Healdsburg Municipal Code Art. II Customer Service Standards

A. The grantee must provide to each subscriber: (1) prior to initiation of service; (2) upon reconnection or at time of installation; (3) at least annually; and (4) at any time upon request; written information on each of the following areas:

1. Products and services offered;

2. Prices and options for programming services and conditions of subscription to programming and other services;

3. Installation and service maintenance policies, including the procedures for scheduling a service call;

4. Instructions on how to use the cable service and the converter;

5. Instructions on how to interact cable and the subscriber's VCR;

6. A current channel card listing all the channels offered on the system;

7. Billing and complaint procedures, including the name or title of the person responsible for resolving complaints;

8. Subscriber termination policies;

9. A notice of subscriber privacy rights as required by federal law;

10. Federal theft of service law;

11. The cable system's office hours and local phone number;

12. The telephone number of the City office responsible for administering the franchise, along with a statement that the office can be called to register a complaint if the subscriber is dissatisfied with the actions taken by the grantee;

13. The cable system's policies on deposits;

14. The subscriber's right to obtain a parental control device; and

15. Outage refund policy.

B. On an annual basis, the grantee shall publish in a daily newspaper of general circulation in Healdsburg a notice containing the following information: the cable system's office hours and local phone number; the name or title of the person responsible for resolving complaints; the telephone number of the City office responsible for administering the franchise and dealing with complaints from subscribers who are dissatisfied with actions take by the grantee; the current channel card listing all the channels offered on the system and the price of all services being offered by the cable system; and the right of subscribers to obtain a parental control device. The notice shall be published twice in two consecutive weeks and shall be an easily readable display advertisement style of at least one-quarter page in size.

C. Subscribers will be notified of any changes in rates, programming services or channel positions as soon as possible through announcements on the cable system and in writing. Notice must be given to subscribers a minimum of 30 days in advance of such changes. In addition, a grantee shall notify subscribers a minimum of 30 days in advance of any significant changes in the other information required by subsection (A) of this section.

D. Subscriber bills will be clear, concise and understandable. Bills must be fully itemized, with itemizations including, but not limited to, basic and premium service charges and equipment charges. Bills will also clearly delineate all activity during the billing period, including optional charges, rebates and credits.

E. All grantee promotional material shall clearly and accurately disclose the price and conditions under which the service will be provided.

F. The grantee shall maintain a public file containing the forms of all annual notices provided to subscribers under these customer service standards. A separate file shall also be maintained containing a copy of promotional material submitted to subscribers for a period of two years.

(Ord. 951 (Exh. A) § 1, 1998)

A. Any local office of the grantee must be conveniently located and must be open and staffed during normal business hours at least 52 hours per week for purposes of receiving payments, complaints, and inquiries; receiving and replacing returned equipment; taking orders; and modifying service and terminating service, connecting service and scheduling service calls and similar matters. The term "normal business hours" means those hours during which most similar businesses in the community are open to serve customers. In any event, "normal business hours" must include some evening hours at least one night per week and some weekend hours.

B. Telephone Service.

1. A local, toll-free telephone number must be staffed by trained grantee representatives to receive complaints and inquiries, to modify, terminate and connect service, to schedule service calls and to address other similar matters during normal business hours, no less than 59 hours per week including weeknight and weekend hours.

2. Toll-free telephone lines, either staffed or with answering capability, providing at least emergency referrals, must be operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Inquiries received after normal business hours must be responded to by a trained grantee representative no later than the next business day.

3. Under normal operating conditions, 97 percent of calls to the grantee, as measured on an annual basis, will not encounter a busy signal or delay in reaching a customer service representative or any automated answering equipment. The term "normal operating conditions" means those service conditions which are within the control of the grantee. Those conditions which are not within the control of the grantee include, but are not limited to, natural disasters, civil disturbances, power outages, telephone network outages, and severe or unusual weather conditions. Those conditions which are ordinarily within the control of the grantee include, but are not limited to, special promotions, pay-per-view events, rate increases, regular peak or seasonal demand periods, and maintenance or upgrade of the cable system.

4. Under normal operating conditions, the telephone answer time by a customer service representative, including wait time and time required to transfer the call, shall not exceed 30 seconds when the connection is made. These standards shall be met no less than 90 percent of the time under normal operating conditions, measured on a quarterly basis.

