(a) Definitions.
(1) Normal business hours means those hours during which most similar businesses in the community are open to serve customers.
(2) Normal operating conditions means those service conditions which are within the control of the cable operator. Those conditions which are not within the control of the cable operator include, but are not limited to, natural disasters, civil disturbances, power outages, telephone network outages and severe or unusual weather conditions. Those conditions which are ordinarily within the control of the cable operator include, but are not limited to, special promotions, pay-per-view events, rate increases, regular peak or seasonal demand periods, and maintenance or upgrade of the cable system.
(3) Service interruption means the loss of picture or sound on one or more cable channels.
(b) Exceptions. Nothing in this article is intended to prevent or prohibit:
(1) the city and a grantee from agreeing to customer service requirements that exceed the standards set forth in this article.
(2) the city from enacting or enforcing any consumer protection law; or
(3) the establishment or enforcement of any ordinance or regulation concerning customer service that imposes customer service requirements that exceed or address matters not addressed by the standards set forth in this article.
(c) Customer service standards. A grantee is subject to the following customer service standards, which are to be certified quarterly as to compliance by the grantee to the city.
(1) The grantee shall conform to minimum standards as shall be established by the city for telephone access, repair service response, timeliness of installation work, and work order scheduling. Telephone access for service complaints must be improved to an initial minimum standard which meets the guidelines of the Federal Communications Commission.
(2) The grantee shall, at least 90 percent of the time, connect a telephone caller to a live service representative staff member or operator within 30 seconds, 24 hours per day, seven days a week. Busy conditions shall not be encountered by subscribers attempting to make contact with the grantee more frequently than 3 percent of the time.
(3) The grantee's local office shall be open for business at least eight hours per day five days a week.
(4) The grantee shall provide repair response such that a technician shall respond immediately, regardless of the time of day or day of the week, to any report of an outage of any channel from any group of subscribers numbering at least three who live in the same general area. All other service quality impairment reports of any type shall receive a response within 24 hours, regardless of the time of day or day of the week the reports are received.
(5) In the event of unusual circumstances beyond the subscriber's control, or in accordance with FCC regulations, subscribers shall be given the schedule option of weekday, evening or Saturday appointments for all work that requires an in-home visit by grantee personnel. In accordance with current FCC customer service guidelines, four hour or smaller appointment windows shall be offered. Between the time a new customer is signed up for service and the time service is installed, the customer shall be afforded a right of rescission. All reconnects, service upgrades or downgrades shall be done within four business days of the date the order is placed by the customer; new installations in underground service areas shall be done within seven business days. The installation completion objective shall be met at least 95 percent of the time as measured on a quarterly basis. Drop wires in underground service areas that are temporarily placed above ground shall be buried as soon as practicable.
(6) Upon request, grantee shall provide a subscriber with a credit or rebate to the subscriber's account for a service outage caused by a failure of the cable system. System failures caused by conditions which were not the fault or under the control of the grantee (as set out in Section 95-9(a)(2) herein) are not subject to a rebate or credit by grantee except as stated below. In any given month, for an outage caused by a cable system failure of more than four hours duration, but less than 24 hours duration, a subscriber shall receive a rebate of one day's service credited to the subscriber's monthly cable bill for that period. In any given month, for an outage of 24 hours or more, the rebate to the subscriber's monthly cable bill for that period shall be calculated on a pro rata basis based on the number of days of the outage rounded up to the next day. All service standards shall be clearly stated in the customer's service brochure which is provided to each subscriber.
(7) Consistent with the requirements of the Federal Communications Commission, and as required under this article, the grantee shall continue to provide an informational packet to all of its new subscribers at the time they are first connected to the system. This information shall include as a minimum a full and complete listing of all products and services offered, channel positions of programming carried on the system, rates and prices, and options for programing services and conditions of subscription to programming and other services (including all available discounts, such as those that apply to senior citizens). The brochure shall also include a statement of the grantee's various operating policies, including those that relate to installation and service maintenance policies, parental control features, consumer privacy rights, and late charge assessments. The brochure shall incorporate instructions as to how to contact the grantee for service and what to do if problems cannot be resolved in direct dealing with the first level of service personnel. The brochure shall also present subscribers with instructions on how to connect VCRs and other such devices as part of the cable installation. In addition to providing such material to new subscribers, current subscribers shall be provided a copy of all information required to be placed in the customer service brochure at least once a year on a routine basis.
(8) Subscriber bills shall clearly itemize all charges as well as all applicable discounts.
(d) Customer service statistics and reporting.
(1) The grantee shall be required to continue to keep and provide to the city when requested statistical information regarding telephone activity records. In addition, the grantee shall also provide upon request summary outage reports. The form or format of such reports shall be as mutually agreed between the parties.
(2) Upon request by the city, grantee shall be required to prepare and submit quarterly summary reports that track 30 second time-to-answer performance statistics, trunk-busy conditions, and average hold times.
(3) The grantee shall be required to install and upgrade its internal telephone system to a capability comparable to a similar system maintained by the upper 25 percentile of comparable systems in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. To determine the comparability of systems, benchmark cities will be selected annually from these four states solely on the basis of a population equal to the population of the city of Longview, plus or minus 25 percent. A list of the benchmark cities shall be provided by grantee to city annually, and the status of grantee's system must equal or exceed the upper 25 percent of the other cities' systems. In addition, the grantee shall provide the city with a 24 hour emergency telephone number at which a designated (not voice mail or a recording) responsible adult representative of grantee can be accessed in the event of an emergency.
(4) The city shall continue to have the right to routinely verify the correctness of the franchise fee and other payment by requiring the grantee to provide an annual audited financial statement in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, including such supplemental information or schedules as the city shall require to verify the franchise fee.
(5) The city shall have access to the plant and to the grantee's plan and documents so as to be able to verify that the work of upgrading the system is being done according to the terms of the agreement and in accordance with the schedule.
(Ord. No. 2801, § 3, 2-25-99)