriber request, if a subscriber is without service or if service is substantially impaired for any reason for a period exceeding four hours during any 24-hour period; or automatically if the loss of service or impairment is for 24 hours or longer; except where it can be documented that a subscriber will obtain a refund for a loss of service or impairment which was caused by the subscriber or by subscriber-owned equipment (not including, for purposes of this section, in-home wiring installed by the franchisee).
(6) A franchisee shall respond to all written billing complaints from subscribers within 30 days.
(7) Refunds to subscribers shall be issued no later than:
(a) The earlier of the subscriber’s next billing cycle following resolution of the refund request or 30 days; or
(b) Within 30 days the date of return of all equipment to franchisee, if cable service has been terminated.
(8) Credits for cable service shall be issued no later than the subscriber’s next billing cycle after the determination that the credit is warranted.
(F) Disconnection/downgrades.
(1) A subscriber may terminate service at any time.
(2) A franchisee shall promptly disconnect from the franchisee’s cable system or downgrade any subscriber who so requests. No period of notice prior to voluntary termination or downgrade of cable service may be required of subscribers by any franchisee. Charges for any voluntary disconnection, and any downgrade charges shall conform to applicable law.
(3) Any security deposit and/or other funds due a subscriber that disconnects or downgrades service shall be returned to the subscriber within 30 days or in the next billing cycle, whichever is later, from the date the disconnection or the downgrade was requested, except in cases where the subscriber does not permit the franchisee to recover its equipment, in which case the amounts owed shall be paid to subscribers within 30 days of the date the equipment was recovered, or in the next billing cycle, whichever is later.
(4) A franchisee may not disconnect a subscriber’s cable service for non-payment unless:
(a) The subscriber is delinquent in payment for cable service;
(b) A separate, written notice of impending disconnection, postage prepaid, has been sent to the subscriber at least 20 days prior to the date on which service may be disconnected, at the premises where the subscriber requests billing, which notice must state the date by which disconnection may occur and the amount the subscriber must pay to avoid disconnection;
(c) The subscriber has failed to pay the amounts owed to avoid disconnection by the date of disconnection;
(d) No pending inquiry exists regarding the bill to which franchisee has not responded in writing; and
(e) Payment is not delinquent until the fifteenth day of the month in which the service being billed for is rendered; the notice required under division (F)(4)(b) above may not be sent to a subscriber prior to the delinquency date. If the subscriber pays all amounts due, including late charges, before the date scheduled for disconnection, the franchisee shall not disconnect service. After lawful disconnection (except in cases where disconnection is also subject to division (F)(5) below), upon payment by the subscriber in full of all proper fees or charges, including the payment of the reconnection charge, if any, the franchisee shall promptly reinstate service.
(5) A franchisee may immediately disconnect a subscriber if:
(a) The subscriber is damaging, destroying or unlawfully tampering with or has damaged or destroyed or unlawfully tampered with the franchisee’s cable system;
(b) The subscriber is not authorized to receive a service and is facilitating, aiding or abetting the unauthorized receipt of service by others; or
(c) Subscriber-installed or attached equipment is resulting in signal leakage which is in violation of FCC rules. After disconnection, the franchisee shall restore service after the subscriber provides adequate assurance that it has ceased the practices that led to disconnection, and has paid all proper fees and charges, including any reconnect fees and all amounts owed to the franchisee for damage to its cable system or equipment. However, a reconnect fee may not be levied where the subscriber was disconnected for signal leakage, unless the subscriber was notified of the leakage problem in writing, and the subscriber has failed to correct the leakage within three business days after receiving written notice of the problem from the franchisee.
(G) Deposits. A franchisee may require a reasonable, non-discriminatory deposit on equipment provided to subscribers. Deposits shall be placed in an interest-bearing account and the franchisee shall return the deposit, plus interest earned to the date the deposit is returned to the subscriber, less any amount the franchisee can demonstrate should be deducted for damage to the equipment.
(H) Parental control option. Without limiting a franchisee’s obligations under federal law, a franchisee must provide parental control devices at no charge to all subscribers who request them that enable the subscriber to block the video and audio portion of any channel or channels of programming.
(Ord. 26-97, passed 9-23-1997)