5. If automated answering equipment is used, the equipment will limit the number of routine rings to four or fewer. The rate of lost calls shall not exceed four and one-half percent.

(Ord. 951 (Exh. A) § 2, 1998)

A. Standard installations will be performed within seven business days after an order has been placed.

B. The grantee shall provide installation and normal repair service at least during all hours the local office is open. The grantee shall respond to events which may endanger the health, safety or property of persons, and to outages whenever those events or outages occur.

C. Repair and maintenance for service interruptions or other repairs not requiring on-premises (in the home) work must be completed within 24 hours of receipt of the inquiry or complaint. The term "service interruption" means the loss of picture or sound on one or more cable channels. All other repairs or maintenance, except for scheduled maintenance which does not affect service or public health, safety or welfare, must be completed within 48 hours of receipt of the inquiry or complaint or scheduled at the convenience of the subscriber.

D. For the purposes of scheduling installations, service calls, and other installation activities, the grantee shall give the customer a four-hour block of time for a service appointment Monday through Saturday. The grantee may schedule service calls and installation activities outside of normal business hours for the express convenience of the customer. The grantee may not cancel an appointment with a customer after the close of business on the business day prior to the scheduled appointment. If, at any time, an installer or technician is running late, an attempt to contact the customer must be made prior to the time of the appointment. The appointment must be rescheduled, as necessary, at a time which is convenient for the customer.

E. The grantee shall respond to all other inquiries (including billing inquiries), and respond to written complaints within five business days of the receipt of the inquiry or complaint.

F. With particular regard to needs of physically disabled subscribers, on subscriber request, the grantee shall arrange for pickup and/or replacement of converters or other equipment at the subscriber's address, or else a satisfactory equivalent (such as provision of a postage-prepaid mailer).

(Ord. 951 (Exh. A) § 3, 1998)

A. The grantee shall comply with all applicable federal or state laws or regulations if it sends or provides to subscribers unsolicited goods or services, or changes or restructures the way goods and services are being provided. If federal and state laws impose different requirements, the grantee shall comply with the most stringent requirements unless state requirements have been preempted by federal legislation. The grantee shall comply with these laws and regulations as they are now in effect or as they may be changed in the future.

B. In addition to other notices required by the franchise, before it alters services or the manner in which services are provided, the grantee must provide a reasonably simple and clear notice explaining the substance and full effect of the alteration, including the effect on rates and on service options.

C. To the extent not precluded by the FCC's rate regulations, the grantee may not levy a surcharge or any other fee (whether nominated an upgrade or downgrade charge, or otherwise) which has the effect of making the price of receiving basic service alone more expensive than the price of basic service when coupled with another tier of service. However, a downgrade charge may be levied in the case where a promotion requires a subscriber to take a service for a set period of time in order to qualify for the promotion. In such cases the subscriber shall be notified in the promotional materials that a downgrade charge will result if the subscriber downgrades before the end of the designated period and the amount of the downgrade charge.

D. To the extent not precluded by the FCC's rate regulations, the grantee shall not levy a disconnect fee except in documented cases of repeated subscriber abuse of special promotional offers which require the subscriber to maintain service for a defined period of time in order to qualify for the special offer.

E. Except in the case where a subscriber requests a disconnect for a future date, no charge shall be made for the delivery of any service after the day the grantee is notified orally or in writing that a subscriber wishes to disconnect the service. The grantee may continue to levy a pro rata equipment charge on any equipment the subscriber is required to return to it if the equipment is not returned within three business days of the date the subscriber notifies the grantee it intends to disconnect service.

F. The grantee may not levy a charge for reconnection where the subscriber is improperly disconnected. Reconnection charges may not be higher than the installation charge being paid at the time of reconnection by similarly situated new subscribers.

(Ord. 951 (Exh. A) § 4, 1998)

A.

