(A) A franchisee’s first billing statement after a new installation or service change shall be prorated as appropriate and shall reflect any security deposit.
(B) 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.
(C) A franchisee’s billing statement must be mailed on or before the first day of the month (or equivalent period) and must show a specific payment due date not earlier than the fifteenth day of the month (or equivalent period) in which the service being billed is rendered. Any balance not received within 15 days after the due date may be assessed a reasonable processing charge based on costs and/or a late fee. Late fees shall not exceed .75% per month.
(D) A franchisee must notify the subscriber that he or she can remit payment in person at the franchisee’s office(s) and inform the subscriber of the address of the office(s).
(E) Subscribers shall not be charged a processing fee or late fee or be 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.
(F) On request, the account of any subscriber shall be credited a prorated share of the monthly charge for the service if the subscriber is without service or if service is substantially impaired for any reason for a period exceeding four hours during any 24-hour period, except where it can be documented that a subscriber seeks a refund for an outage or impairment which that subscriber caused, or in the case of a planned outage occurring between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 6:00 a.m. of which the village received the required prior notice.
(G) The franchisee shall respond to all written billing complaints from subscribers within 30 days.
(H) Refund checks to subscribers shall be issued no later than:
(1) The subscriber’s next billing cycle following resolution of the refund request; or
(2) The date of return of all equipment to the franchisee, if service has been terminated.
(I) Credits for service shall be issued no later than the subscriber’s next billing cycle after the determination that the credit is warranted.
(`92 Code, § 8-1-85) (Ord. 96-19, passed 10-2-96)