(a) Customer Service. A Grantee shall maintain a conveniently located office or offices which provide the necessary facilities, equipment and personnel to comply, under normal operating conditions, with the customer service standards set forth in paragraphs (a)(1) through (6) hereof. For purposes of this section, "normal operating conditions" embraces all conditions which are within the control of the Grantee, including special promotions, pay-per-view events, rate increases and maintenance or upgrade of the cable system, but excluding conditions outside the Grantee's control, such as natural disasters, civil disturbances, power outages, telephone network outages and extreme weather. Customer service standards shall include:
(1) On a monthly basis, sufficient customer service representatives and toll-free telephone line capacity during normal business hours to assure that a minimum of ninety percent of all calls will be answered within thirty seconds and ninety percent of all calls for service will not be required to wait more than thirty seconds after such call has been answered before being connected to a service representative. All incoming customer service lines shall not be simultaneously busy more than three percent of the total time the cable office is open on any business day.
(2) Staffed emergency toll-free telephone line capacity on a twenty-four hour basis, including weekends and holidays.
(3) Maintenance of an office conveniently located and with adequate office hours to meet public demand. The City may require the Grantee to alter or extend these hours if there is significant evidence through subscriber complaints that the posted hours are not adequate.
(4) An emergency system maintenance and repair staff, capable of responding to and repairing system malfunctions on a twenty-four hour basis.
(5) An installation staff, capable of furnishing standard installations to any subscriber within seven days after receipt of a request. As used in this section, "standard installations" means those installations located up to 150 feet from where trunk and feeder cable have been activated.
A Grantee shall, at its sole expense, cause all drops required to be buried to be properly buried within fifteen days of installation of service, unless conditions during such period make burial impracticable, in which case the drop shall be buried within fifteen days after physical conditions reasonably allow for such burial. In the event of any dispute between the Grantee and the subscriber as to when conditions permit burial of the drop, such dispute shall be resolved by the decision of the City's building official or other official designated by the City to resolve such disputes.
(6) Provisions of written instructions and information at the time of installation and re-installation, and at least annually thereafter, to all subscribers on products and services, prices and options, installation and service maintenance policies, instructions for using the system, and billing and complaint procedures. Such instructions and information shall include the Grantee's business address and applicable telephone number and the name of the appropriate official or department of the Grantee to whose attention the subscriber should direct a request for service, a request for billing adjustment or a complaint. Such instructions and information shall also include the name, title, business address and telephone number of the designated City employee to whom the subscriber can call or write for information regarding the terms, conditions and provisions governing the Grantee's franchise if the Grantee fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to the subscriber's complaint or request for installation, service or billing adjustment. In addition:
A. The Grantee shall promptly furnish revised written instructions and information to each subscriber whenever the instructions and information previously provided have been changed.
B. The written instructions and information provided for herein shall be subject to the review and approval of the City, which shall not withhold its approval unreasonably. The City shall have the power to compel changes in such material if the City deems the same to be misleading, incorrect or inadequate in any material respect, and the Grantee shall promptly institute any changes so required by the City.
(b) Service Interruptions; Requests for Service.
(1) A Grantee shall interrupt system service only with good cause and for the shortest time possible and, except in emergency situations, only after periodic cable casting of a notice of service interruption for two days prior to the anticipated interruption. Services may be interrupted between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. for routine testing, maintenance and repair, without notification, any night except Friday, Saturday, Sunday, holidays or the night preceding a holiday.
(2) A Grantee shall maintain a written log or its equivalent stored in computer memory and capable of access and reproduction in printed form, of all subscriber service complaints. Such log shall list the date and time of such complaints, identifying the subscribers and describing the nature of the complaints, and when and what actions were taken by the Grantee in response thereto. Such log shall be kept reflecting the operations to date for a period of at least three years, and shall be available for public inspection during regular business hours at a reasonably convenient location upon reasonable notice subject to applicable laws regarding subscriber privacy. The Grantee shall submit a summary of such complaints monthly to the City for its review or a copy thereof if the City so requests.
(3) For purposes of this section, "service interruption" shall mean any loss or distortion of picture and/or sound on one or more channels; "subscriber problem" shall mean a service interruption affecting a single subscriber; "outage" shall mean a service interruption affecting two or more subscribers. Under normal operating conditions as defined by FCC rules, the Grantee shall maintain a sufficient repair force of competent technicians so as to respond effectively to any subscriber problem or outage within the following time periods, unless the applicable period is extended at the request of the subscriber or pursuant to the requirements of any applicable law or regulation:
A. For a subscriber problem: "Same day" service, seven days a week, for all requests for service received prior to 12:00 noon each day. In no event shall the response time for notice received after 12:00 noon exceed twenty-four hours, including weekends and holidays, from the time a Grantee receives notice of the problem.
