Every franchise agreement shall require a franchisee
to comply with all applicable federal, state and local customer service
requirements and shall specify the minimum customer service requirements
the franchisee must satisfy. Unless otherwise prohibited by law, every
franchisee must satisfy the following requirements, whether or not
specified in its franchise agreement. The franchisee shall:
A.
Maintain toll free telephone availability with its
office that shall be open at least during normal business hours, which
shall include evening hours and some weekend hours.
B.
Render prompt and efficient service, make repairs
promptly and interrupt service only for good cause and for the shortest
time possible. Major repairs or changes to system and/or system balance
shall be accomplished at times of minimal viewing (i.e. 4:00 a.m.
to 6:00 a.m.).
C.
Maintain adequate telephone lines and personnel to
respond to subscriber complaints or inquiries and schedule service
calls in a timely manner. Response shall include probable time of
restoration, if known, by the franchisee on outages involving trunk
or distribution cable where multiple subscribers are affected.
The franchisee shall give at least 30 days'
notice to subscribers and the township of any change in programming
decisions or channel realignment, unless the franchisee does not receive
such notice.
The franchisee shall restore service to customers
wishing restoration of service, provided that the customer shall first
satisfy any previous obligations owed.
Subscribers shall have the right to have cable
service disconnected at no charge in accordance with federal law.
Downgrade fees shall be charged in accordance
with federal law.
The franchisee shall provide parental control
devices to all subscribers who wish to be able to cut off any objectionable
channel or channels of programming from the cable service entering
the subscriber's home. This control option shall be provided at cost.
