A. Complaints to Grantee. A Grantee shall establish written procedures for receiving, acting upon and resolving Subscriber complaints without intervention by the County. The procedures shall prescribe the manner in which a Subscriber may submit a complaint, either orally or in writing. These procedures shall be provided to the County along with any updates to same. At the conclusion of a Grantee’s investigation of a Subscriber complaint, but in no event more than 10 calendar days after receiving the complaint, the Grantee shall notify the Subscriber of the results of the investigation and its proposed action or resolution, if any. Complete records of the Grantee’s actions in response to all complaints shall be kept. Each report must include the name and address of the reporting Subscriber, the date and time each report was made, a detailed explanation of the complaint or service request, and the action taken by Grantee. The Grantee shall also notify the Subscriber of the Subscriber’s right to file a complaint with the County in the event the Subscriber is dissatisfied with the Grantee’s decision.
B. Complaints to the County. A Subscriber who is dissatisfied with the Grantee’s proposed decision shall be entitled to have the complaint reviewed by the County. The Subscriber shall initiate the review by filing a complaint, together with the Grantee’s decision, if any, with the County. The County will notify the Grantee of the filing and provide Grantee a copy of the filing, together with all documentation. The Subscriber shall make such filing and notification within 20 days of receipt of Grantee’s decision or, if no decision from the Grantee has been provided, within 30 days after filing the original complaint with Grantee. The County may extend these time limits for reasonable cause.
C. Review by the County. The County’s staff or its designee shall determine, upon a review of a Subscriber complaint and the Grantee’s decision, if any, whether further action is warranted. If the County decides to initiate further investigation, it shall require the Grantee and the Subscriber to submit, within 10 days of notice thereof, a statement of the facts and arguments in support of their respective positions. The County’s staff shall issue a written recommendation to the Board within 15 days of receipt of the statements or, if a hearing is requested, within 15 days of the conclusion of the hearing, setting forth the basis of the recommendation. In turn, the Board shall render a decision after reviewing the written recommendation from the County’s staff.
D. Complaint File and Reports. An accurate and comprehensive file shall be kept by the Grantee of any and all complaints regarding the Cable System for the last twelve (12) months. A procedure shall be established by the Grantee by the time of Installation of the Cable System to remedy complaints quickly and reasonably to the satisfaction of the Subscriber. Complete records of a Grantee’s actions in response to all complaints shall be kept including, but not limited to the following:
1. A summary of service requests, identifying the number and nature of the requests and their disposition;
2. A log and summary of all major service outages;
3. The results of a annual opinion survey report which identifies satisfaction or dissatisfaction among Subscribers with Cable Service offered by the Grantee, which shall be submitted to the County within three (3) months after such test results are compiled. The survey required to make said report shall be in a form that can be transmitted to Subscribers with one or more bills for service, such as postage-paid self-addressed post cards. At the Grantee’s expense, the County may prepare the survey form and request its inclusion with a monthly bill to Subscribers;
4. An accurate and comprehensive file of all complaints regarding the Cable System that are forwarded to the Grantee from the County. The Grantee will continue its procedures to remedy complaints quickly and reasonably. Complete records of the Grantee’s actions in response to all such complaints shall be kept for a period of at least one year.
E. Remedies for Violations. The County may, as a part of a Subscriber complaint decision issued under the provisions of this Ordinance and the Franchise Agreement, if any, impose penalties or damages, as the case may be, on the Grantee. Such penalties or damages, as the case may be, may be deducted from the Grantee’s letter of credit by the County. In addition, the County may require the Grantee to reduce the affected Subscriber’s cable bill by an amount consistent with the Grantee’s written decision and designed to compensate the Subscriber for any loss of services, damages sustained and the filing of the complaint. These remedies are in addition to and not exclusive of any other remedy which may be applicable under this Ordinance or the Franchise Agreement, if any, or federal, state or local law.
F. Report of Complaints. The reports required under this § 5.28.130 shall be provided to the County upon request and not less than quarterly if so requested by the County.
(Ord. O-200203-12-002, passed 3-5-2002)