(A) Franchisees or their affiliates shall maintain a listed, toll-free telephone number under the business name familiar to consumers and employ a sufficient number of telephone lines, personnel, and answering equipment or service to allow reasonable access by subscribers and members of the public to contact the franchisee on a full-time basis, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, including holidays. Knowledgeable, qualified franchisee representatives will be available to respond to customer telephone inquiries, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, including holidays.
(B) If the franchisee does not comply with this section, the franchisee shall have 30 days to cure such violation from the day the franchisee receives notice of such violation. If the franchisee has not cured the violation within 30 days from such notice date, the city shall fine a franchisee for violation of this section $500 per day for each day that the violation continues. The fine shall begin to accrue on the first business day after the 30 day cure period has terminated.
(C) A franchisee shall answer all customer service and repair telephone calls made under normal operating conditions within 30 seconds, including wait time and within an additional 30 seconds to transfer the call. Customers shall receive a busy signal less than 3% of the time. To the extent technically feasible, these standards should be measured with respect to telephone calls coming from residents of the city. The phrase "of the time" refers to the percentage of calls to a franchisee. As an example, if 100 customers call a franchisee, fewer than 3 callers should receive a busy signal. These standards shall be met no less than 90% of the time under normal operating conditions, measured on a quarterly basis.
(D) If a franchisee fails to meet these standards on a quarterly basis, the franchisee shall track the telephone answer time standards on a daily basis, beginning with the first day following the end of the quarter for which the franchisee fails to satisfy these standards. The franchisee shall submit to the city data measuring its compliance with the standards set forth herein. Quarterly results will be submitted to the city no later than the 25th day of the month following the end of the preceding quarter. If a franchisee has satisfied the telephone answering standards set forth herein for a continuous period of one year, upon the franchisee's request, the city may relieve a franchisee of its obligation to provide such data measuring compliance with these standards and provide that the franchisee will provide such data upon the city's request. If a franchisee must track results on a daily basis, the franchisee shall provide such daily results to the city on every Friday for the preceding week until resolved to the city's satisfaction.
(E) (1) If a franchisee violates the telephone answering standards contained herein for any quarter, the city may require the franchisee to provide the city with a communication traffic study within 30 days of notice or longer reasonable time period required by the city. The study will be conducted on all customer service trunk lines and must include information on the efficiency of the communications system measured from the telephone company's central office, as well as other performance information available from the franchisee's communication equipment. The study must provide information that confirms the franchisee's communications system is properly trunked and staffed to meet the requirements of this section using generally accepted telephonic engineering standards.
(2) Based upon the findings of the traffic study that additional personnel or equipment is needed and other relevant considerations, the city may require the franchisee to staff a minimum specified number of customer service representatives or to add particular equipment to handle telephone calls to the extent permitted by applicable law. If the city requires staffing or additional equipment, the city and the franchisee shall determine the minimum number of customer service representatives and equipment necessary to allow the franchisee to meet the telephone answer standards contained in this section. For purposes of this calculation, the number of calls received daily shall be the median number of calls received on a daily basis for the quarter during which the standards were not met.
(3) In addition to other remedies specified in this section, the city shall fine a franchisee for violation of the standards set forth in this section. If the telephone standards in division (C) above are not satisfied for any one quarter, the franchisee shall have 30 days to cure such violation from the first business day after receipt of a notice of violation from the city. If the franchisee fails to cure its violation of the telephone standards in subsection A 30 days from such date, based on the franchisee's daily measurement as required by subsection B, the city shall fine a franchisee $250 per day for each day that the violation continues. If a franchisee has a subsequent violation of division (C) above within one year of a violation that resulted in a fine, and the franchisee fails to cure the violation within the time period required herein, the city shall fine the franchisee $500 per day for each day that the violation continues. If the franchisee does not comply with divisions (D) and (E) above, the franchisee shall have five days to cure such violation from the day the franchisee receives notice of such violation. If the franchisee has not cured the violation within five business days from such notice date, the city shall fine a franchisee for violation of this section $500 per day for each day that the violation continues. The fine shall begin to accrue on the first business day after the 5-day cure period has terminated.
(Ord. 1406, passed 5-15-02)