[Added 8-9-1993 by Ord. No. 93-10]
[Amended 6-16-1997 by Ord. No. 97-7]
A.
The grantee shall maintain a local office or offices which provide the necessary facilities, equipment, and personnel to comply, under normal operating conditions, with the customer service standards set forth in Subsections A(1) through (5) of this section. For purposes of this section, normal operating 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.
(1)
On a monthly basis, provide sufficient customer service
representatives and toll-free telephone line capacity during normal business
hours to assure 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.
(2)
Staffed emergency toll-free telephone line capacity on
a twenty-four-hour basis, including weekends and holidays.
(3)
Maintenance of an office in the franchise area of 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.
(4)
An emergency system maintenance and repair staff, capable
of responding to and repairing system malfunctions on a twenty-four-hour basis.
(5)
An installation staff capable of furnishing standard
installation to any subscriber within seven says after receipt of a request.
"Standard installation" shall mean those located up to 175 feet from where
trunk and feeder cable have been activated.
[Amended 2-22-1999 by Ord. No. 99-3]
(a)
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 grantee and the
subscriber as to when conditions permit burial of the drop, such dispute shall
be resolved by the decision of the City's building official or other official
designated by the City to resolve such disputes.
(6)
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 City employee to whom
the subscriber 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.
(a)
The grantee shall promptly furnish revised written instructions
and information to each subscriber whenever the instructions and information
previously provided have been materially changed.
(b)
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.
B.
Local office. For purposes of this section, the office(s)
which grantee is required to maintain may be a virtual office consisting of
a toll-free telephone number which all subscribers in the City may access
from their homes 24 hours a day, seven days a week to register complaints
or questions concerning the cable system, conveniently located bill payment
offices within the combined corporate limits of the Cities of Royal Oak, Ferndale,
Clawson, Pleasant Ridge, Berkley and Huntington Woods where subscribers may
pay their bills and no charge for delivery and pickup of converter boxes,
remotes and similar grantee-provided customer premises equipment.
C.
Authority. Unless otherwise specified by City, the term
"authority" as used herein shall mean:
(1)
The Intergovernmental Cable Communications Authority
(ICCA) for a grantee where the City has transferred or delegated certain powers,
functions, duties and responsibilities on cable television matters for that
grantee to the ICCA; and
(2)
The Southeast Oakland County Cable Communications Cooperative
(SOCCC) for a grantee where the City has transferred or delegated certain
powers, functions, duties and responsibilities on cable television matters
for that grantee to the SOCCC.
[Amended 6-16-1997 by Ord. No. 97-7]
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 cable casting 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 forms, of all subscriber service 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 or otherwise shall promptly be made available by grantee to municipality, 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 quarterly to the authority for its review or a copy thereof if the authority so requests. For purposes of this subsection, the local office which grantee is required to maintain may be the virtual office described in § 222-47, provided that, upon request, grantee shall make available for public inspection at a location in or proximate to the City the log required to be maintained by grantee pursuant to this subsection.
C.
For purposes of this section, "service interruption" shall mean any loss or material distortion of picture and/or sound on one or more channels; "subscriber problem" shall mean a service interruption affecting a single subscriber; "outage" shall mean a service interruption affecting two or more subscribers. Under normal operating conditions as specified in § 222-47 above, 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 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 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 technician shall leave
written notification stating the time of arrival and requesting that the grantee
be contacted again to establish a new appointment window. In such case, grantee
shall respond in a timely manner after it is contacted to establish the new
appointment window.
(1)
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 grantee shall respond in a timely manner after it
is contacted to establish the new appointment window.
E.
Except as otherwise provided in Subsection D above, the grantee, under the provisions of this section and § 222-47, 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.
As to company-owned and maintained equipment, 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.
[Amended 6-16-1997 by Ord. No. 97-7]
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 material misstatement or omit to state a material fact
which omission would make the information furnished misleading.
[Amended 2-22-1999 by Ord. No. 99-3]
B.
Grantee shall file with the City a copy of the billing
form to be used by grantee at least 32 days prior to sending any such billing
form to subscribers, and grantee shall make no changes in the latest billing
form on file without similarly first filing the revised billing form with
the City.
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 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.
[Amended 6-16-1997 by Ord. No. 97-7]
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 40 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.
[Amended 6-16-1997 by Ord. No. 97-7]
Grantee shall provide at least 45 days' written notice to subscribers
(30 days if there is more than one grantee operating in City) prior to discontinuing
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
City, or the authority on behalf of the City, 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 (30 days if there is
more than one grantee operating in City) 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.
