[Added 10-12-1993 by Ord. No. 41-A]
The grantee shall maintain a local office which provides the
necessary facilities, equipment, and personnel to comply, under normal
operating conditions, with the customer service standards set forth
in Subsections A through E of this section. For purposes of this section,
the term "normal operation conditions" embrace all conditions which
are within the control of the grantee, including special promotions,
pay-per-view events, rate increases, and maintenance or upgrade of
the cable system, but excluding conditions outside the grantee's
control, such as, natural disasters, civil disturbances, power outages,
telephone network outages, and extreme weather:
A.
On a monthly basis, provide sufficient customer service representatives
and toll-free telephone-line capacity during normal business hours
to ensure that a minimum of 90% of all calls will be answered within
30 seconds and 90% of all calls for service will not be required to
wait more than 30 seconds after such call has been answered before
being connected to a service representative. All incoming customer
service lines shall not be simultaneously busy more than 3% of the
total time the cable office is open on any business day.
B.
Staffed emergency toll-free telephone-line capacity on a twenty-four-hour basis,
including weekends and holidays.
C.
Maintenance of an office in the franchise area of the intergovernmental
cable communications authority (hereinafter "the authority") with
adequate office hours to meet public demand. The authority may require
the grantee to alter or extend these hours if there is significant
evidence through subscriber complaints that the posted hours are not
adequate.
D.
An emergency system maintenance and repair staff, capable of responding
to and repairing system malfunctions on a twenty-four-hour basis.
E.
An installation staff, capable of furnishing standard installation
to any subscriber within seven days after receipt of a request. "Standard
installations" shall mean those located up to 175 feet from where
trunk and feeder cable have been activated. The grantee shall, at
its sole expense, cause all drops required to be buried to be properly
buried within 15 days of installation of service unless conditions
during such period make burial impracticable, in which case the drop
shall be buried within 15 days after physical conditions reasonably
allow for such burial. In the event of any dispute between the grantee
and the subscriber as to when conditions permit burial of the drop,
such dispute shall be resolved by the decision of the Township's
Building Official or other official designated by the Township to
resolve such disputes.
F.
The grantee shall provide written instructions and information at
the time of installation and reinstallation, and at least annually
thereafter, to all subscribers on products and services, prices and
options, installation and service maintenance policies, instructions
for using the system, and billing and complaint procedures. Such instructions
and information shall include the grantee's business address,
applicable phone number, and the name of the appropriate official
or department of the grantee to whose attention the subscriber should
direct a request for service, request for billing adjustment or complaint.
Such instructions and information shall also include the name, business
address and telephone number of the authority's executive director
and the title, business address and telephone number of the designated
Township employee to whom they can call or write for information regarding
the terms, conditions, and provisions governing the grantee's
franchise if the grantee fails to respond within a reasonable period
of time to the subscriber's complaint or request for installation,
service or billing adjustment.
(1)
The grantee shall promptly furnish revised written instructions and
information to each subscriber whenever the instructions and information
previously provided have been changed.
(2)
The written instructions and information provided for herein shall
be subject to the review and approval of the authority which shall
not withhold its approval unreasonably. The authority shall have the
power to compel changes in such material if the authority deems the
same to be misleading, incorrect, or inadequate in any material respect,
and the grantee shall promptly institute any changes so required by
the authority.
A.
The grantee shall interrupt system service only with good cause and
for the shortest time possible and, except in emergency situations,
only after periodic cablecasting notice of service interruption for
two days prior to the anticipated interruption. Services may be interrupted
between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. for routine testing, maintenance and
repair, without notification, any night except Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
holidays, or the night preceding a holiday.
B.
The grantee shall maintain a written log, or an equivalent stored
in computer memory and capable of access and reproduction in printed
form, of all subscriber complaints. Such log shall list the date and
time of such complaints, identifying the subscribers and describing
the nature of the complaints and when and what actions were taken
by the grantee in response thereto. Such log shall be kept at the
grantee's local office, reflecting the operations to date for
a period of at least three years, and shall be available for public
inspection during regular business hours. The grantee shall submit
a summary of such complaints monthly to the authority for its review
or a copy thereof if the authority so requests.
C.
For purposes of this section, the term "service interruption" means any loss or distortion of picture and/or sound on one or more channels; the term "subscriber problem" means a service interruption affecting a single subscriber; the term "outage" means a service interruption affecting two or more subscribers. Under normal operation conditions as specified in § 148-45, the grantee shall maintain a sufficient repair force of competent technicians so as to respond effectively to any subscriber problem or outage within the following time periods, unless the applicable period is extended at the request of the subscriber or extended pursuant to the requirements of any applicable law or regulation:
(1)
Subscriber problem. "Same day" service, seven days a week for all
requests for service received prior to 12:00 noon each day. In no
event shall the response time for notice received after 12:00 p.m.
