Yucaipa Municipal Code Art. XI Complaint Procedures

The city may do all things necessary and proper to supervise, inspect, and regulate the construction and operation of cable systems franchised under the ordinance codified in this title and implement complaint procedures. The responsibility for such supervision, inspection and regulation is hereby delegated to the cable administrator who is empowered, among other things, to adjust, settle or compromise any controversy arising from the operations of any franchisee, either on behalf of the city or any subscriber, in accordance with the best interests of the public, provided that any person aggrieved by a decision of the cable administrator may appeal the matter in accordance with the ordinance codified in this title for hearing and determination. The city council always reserves the right to reject or modify the decision of the cable administrator and may adjust, settle or compromise any controversy arising from the operation of a franchisee or from any provision of the ordinance codified in this title. At the request of the cable administrator, franchisees are encouraged to participate in any advisory committee meetings established by the cable administrator relating to cable service provider operations.

(Ord. 205 § 3, 2001)

Franchisee shall maintain a business office or customer service center within the franchise service area, or at such other location as is approved by the city in writing, and which shall be open during the business hours stated in the franchise agreement, and shall maintain a publicly-listed local and a toll-free telephone number and sufficient lines which shall be so operated and staffed to respond to customers in at least five ways: accept payments and resolve billing difficulties; give out and exchange or accept return of converters; schedule service or technician calls (or provide an on-site, toll-free telephone for customers to schedule such service calls); answer subscriber inquiries; and receive complaints and commence the resolution thereof. Subscribers shall be promptly notified of any change of address of such office or of telephone number(s).

(Ord. 205 § 3, 2001)

Franchisee shall maintain sufficient repair and maintenance crews capable of responding to subscriber complaints or requests for service in accordance with subscriber service standards described in the ordinance codified in this title, including, without implied limitation, any state law requirements concerning the same.

(Ord. 205 § 3, 2001)

A franchisee shall establish procedures for receiving, acting upon, and resolving subscriber complaints in conformance with the requirements of the ordinance codified in this title and the franchisee’s franchise agreement. Such procedures shall, at a minimum, contain the procedures set forth in the ordinance codified in this title. Adjustments to a subscriber’s billing statement, where appropriate, shall occur in the next statement issued to the subscriber. All complaints will be expeditiously addressed and, if reasonably possible, resolved within the requirements set forth in the ordinance codified in this title. A franchisee shall furnish a notice of such procedures to each subscriber at the time of initial subscription of the cable system, at least annually thereafter, and at anytime upon request.

(Ord. 205 § 3, 2001)

Failure to meet the requirements of this section will result in foreseeable damages in an amount specified in the section titled “liquidated damages.” The franchisee shall institute a complaint logging procedure as follows:

A franchisee shall maintain an outage log showing the date, approximate time, location, duration, estimated or actual number of subscribers affected, type and probable cause of all head-end, trunk, or distribution line service failures due to causes other than routine testing or maintenance at reasonable times. Upon request by the city, a copy of such log showing the “reliability criteria” (below) shall be filed with the cable administrator by the tenth day of every month and shall be retained by a franchisee for a period of three years. The franchisee will design, procure, install and maintain its equipment to meet, under normal operating conditions, a monthly average system availability criteria to subscribers of 99.5% measured as follows:

Franchisee may at any time propose a new reliability criteria standard for the city’s acceptance. The monthly average system availability criteria set forth above shall not included such outages as are caused by or attributable to failure of electrical power from an electric utility that provides electric service to the city which exceeds the operational capacity of the cable system’s backup generator and batteries. Where service interruptions or signal interruptions are the result of loss of electrical power from an electric utility and there are no backup generators or batteries or the backup generators or batteries fail to perform to their rated capacity, then the monthly average system availability criteria set forth above shall include such electrical outages.

(Ord. 205 § 3, 2001)