(A) Maintenance and complaints.
(1) Business hours. The grantee shall maintain an office open during all usual business hours, but in no case less than 40 hours per week. The grantor shall have a publicly listed non-toll-charge telephone number, and operated as to receive subscriber complaints and requests on a 24-hour basis.
(2) Preventative maintenance crew. The grantee shall maintain a preventative maintenance crew plus a force of technicians capable of responding within eight hours after receipt of request for repairs relating to a service outage and 48 hours excluding Sundays for all other complaints and requests for repair. A service outage is a minimum of ten customers losing total cable service.
(3) Telephone service. The grantee shall provide a telephone system to receive all construction and service complaints. The telephone number of the local office shall be listed in at least one telephone directory serving the village. The telephone service shall be operable to accept complaints 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
(B) Procedures for handling complaints. The grantee’s complaint handling procedures shall be designed to accomplish the following:
(1) Receipt and acknowledgment of any complaint made in person or by telephone within 12 business hours;
(2) Acknowledgment of any complaint received by mail at the grantee’s office within five business days of the date such complaint is received;
(3) Maintain information, available to the grantor upon the grantor’s request, of all complaints, including the complainant’s name, address and telephone number, the date of its acknowledgment, and information given as to how the complaint would be resolved, and the action taken; and
(4) The grantee shall respond within five business days to complaints made or referred by the grantor.
(C) System technical data. The grantee shall maintain in its office a complete and up-to-date set of as-built system maps and drawings upon completion of construction or reconstruction, equipment specification and maintenance publications and signal level diagrams for each active electronic piece of equipment in the system. As-built drawings show all lines and installed equipment, and tap values and spigots. The scale of maps and drawings shall be sufficient to show the required details as easily readable form and size. Technical data at the office shall also include approved pole applications, details and documentation of satellite and microwave equipment normally used in the operation of the system. If the grantor requires use of technical data in its own offices, it may make copies of any items at the grantor’s expense.
(D) Availability of technical data. All technical data shall be available to the grantor’s inspection during normal business hours, upon reasonable notice, and, in the event of system failure or other operating emergency, at any time, so long as the provision of said data does not unreasonably interfere with the grantee’s operations.
(E) Emergency repair capability. It shall be the grantee’s responsibility to assure that its personnel qualified to make repairs are available at all reasonable times and that they are supplied with keys, equipment location instructions and technical information necessary to begin repairs upon notification of need to maintain or restore continuous service to the system.
(F) Customer service standards and procedures.
(1) Information to customers. The grantee shall, at the time service is initiated, provide each new customer information covering the time allowed to pay outstanding bills and grounds for termination of service.
(2) Billing.
(a) Generally. Except as provided in § 115.07, bills for service shall be rendered monthly, unless otherwise authorized by the customer and the grantee or unless service is rendered for a period less than one month. Bills shall be rendered as promptly as possible. All bills shall contain a telephone number and a mailing address for billing inquiries or disputes.
(b) Disputed bills.
1. In the event of a dispute between the customer and the grantee regarding the bill, the grantee shall promptly make such investigation as is required by the particular case and report the results to the customer.
2. The customer shall not be required to pay the disputed portion of the bill until the earlier of the following:
a. Resolution of the dispute; and
b. Expiration of the 45-day period beginning on the date of issuance; provided, that the procedures established in division (F)(2)(b)1. above have been followed.
3. Pending resolution of the bill dispute, the grantee shall attempt to ensure that no termination notices are issued for the disputed portions of the bill, or any other collection procedures initiated for said amount.
(3) Referral of amounts to collection agencies. Uncollected accounts may be referred to private collection agencies for appropriate action if the bill has not been paid by the earlier of:
(a) Fifteen days following date of involuntary termination; or
(b) The 45 days following the date of issuance of the original uncollected amount, provided no notification of billing dispute has been made, or if procedures for resolution of billing disputes have not been followed as required above.
(G) Refund. When a subscriber voluntarily discontinues service, the grantee shall refund the unused portion of any advance payments after deducting any charges currently due through the end of the present billing period within 60 days of discontinuance of service. Unused payment portions shall be the percentage of time for which subscriber has paid for service and will not receive it because of his or her discontinuation of service.
(2009 Code, § 8-1-9) (Ord. 93-5, passed 4-11-1993)