(noon) exceed 24 hours, including weekends and holidays, from the
time grantee receives notice of the problem.
(2)
Outage. Within two hours, including weekends and holidays, from the
time the grantee discovers or receives notice of the outage.
D.
Upon receipt of a request for service, the grantee shall establish
a four-hour appointment window with the subscriber (or adult representative
of the subscriber). The grantee shall respond to the request for service
within such established appointment window. In the event access to
the subscriber's home is not made available to the grantee's
technician when the technician arrives during the established appointment
window, the response time for the request for service shall be 24
hours from the time the grantee is contacted to establish the new
appointment window. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the grantee's
technician telephones the subscriber's home before or during
the appointment window and is advised that the technician will not
be given access to the subscriber's home during the appointment
window, then the technician shall not be obliged to travel to the
subscriber's home or to leave the written notification referred
to above, and the burden shall again be upon the subscriber (or adult
representative of the subscriber) to contact the grantee to arrange
for a new appointment window, in which case the required response
time for the request for service shall again be 24 hours from the
time the grantee is contacted to establish the new appointment window.
E.
Except as otherwise provided in Subsection D of this section, the grantee, under the provisions of this section and § 148-45, shall be deemed to have responded to a request for service, a subscriber problem, or an outage only when sufficient technicians arrive at the service location, begin work on the request for service or remedial work, as the case may be, and proceed diligently to complete such work.
F.
No charge shall be made to the subscriber for any service call unless
the problem giving rise to the service request can be demonstrated
by the grantee to have been:
G.
All service personnel of the grantee or its contractors or subcontractors
who have as part of their normal duties contact with the general public
shall wear on their clothing a clearly visible identification card
bearing their name and photograph. The grantee shall account for all
identification cards at all times. Every service vehicle of the grantee
shall be clearly identifiable by the public as such a vehicle.
A.
The grantee's bills to its subscribers shall be clear, concise
and understandable and shall be itemized as to each charge reflected
thereon. The bill and any accompanying communication from the grantee
to its subscribers, and any other communication from the grantee to
its subscribers, shall not contain any false or misleading statements.
Such other communication referred to above shall be deemed to be a
"report" under applicable sections of the franchise agreement, specifically,
under the franchise agreement in effect as of the effective date of
the ordinance from which this chapter is derived, subsections (G),
(J) and (K) of section 19 of such franchise agreement.
B.
The billing form and content in use by the grantee as of the date
of adoption of the ordinance from which this chapter is derived shall
be subject to the approval of the authority. Any modification of the
form and content of the grantee's bills to subscribers shall
also be subject to the authority's approval.
C.
The authority shall not withhold its approval of the form and content
of the grantee's bills unreasonably. If the authority disapproves
of the form or wording of any of the grantee's bills to subscribers,
it shall so notify the grantee and shall specify the basis for such
disapproval. The grantee shall then modify the bills so as to remedy
the defects specified by the authority. The modification shall be
implemented by the grantee effective with the first billing after
the expiration of 45 days after receipt by the grantee of the authority's
notice of disapproval, unless the authority extends such time.
A.
The grantee shall make no charge to any subscriber on account of
either complete discontinuance of service or net downgrade of service
whereby the subscriber requests a lower tier of basic service and/or
a net reduction in premium service.
B.
The grantee may only disconnect a subscriber if at least 45 days
have elapsed after the due date for payment of the subscriber's
bill and the grantee has provided at least 10 days' written notice
to the subscriber prior to disconnection, specifying the effective
date after which cable services are subject to disconnection; provided,
however, notwithstanding the foregoing, the grantee may disconnect
a subscriber at any time if the grantee in good faith and on reasonable
grounds determines that the subscriber has tampered with or abused
the grantee's equipment, or is or may be engaged in the theft
of cable services.
C.
The grantee shall promptly disconnect any subscriber who so requests
a disconnection. No period of notice prior to requested termination
of service may be required of subscribers by the grantee. If the subscriber
fails to specify an effective date for disconnection, the effective
date shall be deemed to be the day following the date the disconnect
request is received by the grantee. No charge may be imposed upon
the subscriber for any cable service delivered after the effective
date of the disconnect request.
