(a)
The
grantee shall maintain an office in the franchise area or within ten
miles thereof open during all usual business hours, but in no case
less than forty hours per week including at least one evening or weekend
day per week. Grantor shall have a publicly listed non-toll-charge
telephone number, and operated as to receive subscriber complaints
and request on a twenty-four-hour basis. A current record shall be
maintained listing all complaints and their disposition and a summary
thereof shall be submitted to grantor upon request but no more often
then monthly.
(b)
The
grantee shall maintain a force of technicians capable of responding
within twenty-four hours after receipt of request for repairs relating
to service outage and forty-eight hours excluding Sundays for all
other complaints and request for repair. No charge shall be made to
the subscriber for such a service or repair except that grantee may
charge its actual cost for service calls beyond the first call for
problems not related to its system.
(c)
Telephone
service. The grantee shall provide a state-of-the-art telephone system
to receive all construction and service complaints. A sufficient number
of customer representatives will be provided so that callers are not
required to wait beyond an average of five minutes for phone answering.
The telephone number of the local office shall be listed in the telephone
directories serving South Orange County. The telephone service shall
be operable to accept complaints twenty-four hours a day, seven days
a week.
(d)
Grantee
shall provide subscribers with the option of scheduling a five-hour
period in which the service call will be made.
(Ord. 1176 § 10.1, 1989)
Grantee's complaint handling procedures shall be designed to
accomplish the following:
(1)
Receipt
and acknowledgement of any complaint made in person or by telephone
within twenty-four hours, regardless of the time the complaint is
made excluding Saturdays;
(2)
Acknowledgement
of any complaint received by mail at grantee's office within five
business days of the date such complaint is received;
(3)
Maintain
a record of all complaints, including the complainants' name, address
and telephone number, the date of its acknowledgement, and information
given as to how the complaint would be resolved, and the action taken;
(4)
Complaints
not resolved within forty-eight hours or receipt shall be listed in
a log of "delayed action on complaints" which shall give the information
above and add the detailed reasons for nonresolution within the forty-eight-hour
period.
(5)
Provide
complete information to the complainant regarding his ability to take
his complaint to the grantor's representative if it is not resolved
by the grantee.
(Ord. 1176 § 10.2, 1989)
The following remedies for loss of service are established which
may be involved only after grantee has been given a hearing to present
evidence regarding said alleged violations.
(1)
Except
for rebuild outages for which grantee receives prior approval of grantor,
in the event that one-third or more of its service(s) to any subscriber
is interrupted for twenty-four consecutive hours, or for a total of
forty-eight nonconsecutive hours within any thirty-day period, except
in circumstances for which prior approval of the interruption is obtained
from the grantor, and subscriber notifies grantee of said outage within
twenty-four hours of subscriber discovery thereof, grantee shall provide
a ten percent rebate of the monthly fees to affected subscribers for
each such outage period.
(2)
Except for rebuild outages for which grantee receives prior approval of grantor, in the event one-third or more of its service(s) to any subscriber is interrupted for forty-eight or more consecutive hours, except in circumstances for which prior approval of the interruption is obtained from the grantor, and subscriber notifies grantee of said outage within twenty-four hours of subscriber discovery thereof, grantee shall provide a twenty percent rebate of the monthly fees to affected subscribers for each such outage period. This provision is not cumulative with subsection (1) of this section.
(3)
In
the event that the system fails to meet any material performance standards
based upon a system-wide test as defined in the franchise agreement,
for a full six month period after being put on notice by grantor,
for any reason within grantee's control, grantor may require grantee
to reduce all subscribers' fees by twenty-five percent until all performance
standards are met. The grantor shall notify grantee during the first
month of the six month period that the system has failed to meet performance
standards.
(Ord. 1176 § 10.3, 1989)
(a)
In addition to the provisions of Section 5.44.370, and except as provided in the franchise agreement grantor may require, at its option, that performance audits of the system be conducted as often as every three years by an independent technical consultant, selected and employed by grantor and at grantee's sole expense, to verify compliance of the system to all technical standards and other specifications of the franchise, as provided in the franchise agreement. Periodic technical specification testing, if provided for in the franchise agreement and actually conducted pursuant thereto, shall eliminate this performance audit.
(b)
Upon
completion of a performance audit, the grantor and grantee shall meet
publicly to review the performance of the cable television system.
The reports required herein regarding subscriber complaints, the records
of performance tests and the opinion survey report shall be utilized
as the basis for review. In addition, any subscriber may submit complaints
during the review meetings, either orally or in writing, and these
shall be considered.
