(A) Each franchisee shall maintain an office at a convenient location to subscribers, not necessarily within the franchise area, that shall be open during normal business hours to allow subscribers to request service, pay bills and conduct other business. Each franchisee shall perform service calls, installations and disconnects at least during normal business hours, provided that a franchisee shall respond to outages 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Outage reports should be addressed within 24 hours. Each franchisee shall establish a publicly listed local toll-free telephone number. The phone must be answered by customer service representatives at least during normal business hours for the purpose of receiving requests for service, inquiries and complaints from subscribers; after those hours a franchisee shall arrange for the phone to 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.
(B) Under normal operating conditions, 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 a customer will receive a busy signal less than 3% of the time. These standards shall be met 90% of the time, measured quarterly. 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. Upon request by the village, franchisee shall supply information demonstrating that it is meeting the standards set forth herein.
(C) A franchisee must hire sufficient staff so that it can adequately respond to customer inquiries, complaints and requests for service in its office, over the phone, and at the subscriber’s residence.
(`92 Code, § 8-1-81) (Ord. 96-19, passed 10-2-96)