Late payment charges imposed by the grantee upon subscribers
shall be fair and shall be reasonably related to the grantee's
cost of administering delinquent accounts. No late payment charge
shall be imposed upon a subscriber, and a subscriber shall not be
deemed to be in arrears on a bill, unless at least 21 days have elapsed
after the due date specified on the bill; and, for purposes of this
section and the prior section, the due date of administering delinquent
accounts. No late payment charge shall be imposed upon a subscriber,
and a subscriber shall not be deemed to be in arrears on a bill, unless
at least 30 days have elapsed after the due date specified on the
bill; and, for purposes of this section and the prior section, the
due date specified on the bill shall not be earlier than the first
day of the monthly period to which the bill is attributable.
The grantee shall provide at least 45 days' written notice
to subscribers prior to disconnecting any channel or programming service
or to realigning any channel and shall provide written notice of the
same to the authority no later than the grantee's notice to subscribers.
This provision shall not preclude the right of the Township, or the
authority on behalf of the Township, to contest or prohibit any such
action by the grantee if, and to the extent, such right exists. The
foregoing notice requirement shall not apply in cases in which a programming
service is discontinued because a nonaffiliated provider thereof discontinues
furnishing the same to the grantee on less than 45 days' notice
to the grantee. In any such case the grantee shall nevertheless furnish
notice to its subscribers and the authority promptly upon the grantee
receiving notice of the discontinuance of the programming service
from such unaffiliated provider.
The grantee shall provide at least 45 days' written notice
to subscribers prior to implementing any increase in subscriber rates
or reduction in subscriber services and shall provide written notice
of the same to the authority no later than the grantee's notice
to subscribers. The provisions of this section shall not preclude
the right of the Township, or the authority on behalf of the Township,
to contest or prohibit any such action by the grantee if, and to the
extent, permitted by law. Announcing or explaining any increase in
subscriber rates or reduction in programming services, the grantee
shall furnish a copy of such communication to the authority. The copy
of the communication required to be furnished to the authority hereunder
shall be deemed to be a report under applicable sections of the franchise
agreement, specifically, under the franchise agreement in effect as
of the effective date of the ordinance from which this chapter is
derived, subsections (G), (J) and (K) of section 19 of such franchise
agreement.
In the event the grantee, in any communication to the general
public, to the Township, to subscribers, or to the authority, justifies
a price increase or reduction in service on the basis of increased
costs to which the grantee has been subjected, then the grantee, on
written request of the authority, shall promptly furnish the authority
the underlying information on which such claim of increased costs
is based in such form as the authority may request. The information
so furnished by the grantee to the authority hereunder shall also
be deemed to be a report under applicable sections of the franchise
agreement, specifically, under the franchise agreement in effect as
of the effective date of the ordinance from which this chapter is
derived, subsections (G), (J) and (K) of section 19 of such franchise
agreement.
A.
Except for planned outages where subscribers are provided reasonable
notification in advance, upon a subscriber's request the grantee
shall provide not less than a one-day credit for each day in which
there is a period of four hours or more during which the subscriber
experienced a significant impairment of cable service not attributable
to any action or omission of the subscriber or to any defect in the
subscriber's equipment. The credit specified herein shall be
equal to 1/30 of the subscriber's total monthly bill for all
services and equipment other than pay-per-view; provided, however,
if such monthly bill includes a charge for a pay-per-view program
subject to such outage or significant impairment, then the credit
shall be increased by the amount of such charge.[1]
B.
In the event of a violation of the provisions of this article by
the grantee which results in a subscriber not receiving cable programming
service or receiving only significantly impaired service, the authority
may order and direct the grantee to issue a rebate to such subscriber
in an amount determined by the authority to provide monetary relief
to the subscriber substantially equal to the subscriber's unliquidated
detriment or loss resulting from such violation, not to exceed the
subscriber's monthly bill.
A.
Subsequent to the effective date of the ordinance from which this
chapter is derived, within 10 days after the award of a new franchise
or the transfer, extension or renewal of an existing franchise, the
grantee thereunder shall furnish the authority, on behalf of all of
the authority's member communities, and thereafter maintain with
the authority, throughout the term of the franchise, a cash deposit
of $25,000 as security for:
(1)
The faithful performance by it of all the provisions of this chapter
and the franchise;
(2)
Compliance with all orders, permits and directions;
(3)
The payment by the grantee of any claims, liens and taxes due the
Township which arise by reason of the construction, operation or maintenance
of the system.
B.