(c)
Within
thirty days after the conclusion of the system performance review
meetings, grantor shall issue findings with respect to the adequacy
of system performance and quality of service. If inadequacies are
found, grantor may direct grantee to correct the inadequacies within
a reasonable period of time.
(d)
Grantor's
and grantee's participation in this process shall not waive any rights
they may possess under applicable federal and/or state law.
(Ord. 1176 § 10.4, 1989)
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 in easily readable form and
size. Technical data at the office shall also include approved pole
applications, details and documentation of satellite and microwave
equipment, mobile radio units, heavy construction vehicles and equipment,
computer systems and their program documentation, video and audio
equipment, and all other equipment and facilities normally used in
the operation of the system. If grantor requires use of technical
data in its own office it may make copies of any items at grantor's
expense.
(Ord. 1176 § 10.5, 1989)
All technical data shall be available to 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 grantee's operations.
(Ord. 1176 § 10.6, 1989)
It shall be 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.
(Ord. 1176 § 10.7, 1989)
(a)
Information
to customers. The grantee shall, at the time service is initiated
provide each new customer written information covering:
(1)
The time allowed to pay outstanding bills;
(2)
Grounds for termination of service;
(3)
The steps the grantee must take before terminating service;
(4)
How the customer can resolve billing disputes;
(5)
The steps necessary to have service reconnected after involuntary
termination;
(6)
The fact that customer service personnel shall identify themselves
by first names immediately;
(7)
The fact that customers shall have the right to speak with a supervisor,
and if none is available, supervisor shall return customer call within
one working day;
(8)
The appropriate regulatory authority with whom to register a complaint
and how to contact such authority.
In addition, at least once each calendar year, grantee shall
notify each customer that information is available upon request concerning
subsection (A)(1) through (8) above.
(b)
Billing.
(1)
Except as provided in Section 5.44.235, 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.
(2)
Billing envelopes shall be individually marked to indicate the date
mailed. This postmark date shall constitute proof of the date of issuance.
(3)
Disputed bills.
(a)
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.
In the event the dispute is not resolved to the satisfaction of both
parties, the grantee shall inform the customer of the complaint procedures
of the grantor. If the customer wishes to obtain the benefits of subdivisions
(b) and (c) of this subsection, notification of the disputed bill
must be given to the grantee within five days after due date.
(b)
The customer shall not be required to pay the disputed portion of
the bill until the earlier of the following:
(c)
Pending resolution of the bill dispute, no termination notices shall
be issued for the disputed portions of the bill, nor shall any other
collection procedures be initiated for said amount. Any such activity
may be interpreted as an attempt to avoid the provisions of these
rules and shall constitute violation of the regulations.
(c)
Referral
of accounts to collection agencies.
(1)
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 the date of involuntary termination
or (b) the fifty-sixth day 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.
(2)
If the account was voluntarily terminated, for any reason, the account
may not be referred to a collection agency until at least fifteen
days following rendering of the final bill. If notification of a billing
dispute is made, all collection procedures shall be delayed as required
in subsection (B)(3)(c) of this section. Referral to collection agent
shall then occur no sooner than the fifty-sixth day following issuance
of the original uncollected amount.
(Ord. 1176 § 10.8, 1989)
When a subscriber voluntarily discontinues service grantee shall
refund the unused portion of any advance payments after deducting
any charges currently due through the end of the present billing period.
Unused payment portions shall be the percentage of time for which
subscriber has paid for service and will not receive it because of
his discontinuation of service.
(Ord. 1176 § 10.9, 1989)
The quality of grantee's service refers to the services associated with day-to-day operations (e.g., response to customer complaints; billing; interruptions of service; disconnection; rebates and credits; signal quality, and the provision to customers or potential customers of information on billing or services). In order to assess the quality of service, grantee shall survey all subscribers at least once every other calendar year. This shall be accomplished as follows: The grantee shall include a return self-addressed postcard addressed to grantor along with the subscriber's monthly bill for service or in conjunction with the survey provided for in Section 5.44.215. The following questions at a minimum shall appear on the postcard:
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—Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the cable television
service you are receiving?
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—If you are dissatisfied, why?
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The grantee shall also include along with this same bill a statement
that the postcard has been sent to each subscriber as part of the
bi-annual quality of service assessment required to be conducted by
grantor; that quality of service refers to response to customer complaints;
billing; interruptions of service; disconnection; rebates and credits;
signal quality; the provision to customers or potential customers
of information on billing or services; that if they provide their
name and telephone number they may be contacted for additional information;
and, that the postcards should be returned within two weeks of receipt
in order to be included in the survey. Grantee may, upon request and
reasonable notice, inspect the postcard responses.
(Ord. 1176 § 10.10, 1989)
