A. Except as otherwise provided in the franchise agreement, grantee shall maintain the necessary facilities, equipment and personnel to comply with the following consumer protection and service standards under normal conditions of operation:
1. Sufficient toll-free telephone line capacity during normal business hours to assure telephone answer time by a customer service representative, including wait time, shall not exceed thirty seconds; and callers needing to be transferred within grantee's operation shall not be required to wait more than thirty seconds before being connected to a service representative. Under normal operating conditions, a caller shall receive a busy signal less than three percent of the time. The term “normal operating conditions. those service conditions, which are within the control of the grantee. Those conditions which are not within the control of the grantee 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 grantee include, but are not limited to, special promotions, payper-view events rate increases, regular peak or seasonal demand periods, and maintenance or upgrade of the cable system.
2. Emergency toll-free telephone line capacity on a twenty-four hour basis, including weekends and holidays. After normal business hours, the telephone calls may be answered by a service or an automated response system, including an answering machine. Calls received after normal business hours must be responded to by a trained company representative on the next business day. During periods when an answering service or machine is used, grantee shall provide on-call personnel who shall contact the answering service or machine, at a minimum, every four hours to check on requests for service or complaints.
3. A local business and service and/or payment office located within five miles of franchise area, open during normal business hours at least eight hours daily, and at least four hours weekly on evenings or weekends, and adequately staffed to accept subscriber payments and respond to service requests and complaints. The grantee may petition the grantor to reduce its business hours if the. extended hours are not justified by subscriber demand.
4. An emergency system maintenance and repair staff, capable of responding to and repairing major system malfunction on a twenty-four hour per day basis.
5. An installation staff, capable of installing service to any subscriber requiring a standard installation within seven days after receipt of a request, in all areas where trunk and feeder cable have been activated. “Standard installations” shall be those that are located up to one hundred twenty-five feet from the existing distribution system, unless otherwise defined in any franchise agreement.
6. Grantee shall schedule, within a specified four hour time period during normal business hours, all appointments with subscribers for installation of service, service calls and other activities at the subscriber location. Grantee may schedule installation and service calls outside of normal business hours for the express convenience of the customer. Grantee shall not cancel an appointment with a customer after the close of business on the business day prior to the scheduled appointment. If a grantee representative is running late for an appointment with a customer and will not be able to keep the appointment as scheduled, the customer shall be contacted as soon as possible and the appointment rescheduled, as necessary, at a time which is convenient for the customer, and within reason.
B. The standards of paragraphs (a) (1) and (a) (2) above shall be met not less than ninety percent of the time measured on a quarterly basis. The standards of paragraphs (a)(4)-(6) above shall be met not less than ninety-five percent of the time measured on a quarterly basis.
C. Grantee shall not be required to acquire equipment or perform surveys to measure compliance with the telephone answering standards above unless an historical record of complaints kept by either grantee or grantor, indicates a clear failure to comply. (Ord. 02-101 § 8 (part), 2002)