The grantor reserves the right to regulate rates for basic service
and any other services offered over the cable system, to the extent
provided by federal or state law. In accordance with the Cable Act, grantee shall maintain on file with the grantor at all
times a current schedule of all rates and charges.
At all times, a grantee shall meet the requirements of the Federal
Communications Commission regulations on consumer complaints and protection.
However, at a minimum and in accordance with 47 CFR 76.309, as amended,
a grantee shall comply with the following:
A. A grantee shall maintain a conveniently located local office within
the CACC service area which shall be open during normal business hours.
This office shall accept payments, handle adjustments to subscriber
bills, respond to installation, repair, and/or maintenance requests
and other service calls. A grantee shall have a toll-free telephone
number available at all times (an access line which will be available
to its subscribers 24 hours a day, seven days a week). Trained company
representatives shall be available to respond to customer telephone
inquiries during normal business hours. Except in situations beyond
its control, the grantee must begin working on a service interruption
or other service problems no later than 24 hours after being notified
of the problem. If the problem cannot be resolved within 24 hours,
the customer shall be entitled upon request to a credit for one day's
service for each day of the outage. Under normal operating conditions,
telephone answer time by a customer representative, including wait
time, shall not exceed 30 seconds when the connection is made, and
the customer will receive a busy signal less than 3% of the time.
If the call needs to be transferred, transfer time shall not exceed
30 seconds. These standards shall be met no less than 90% of the time
under normal operating conditions, measured on a quarterly basis.
A grantee shall not be required to acquire equipment or perform surveys
to measure compliance with these standards unless an historical record
of complaints indicates a clear failure to comply. After normal business
hours, the access line may be answered by a service or an automated
response system.
B. A grantee may impose a charge reasonably related to a grantee's
actual cost incurred for a downgrade of service, except that no such
charge may be imposed when:
(1) A subscriber requests total disconnection from the cable system;
or
(2) A subscriber requests the downgrade within a thirty-day period following
any rate increase relative to the service in question.
C. A grantee shall render efficient service, make repairs promptly and
interrupt cable service only for good cause and for the shortest time
possible. Such interruptions shall occur during periods of minimum
use of the cable system.
D. A grantee shall maintain adequate telephone lines and personnel to
respond in a timely manner to schedule service calls and answer subscriber
complaints or inquiries as required by this section.
E. Subscriber requests for repairs of service interruptions shall be
responded to by a trained customer service representative on the next
business day. A grantee shall use best efforts to begin working on
service interruptions promptly and in no event later than 24 hours
after the interruption becomes known. A grantee shall begin actions
to correct other service problems the next business day after notification
of the service problem.
F. Subscriber requests for maintenance or repairs received on Saturdays
or Sundays shall be responded to by a customer service representative
on the next business day. A grantee shall use its best efforts to
begin working on service interruptions promptly and in no event later
than 24 hours after the interruption becomes known. Grantee shall
begin actions to correct other service problems the next business
day after notification of the service problem.
G. Service calls for maintenance or repair shall be performed in accordance
with the standards established by the FCC.
H. A grantee shall maintain an "appointment window" alternative for
installations, service calls and other installation activities that
will be either a specific time or, at maximum, a four-hour time block
during normal business hours. A 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 customer service 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.
The appointment shall be rescheduled, as necessary, at a time which
is convenient for the customer.
A grantee shall make service available to all grantor residents based on the terms and conditions outlined in Article
V of this chapter.
Unless otherwise agreed in a franchise agreement, upon the request
of mobility-limited subscribers, a grantee shall make a good faith
effort to arrange for delivery, pickup or exchange or replacement
of converters or other equipment at the subscriber's address
or by the use of a satisfactory equivalent means such as provision
of a prepaid postage mailer.
In accordance with Sections 640 and 641 of the Cable Act, grantee shall fully scramble or block the audio and video
programming of a channel upon request by a cable service subscriber
without charge.
All programming decisions shall be at the sole discretion of
grantee; provided, however, that the grantor shall be notified of
any changes in rates, channel positions or programming service as
required by FCC customer service regulations.