Within 10 days after notice to it that any amount has been withdrawn
from the security fund, the grantee shall pay to or deposit with the
authority a sum of money in the full amount withdrawn.
C.
If the grantee fails to pay to the Township any fees within the time
fixed herein; or fails, after 10 days' written notice, to pay to the
Township any taxes due and unpaid; or fails to repay the Township
within such 10 days, any damages, costs, or expenses which the Township
shall be compelled to pay by reason of any act or default of the grantee
in connection with a franchise; or fails, after three days' notice
of such failure, to comply with any provisions of the franchise which
the Township reasonably determines can be remedied by the withdrawal
from the security fund, the authority, on request of the Township,
may immediately withdraw the amount thereof, with interest and any
additional charges, from the security fund. Upon such withdrawal,
the authority shall notify the grantee of the amount and date thereof
and shall remit to the Township the amount so withdrawn.
D.
The security fund deposited pursuant to this section, including all
interest thereon, if any, shall be held by the authority, for the
benefit of its member communities, in the event that the franchise
is rescinded or revoked by reason of the default of the grantee. The
grantee, however, shall be entitled to the return of such security
fund, or such portion thereof as remains on deposit at the expiration
of the term of the franchise, provided that there is then no outstanding
default on the part of the grantee. Any interest earned by the investment
of the security fund shall become part of the security fund and unless
consumed by the payment of liquidated damages, fees or other charges
under this chapter, shall be returned to the grantee at the expiration
of the franchise term, provided that there is then no outstanding
default on the part of the grantee.
E.
The authority shall maintain the security fund in a segregated account
and shall not commingle the same with any other monies of the authority.
The authority may, but shall not be required to, invest the security
fund so as to earn interest thereon and shall not be liable to the
grantee on any claim based upon the lack or insufficiency of interest
earned by such fund.
F.
Payment from the security fund shall not constitute a cure of any
violation or any act of noncompliance by the grantee. The rights reserved
to the Township with respect to the security fund are in addition
to all other rights of the Township, whether reserved by this chapter
or authorized by law, and no action, proceeding or exercise of a right
with respect to such security fund shall affect any other right the
Township may have.
G.
The security fund provided for in this section shall be in addition
to any performance bond, letter of credit or other security provided
for in the franchise agreement.
A.
The authority may assess liquidated damages of up to $100 per day against the grantee for each day the grantee is in violation of this article. Such assessment may be levied against the security fund specified in § 148-54 or any letter of credit, performance bond, or other security provided for in the franchise agreement.
B.
Assessment of liquidated damages shall not constitute a waiver by
the Township or any other right or remedy it may have under the franchise
agreement or applicable law, including the right to recover from the
grantee any costs and expenses, including reasonable attorney fees,
which are incurred by the Township on account of the grantee's
violation of this article.
A.
The violation of this article by a cable operator, an operator's
agents, employees and/or independent contractors employed or retained
by the cable operator shall be grounds for evaluating:
(1)
A cable operator's compliance with any existing agreement and
with applicable law;
(2)
The quality of a cable operator's service and whether it has
been reasonable in light of community needs;
(3)
The technical ability of a cable operator to provide the services,
facilities, and equipment as set forth in an operator's proposal
for future or renewed cable services; and
(4)
The reasonableness of an operator's proposal to meet the future
cable-related community needs and interests of the residents and cable
television consumers of the Township.
B.
These evaluations shall be proper and germane for the Township to
consider formally when reviewing a proposal for renewal of any agreement
to provide cable services within the Township.
If the authority determines that the grantee has violated this article, the authority may order appropriate rebates to subscribers as provided in § 148-53 and/or assess liquidated damages against the grantee as provided in § 148-55. In addition, the Township may pursue any additional or other legal or equitable remedies available to it under the franchise agreement or any applicable law.
With respect to matters affecting the Township individually,
and excluding matters affecting all of the authority's member
communities equally, the grantee may appeal any action of the authority
to the Township by submitting a written appeal within 21 days from
the date of the authority's action to which the grantee objects.
Upon such appeal, the Township Board shall conduct a de novo review
of the action of the authority being appealed and shall set a hearing
date within 60 days of the date of receipt of the appeal. The grantee
may present any information, data or other evidence to the Township
Board either prior to or at the time of the hearing. Hearings shall
be open to the public and members of the public and representatives
of the authority may also present any evidence or information pertinent
to the matter appealed. The Township Board shall then determine whether
to uphold, reverse, or modify the action of the authority. The appeal
shall stay any further action on the matter appealed until the appeal
has been decided by the Township Board.