B. For an outage: Within two hours, including weekends and holidays, from the time a Grantee discovers or receives notice of the outage.
(4) Upon receipt of a request for service, the Grantee shall establish a four-hour appointment window with the subscriber (or adult representative of the subscriber). The Grantee shall respond to the request for service within such established appointment window. In the event access to the subscriber's home is not made available to the Grantee's technician when the technician arrives during the established appointment window, the technician shall leave written notification stating the time of arrival and requesting that the Grantee be contacted again to establish a new appointment window. In such case, the required response time for the request for service shall be twenty-four hours from the time the Grantee is contacted to establish the new appointment window.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the Grantee's technician telephones the subscriber's home before or during the appointment window and is advised that the technician will not be given access to the subscriber's home during the appointment window, then the technician shall not be obliged to travel to the subscriber's home or to leave the written notification referred to above, and the burden shall again be upon the subscriber (or adult representative of the subscriber) to contact the Grantee to arrange for a new appointment window, in which case the required response time for the request for service shall again be twenty-four hours from the time the Grantee is contacted to establish the new appointment window.
(5) Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (b)(4) hereof, the Grantee, under the provisions of this section, shall be deemed to have responded to a request for service, a subscriber problem or an outage only when sufficient technicians arrive at the service location, begin work on the request for service or remedial work, as the case may be, and proceed diligently to complete such work.
(6) No charge shall be made to the subscriber for any service call unless the problem giving rise to the service request can be demonstrated by the Grantee to have been:
A. Caused by subscriber negligence;
B. Caused by malicious destruction of cable equipment; or
C. A problem previously established as having been non-cable in origin.
(7) All service personnel of the Grantee or its contractors or subcontractors who have as part of their normal duties contact with the general public shall wear on their clothing a clearly visible identification card bearing their name and photograph. The Grantee shall account for all identification cards at all times. Every service vehicle of the Grantee shall be clearly identifiable by the public as such a vehicle.
(c) Grantee's Billings. The Grantee's bills to its subscribers shall be clear, concise and understandable and shall be itemized as to each charge reflected thereon. No bill or any accompanying communication from the Grantee to its subscribers, and no other communication from the Grantee to its subscribers, shall contain any false or misleading statement.
(d) Disconnect and Downgrade Charges.
(1) The Grantee shall make no charge to any subscriber on account of either complete discontinuance of service or net downgrade of service whereby the subscriber requests a lower tier of cable service or former premium services.
(2) The Grantee may disconnect a subscriber only if at least thirty days have elapsed after the due date for payment of the subscriber's bill and the Grantee has provided at least ten days written notice to the subscriber prior to disconnection specifying the effective date after which cable services are subject to disconnection. However, notwithstanding the foregoing, the Grantee may disconnect a subscriber at any time if the Grantee in good faith and on reasonable grounds determines that the subscriber has tampered with or abused the Grantee's equipment, or is or may be engaged in the theft of cable services.
(3) The Grantee shall promptly disconnect any subscriber who so requests disconnection. No period of notice prior to requested termination of service may be required of subscribers by the Grantee. If the subscriber fails to specify an effective date for disconnection, the effective date shall be deemed to be the day following the date the disconnect request is received by the Grantee. No charge may be imposed upon the subscriber for any cable service delivered after the effective date of the disconnect request.
(e) Late Payment Charges. Late payment charges imposed by the Grantee upon subscribers shall be fair and shall be reasonably related to the Grantee's cost of administering delinquent accounts. No late payment charge shall be imposed upon a subscriber, and a subscriber shall not be deemed to be in arrears on a bill, unless at least thirty days have elapsed after the due date specified on the bill. For purposes of this subsection and subsection (d) hereof, the due date specified on the bill shall not be earlier than the first day of the monthly period to which the bill is attributable.
(f) Notice of Programming or Channel Change. The Grantee shall provide at least thirty days written notice to subscribers prior to discontinuing any channel or programming service or to realigning any channel and shall provide written notice of the same to the City no later than the Grantee's notice to subscribers. This provision shall not preclude the right of the City to contest or prohibit any such action by the Grantee if, and to the extent, such right exists. The foregoing notice requirement shall not apply in cases in which a programming service is discontinued because a non-affiliated provider thereof discontinues furnishing the same to the Grantee on less than forty-five days notice to the Grantee. In any such case the Grantee shall nevertheless furnish notice to its subscribers and the City promptly upon the Grantee receiving notice of the discontinuance of the programming service from such non-affiliated provider.
(g) Notice of Price Increase or Reduction of Service. The Grantee shall provide at least thirty days written notice to subscribers prior to implementing any increase in subscriber rates or reduction in subscriber services and shall provide written notice of the same to the City no later than the Grantee's notice to subscribers. The provisions of this subsection shall not preclude the right of the City to contest or prohibit any such action by the Grantee if, and to the extent, permitted by law.