1. Except for planned outages where subscribers are given at least 48 hours' advance notice, cases in which the outage occurs during service conditions which are not within the control of the grantee, for any day where the grantee's basic service is interrupted or substantially impaired for any one hour or more during the period of 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. or four hours or more during any 24-hour period, the grantee shall, upon request, credit the charge for the affected service tier or one-thirtieth of the charge for any service sold on a per-channel basis. For planned outages, except at cutover, refunds shall be required for any one-hour interruption during the period 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. or for any 12-hour interruption during any 24-hour period. The grantee may be granted a waiver to this section upon demonstrated need. The charge for any program sold on a per-program basis shall be refunded in full at any time that the grantee fails to deliver the program in substantially the form promised.

2. Any subscriber who calls the grantee to request a credit and whose service was impaired as described in subsection (A)(1) of this section or any subscriber who calls the grantee to report or complain about impaired service as delineated in subsection (A)(1) of this section shall receive a credit. Credits for service will be issued no later than the customer's next billing cycle following the determination that a credit is warranted.

B. If any subscriber terminates service prior to the end of a prepaid period and provides the grantee with a forwarding address, a pro rata portion of any prepaid service fee, using the actual number of days in the month as a basis, shall be refunded by the grantee. However, in the case of a subscriber who has in their possession grantee equipment, any refund or prepaid period or balance due shall be computed at the time equipment is returned in satisfactory condition.

C. All refunds and credits shall be made promptly, but not later than either: (a) the customer's next billing cycle following resolution of the request or 30 days, whichever is earlier; or (b) the return of the equipment supplied by the grantee if service is terminated. For failure to make timely refund or credit the grantee shall pay a subscriber a late charge equal to the late charge that the grantee imposes upon, the subscriber for late payment.

(Ord. 951 (Exh. A) § 5, 1998)

The grantee may require a reasonable, nondiscriminatory deposit on equipment provided to subscribers. Deposits shall be placed in an interest-bearing account. On termination of service (and except where the subscriber owes the grantee money or has damaged or failed to return the equipment), the grantee shall return the deposit, plus interest earned to the date of repayment, to the subscriber within the earlier of 30 days or the date which had been scheduled for the subscriber's next billing cycle.

(Ord. 951 (Exh. A) § 6, 1998)

A. The grantee may disconnect for cause:

1. If at least 30 days have elapsed from the due date of the first unpaid bill; and

2. If the grantee has provided at least 10 days' written notice to the affected subscriber prior to disconnection, specifying the effective date after which cable services are subject to disconnection; and

3. If there is no pending inquiry regarding a bill to which the grantee has not responded in writing; or

4. At any time and without notice if the grantee in good faith determines that the subscriber has tampered with or abused the grantee's equipment, or is or may be engaged in theft of cable service.

B. The grantee shall reconnect a subscriber on request in accordance with the franchise, after the subscriber pays amounts due plus a reconnect charge to the grantee and ceases practices which prompted disconnection for cause.

(Ord. 951 (Exh. A) § 7, 1998)

A. The grantee may not levy unreasonable charges for late payments.

B. No late payment fee may be imposed for payments until 22 days after commencement of the billing period.

(Ord. 951 (Exh. A) § 8, 1998)

A. The grantee or any subscriber may ask the City to interpret any part of these customer service standards and the interpretation, unless unreasonable, shall bind the grantee and the subscriber in the resolution of any complaint.

B. The grantee shall establish clear procedures for resolving complaints, involving at least the following elements:

1. A simple procedure for making complaints orally or in writing, consistent with these standards, and identification of a person responsible for resolving complaints.

2. Notice to subscribers that they may file any complaint with the City if not resolved to the subscriber's satisfaction after 30 days, and that the City may recommend a resolution.

3. The grantee must provide its initial response to a complaint within five days of its receipt and final written response to any unresolved complaint (other than a complaint about the carriage or the lack of carriage of a particular programming service or about the content of a programming service or about the level of any unregulated rate) within 30 days of the date the complaint is made.

C. Nothing in this agreement shall limit the rights of a subscriber to initiate a court action to enforce these standards. This subsection shall not be interpreted to limit the rights of the City to enforce the customer service standards.

(Ord. 951 (Exh. A) § 9, 1998)

A. The grantee shall at all times comply with the privacy provisions of the Cable Act.

B. No penalties or extra charges may be invoked for a subscriber's failure to grant permission under the privacy provision of the Cable Act.

(Ord. 951 (Exh. A) § 10, 1998)