[Amended 6-16-1997 by Ord. No. 97-7]
The grantee shall provide at least 45 days' written notice to subscribers
(30 days if there is more than one grantee operating in City) 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 City, or the authority on behalf of the City, to contest or prohibit
any such action by the grantee if, and to the extent, permitted by law.
Prior to or simultaneously with any communication made by the grantee
to the general public or to the grantee's subscribers 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 all applicable provisions of the franchise
agreement relating to "reports," including, without limitation, the provisions
of Subsections (J) and (K) of Section 19 of the franchise agreement in effect
as of the effective date of this chapter.
[Amended 6-16-1997 by Ord. No. 97-7]
If there is only one grantee franchised to provide cable communications
service in the City, then in the event the grantee, in any communication to
the general public, to the City, 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 or will be 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 all applicable
provisions of the franchise agreement relating to reports, including, without
limitation, the provisions of Subsections (J) and (K) of Section 19 of the
franchise agreement in effect as of the effective date of this chapter.
[Amended 6-16-1997 by Ord. No. 97-7]
A.
Grantee shall provide a customer with a full-day credit
or a rebate for a service outage exceeding four hours in duration beyond the
time that the customer notified grantee of such outage. No credit or rebate
shall be required where the outage was due to matters beyond the immediate
control of grantee, such as (by way of example and not limitation) service
outages caused by storms or other natural disasters. In no event shall the
customer incur a charge for any outage exceeding 48 hours. 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.
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 after
notice to such grantee and an opportunity to be heard may order and direct
the grantee to issue a rebate to such subscriber in a reasonable 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.
[Amended 6-16-1997 by Ord. No. 97-7]
A.
Subsequent to the effective date of this chapter, 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 of
any agency, commission, board or department of the City having jurisdiction
over its acts or defaults under the franchise; and
(3)
The payment by the grantee of any claims, liens and taxes
due the City 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 City any fees within
the time fixed herein; or fails, after 10 days' written notice, to pay to
the City any taxes due and unpaid; or fails to repay the City, within such
10 days, any damages, costs, or expenses which the City 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 City reasonably determines can be
remedied by a withdrawal from the security fund, the authority, on request
of the City, 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 City 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 City with respect to the security fund are in addition to
all other rights of the City, 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 City may have.
G.
The security fund provided for in this section shall
not be required if the franchise agreement expressly requires grantee to provide
a cash security fund, letter of credit or other form of security that is mutually
agreeable to the City and grantee.
[Amended 6-16-1977 by Ord. No. 97-7]
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 § 222-57, 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 City of 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's fees, which are incurred
by the City on account of the grantee's violation of this article.
A.
The violation of this chapter by the grantee, the grantee's
agents, employees and/or independent contractors employed or retained by the
grantee shall be grounds for evaluating:
(1)
The grantee's compliance with any existing agreement
and with applicable law; and
(2)
The quality of the grantee's service and whether it has
been reasonable in light of community needs; and
(3)
The technical ability of the grantee 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 the grantee's proposal to meet
the future cable-related community needs and interests of the residents and
cable television consumers of the City.
B.
These evaluations shall be proper and germane for the
City to consider formally when reviewing a proposal for renewal of any agreement
to provide cable services within the City.
[Amended 6-16-1997 by Ord. No. 97-7]
If the Authority determines that the grantee has violated this article, the authority may order appropriate rebates to subscribers as provided in § 222-56 and/or assess liquidated damages against the grantee as provided in § 222-58. In addition, the City may pursue any additional or other legal or equitable remedies available to it under the franchise agreement or any applicable law.
[Amended 6-16-1997 by Ord. No. 97-7]
With respect to matters affecting the City individually, and excluding
matters affecting all of the authority's member communities equally, the grantee
may appeal any action of the authority to the City by submitting a written
appeal within 21 days from the date of the authority's action to which the
grantee objects, including the proposed assessment of liquidated damages.
Upon such appeal, the City Commission 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 City Commission 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 City Commission 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 City Commission, including the assessment of
liquidated damages.
This chapter is intended to supplement and strengthen the customer service
and related provisions set forth in the City's existing Cable Regulatory Ordinance,
its franchise agreement with the grantee and First Amendment thereto, and
other agreements between the City and/or the authority with the grantee. Accordingly,
only those portions, if any, of existing ordinances which conflict and cannot
be reconciled with the provisions of this chapter are hereby repealed.