(h) Grantee's Communications Re Price Increase or Reduction of Service. Prior to or simultaneously with any communication made by the Grantee to the general public or to the Grantee's subscribers announcing or explaining any increase in subscriber rates or reduction in programming services, the Grantee shall furnish a copy of such communication to the City.
(i) Security Fund.
(1) Within ten days after the award of a new franchise or the transfer, extension or renewal of an existing franchise, the Grantee thereunder shall furnish the City, and maintain throughout the term of the franchise, a cash deposit or letter of credit of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) as security for:
A. The faithful performance by it of all the provisions of this chapter and the franchise;
B. Compliance with all orders, permits and directions of any agency, commission, board or department of the City having jurisdiction over its acts or defaults under the franchise; and
C. The payment by the Grantee of any claims, liens and taxes due the City which arise by reason of the construction, operation or maintenance of the system.
(2) If the Grantee fails to pay to the City any fees within the time fixed herein; fails, after thirty days written notice, to pay to the City any taxes due and unpaid; fails to repay the City within such thirty days any damages, costs or expenses which the City shall be compelled to pay by reason of any act or default of the Grantee in connection with a franchise; or fails, after thirty days notice of such failure, to comply with any provisions of the franchise which the City reasonably determines can be remedied by a withdrawal from the Security Fund; the City may immediately withdraw the amount thereof, with interest and any additional charges, from the Security Fund. Upon such withdrawal, the City shall notify the Grantee of the amount and date thereof and shall remit to the City the amount so withdrawn.
(3) Within ten days after notice to it that any amount has been withdrawn from the Security Fund, the Grantee shall pay to or deposit with the City a sum of money in the full amount withdrawn.
(4) The Security Fund deposited pursuant to this section, including all interest thereon, if any, shall be held by the City in the event that the franchise is rescinded or revoked by reason of the default of the Grantee. The Grantee, however, shall be entitled to the return of such Security Fund, or such portion thereof as remains on deposit at the expiration of the term of the franchise, provided that there is then no outstanding default on the part of the Grantee. Any interest earned by the investment of the Security Fund shall become part of the Security Fund and, unless consumed by the payment of liquidated damages, fees or other charges under this chapter, shall be returned to the Grantee at the expiration of the franchise term, provided that there is then no outstanding default on the part of the Grantee.
(5) The City shall maintain the Security Fund in a segregated account and shall not commingle the same with any other monies of the City. The City may, but shall not be required to, invest the Security Fund so as to earn interest thereon and shall not be liable to the Grantee on any claim based upon the lack or insufficiency of interest earned by such Fund.
(6) Payment from the Security Fund shall not constitute a cure of any violation or any act of noncompliance by the Grantee. The rights reserved to the City with respect to the Security Fund are in addition to all other rights of the City, whether reserved by this chapter or authorized by law, and no action, proceeding or exercise of a right with respect to such Security Fund shall affect any other right the City may have.
(7) The Security Fund provided for in this section shall be in addition to any performance bond, letter of credit or other security provided for in the franchise agreement.
(j) Liquidated Damages.
(1) The City may assess liquidated damages of up to one hundred dollars ($100.00) per day against the Grantee for each day the Grantee is in violation of Section 1052.17. Such assessment may be levied against the Security Fund or any letter of credit, performance bond or other security provided for in the franchise agreement.
(2) Assessment of liquidated damages shall not constitute a waiver by the City of any other right or remedy it may have under the franchise agreement or applicable law, including the right to recover from the Grantee any costs and expenses, including reasonable attorney's fees, which are incurred by the City on account of the Grantee's violation of this chapter.
(k) Evaluation of Violations.
(1) A violation of this chapter by the Grantee, the Grantee's agents or employees and/or independent contractors employed or retained by the Grantee, shall be grounds for evaluating:
A. The Grantee's compliance with any existing Agreement and with applicable law;
B. The quality of the Grantee's service and whether it has been reasonable in light of community needs;
C. The technical ability of the Grantee to provide the services, facilities and equipment as set forth in an operator's proposal for future or renewed cable services; and
D. The reasonableness of the Grantee's proposal to meet the future cable-related community needs and interests of the residents and cable television consumers of the City.
(2) These evaluations shall be proper and germane for the City to consider formally when reviewing a proposal for renewal of any Agreement to provide cable services within the City.
(l) Remedies Available. If the City determines that the Grantee has violated this chapter, the City may order appropriate rebates to subscribers or may assess liquidated damages against the Grantee, or both. In addition, the City may pursue any additional or other legal or equitable remedies available to it under the franchise agreement or any applicable law.
(Res. 96-355. Passed 6-24-96.)