Yorba Linda Municipal Code § 5.40.720 Maintenance and complaints

A. The grantee shall maintain an office in the franchise area open during all usual business hours, but in no case less than fifty-four hours per week including at least eight hours per weekday and four hours on each Saturday. Grantor shall have a publicly listed non-toll-charge telephone number, and operated as to receive subscriber complaints and requests on a 24 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 than monthly.

B. The grantee shall maintain a force of technicians capable of responding within 24 hours after receipt of request for repairs relating to a service outage and 48 hours excluding Sundays for all other complaints and requests for repair. No charge shall be made to the subscriber for such a service or repair except as provided in the franchise agreement.

C. Telephone Service. The grantee shall provide a 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 North Orange County. The telephone service shall be operable to accept complaints 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Telephone lines and main offices must be open and adequately staffed to respond to subscribers in at least four ways:

1. To accept payments;

2. To exchange or accept returned converters;

3. To answer subscriber inquiries;

4. To schedule and conduct service or technical calls; on Saturday the grantee must have the ability to schedule emergency service or emergency technician calls.

D. Grantee shall provide subscribers with the option of scheduling a four-hour period in which the service call will be made.

E. Planned system outages shall be kept to a minimum, shall be preceded by at least 24 hour notice, and be limited to the hours of 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.

(Ord. 91-689 § 10.1, 1991)

Grantee's complaint handling procedures shall be designed to accomplish the following:

A. Receipt and acknowledgement of any complaint made in person or by telephone within 24 hours, regardless of the time the complaint is made.

B. Acknowledgement of any complaint received by mail at grantee's office within five business days of the date such complaint is received.

C. 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.

D. Complaints not resolved within 48 hours of receipt shall be listed in a log of "Delayed Action on Complaints" which shall give the information above and add the detailed reasons for non-resolution within the 48 hour period.

E. Resolution must occur in seven days. However, said period may be extended, with the approval of grantor, for up to 30 days.

F. Provide complete information to the complainant regarding his or her ability to take his or her complaint to the grantor's representative if it is not resolved by the grantee.

(Ord. 91-689 § 10.2, 1991)

A. System outages of sound or picture of one or more channels affecting all the subscribers of the system or a considerable number thereof, must be responded to within two hours, including weekends, of receiving subscriber calls which by number identify a system outage as described above.

B. Isolated outages of sound or picture of one or more channels must be responded to within 24 hours, including weekends, of receiving requests for service identifying an isolated outage as described above.

C. Inferior reception quality of sound or picture must be responded to within 48 hours, including weekends, of receiving requests for service identifying inferior reception quality.

(Ord. 91-689 § 10.3, 1991)

The cable company shall be deemed to have responded to a request for service when a technician arrives at the service location and begins work on the problem. In the case of a subscriber not being home when the technician arrives, response shall be deemed to have taken place if the technician leaves written notification of arrival.

(Ord. 91-689 § 10.4, 1991)

The following remedies for loss of service are established which may be invoked only after grantee has been given a hearing to present evidence regarding said alleged violations:

A. Except for rebuild outages for which grantee receives prior approval of grantor, in the event that onethird or more of its service(s) to any subscriber is interrupted for 24 consecutive hours, or for a total of 48 nonconsecutive hours within any 30-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 24 hours of subscriber discovery thereof, grantee shall provide a ten percent rebate of the monthly fees to affected subscribers for each such outage period.

B. Except for rebuild outages for which grantee receives prior approval of grantor, in the event that onethird or more of its service(s) to any subscriber is interrupted for 48 or more consecutive hours, except in circumstances for which the prior approval of the interruption is obtained from the grantor, and subscriber notifies grantee of the outage within 24 hours of subscriber discovery thereof, grantee shall provide a 20 percent rebate of the monthly fees to affected subscribers for each such outage period. This provision is not cumulative with subsection A of this section.

C. In the event that the system fails to meet any material performance standards based upon a systemwide test as defined in the franchise agreement, for a full three-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 25 percent until all performance standards are met. The grantor shall notify grantee during the first month of the three-month period that the system has failed to meet performance standards.

(Ord. 91-689 § 10.5, 1991)

A. In addition to the provisions of 5.40.860 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 four years by an independent technical consultant, selected and employed by grantor, to verify compliance of the system to all technical standards and other specifications of the franchise, as provided in the franchise agreement. Periodic testing, as provided in the franchise agreement, shall eliminate the necessity for 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 30 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. 91-689 § 10.6, 1991)

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 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. 91-689 § 10.7, 1991)

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 the data does not unreasonably interfere with grantee's operations.

(Ord. 91-689 § 10.8, 1991)

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. 91-689 § 10.9, 1991)

A. Customer Service Criteria.

1. Dwelling units passed by cable and dwelling unit history shall be categorized and filed in computer-compatible form.

2. Technicians shall be assigned standby time in order to render service during nonoffice hours.

a. System or channel outages shall have an immediate response as provided herein by the on-duty technician. In cases of significant emergency, additional technical staff shall be notified and shall respond.

b. Technicians shall respond to all service problems in the system.

c. Customer service representatives shall be trained to analyze customer complaints to distinguish between those that are system-related and those that are subscriber equipmentrelated.

B. 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 subdivisions 1 through 8 of this subsection.

C. Billing.

1. Except as provided in Section 5.40.470, 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. The metering strip shall include the date on which the bill was delivered to the U.S. post office. 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:

i. Resolution of the dispute;

ii. Expiration of the fifty-five day period beginning on the date of issuance, provided that the procedures established in subparagraph a of this subdivision have been followed.

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 the amount. Any such activity may be interpreted as an attempt to avoid the provisions of these rules and shall constitute violation of the regulations.

D. 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) 15 days following date of involuntary termination or (b) the 45th 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 15 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 (C)(3)(a). Referral to collection agent shall then occur no sooner than the 45th day following issuance of the original uncollected amount.

(Ord. 91-689 § 10.10, 1991)

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 or her discontinuation of service.

(Ord. 91-689 § 10.11, 1991)

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 once every other calendar year. This shall be accomplished as follows: The grantee shall include a self-addressed postcard addressed to grantor along with the subscriber's monthly bill for service or in conjunction with the Section 5.40.430 survey. The following questions at a minimum shall appear on the postcard:

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.

A summary of the postcard responses shall be submitted to the grantor within 30 days of the due date of their submission.

As an alternative to the summary, postcard responses may be submitted to the grantor upon request. The grantor may require the grantee to follow up on problems evidenced by the survey. The grantee shall comply with the grantor request.

(Ord. 91-689 § 10.12, 1991)