5.60.360 Customer service standards – Operations.
A. The failure of the grantee to hire sufficient staff or to properly train its staff will not justify a grantee’s failure to comply with any provision of this section.
B. Office Availability.
1. Each cable communications system operator will maintain customer service location(s) as provided in the franchise.
2. Each office must be accessible to all persons, including the elderly and persons with disabilities. Parking must be provided in a manner consistent with Redmond Municipal Code.
3. The City may waive a cable communications system operator’s obligation to allow drop-off and pick-up of equipment if the cable communications system operator offers free pick-up and delivery of equipment in a manner and at times convenient to customers.
C. Service Call Hours. Each cable communications system operator will perform service calls, installations, and disconnects in accordance with FCC regulations and the franchise. In addition, a cable communications system operator must respond to outages affecting three (3) or more subscribers served from the same node or service interruptions to any subscriber within twenty-four (24) hours, seven (7) days a week.
D. Telephones.
1. Each cable communications system operator must have a local or toll-free telephone number which will be available to its subscribers 24 hours a day, seven days a week under the name by which cable communications system operator is doing business in the City. Customer service representatives must answer the phone during normal business hours. After normal business hours, the access line may be answered by a service or an automated response system, including an answering machine.
2. Telephone Answering Time.
a. Under normal operating conditions, telephone answering time will not exceed thirty (30) seconds when the connection is made; and
b. The time to transfer the call to a customer service employee (including hold time) will not exceed an additional thirty (30) seconds; and
c. Under normal operating conditions, the standards set out in this subsection D.2 of this section must be met ninety (90) percent of the time, measured quarterly.
3. Under normal operating conditions, customers will receive a busy signal less than three percent (3%) of the time.
E. Scheduling Work.
1. A cable communications system operator may schedule appointments for service, installation, or disconnection for either a specific time, or a time block during normal business hours. A cable communications system operator may also, upon request, schedule appointments outside normal business hours, for the express convenience of the customer. These options shall be clearly explained to the customer at the time of scheduling.
2. If an installer or technician anticipates that he or she will be late for an appointment, an attempt to contact the customer will be made immediately and the appointment will be rescheduled at a time convenient to the customer, if rescheduling is necessary.
3. A cable communications system operator may not reschedule or cancel a service or installation appointment with a customer after the close of business on the business day preceding the scheduled appointment.
4. Under normal operating conditions, an operator must satisfy each of the standards set forth in this subsection E.1 through E.4 of this section at least 95 percent (95%) of the time, measured quarterly. The phrase “of the time” refers to the number of appointments.
5. If the cable communications system operator misses an appointment, it will provide the installation and service call free of charge if the appointment was for an installation or service call for which a fee was to be charged; or one (1) month of the service subscribed to free of charge.
F. Service Standards.
1. Inquiries received after normal business hours must be responded to by a trained customer service representative before the end of the next business day.
2. A cable communications system operator will respond to all other inquiries (including billing inquiries) within five (5) business days of the receipt of the inquiry or complaint.
3. Repairs and maintenance for routine service interruptions and/or substandard reception quality must be completed within twenty-four (24) hours after the outage or interruption becomes known to a cable communications system operator where the cable communications system operator has adequate access to facilities to which it must have access in order to remedy the problem, and system outages shall be responded to within twenty-four (24) hours.
4. Work to correct all other service problems must be begun by the next business day after notification of the service problem, and must be completed if due diligence permits within five (5) business days from the date of the initial request or later if at the customer’s convenience.
5. Except as a franchise agreement may otherwise provide through density provisions, service must be extended upon request to any prospective subscriber in a cable communications system operator’s franchise area.
G. With regard to subscribers with disabilities, upon subscriber request, each cable communications system operator will arrange for pickup and/or replacement of converters or other cable communications system operator equipment at the subscriber’s address or by a satisfactory equivalent (such as the provision of a postage-prepaid mailer), without a special charge.
H. Disconnection and Downgrades – Voluntary.
1. A subscriber may terminate or downgrade service at any time.
2. A cable communications system operator will disconnect from the cable communications system or downgrade any subscriber who so requests within seven (7) business days. No period of notice before voluntary termination or downgrade of service may be required of subscribers by any cable communications system operator and the customer shall not be required to pay for the time which elapses from notification to actual disconnection. There will be no charge for disconnection, and any downgrade charges will conform to applicable law. This section does not apply to promotional contracts where a subscriber received an actual discount from standard service rates for a multi-month contract.
3. Any security deposit and/or other funds due a subscriber that disconnects or downgrades service will be returned to the subscriber within thirty (30) days from the date disconnection or downgrade was requested except in cases where the subscriber does not permit the cable communications system operator to recover its equipment, in which case the amounts owed will be paid to subscribers within thirty (30) days of the date the equipment was recovered or in the next billing cycle.
I. Involuntary Disconnection for Nonpayment.
1. If a customer’s service bill is not paid within forty-five (45) days of the beginning date of the applicable service period, a cable communications system operator may perform a “soft” disconnect of the customer’s service. If a customer’s service bill is not paid within fifty-two (52) days of the beginning date of the applicable service period, the cable operator may disconnect the customer’s service; provided, that two (2) weeks’ written notice was provided.
2. If payment in full, including late charges, is received by the cable communications system operator, Monday through Friday, at least twenty-four (24) hours before the time scheduled for disconnection, the cable communications system operator shall not disconnect service.
3. After disconnection (except as noted below), upon payment by the subscriber in full of all proper fees or charges, including the payment of the reconnection charge, if any, the cable communications system operator will promptly reinstate service.
J. Immediate Disconnection.
1. A cable communications system operator may immediately disconnect a subscriber if:
a. The subscriber is damaging, destroying, or unlawfully tampering with or has damaged or destroyed or unlawfully tampered with the cable communications system operator’s cable system;
b. The subscriber is not authorized to receive a service and is receiving it and/or is facilitating, aiding or abetting the unauthorized receipt of service by others; or
c. Subscriber-installed or attached equipment is resulting in signal leakage that is in violation of FCC rules.
2. After disconnection, the cable communications system operator will restore service after the subscriber provides adequate assurance that it has ceased the practices that led to disconnection, and paid all proper fees and charges, including any reconnect fees and fines, if any, and all amounts owed the cable communications system operator for damage to its cable communications system.
K. Each cable communications system operator must have sufficient trucks, tools, testing equipment, monitoring devices and other equipment and facilities and the trained and skilled personnel required so that the cable communications system operator complies with each and every requirement of applicable law, including applicable customer service requirements, technical standards, maintenance standards and requirements for responding to system outages. This includes the facilities, equipment and staff required to:
1. Properly test the system and conduct an ongoing and active program of preventive maintenance and quality control;
2. Quickly respond to customer complaints and resolve system problems.
L. Each cable communications system operator must install and maintain equipment necessary to measure its performance with applicable customer services standards. A cable communications system operator may obtain relief temporarily from this requirement if it shows that (i) it has a high level of subscriber satisfaction; (ii) there are alternative, adequate ways to review its performance; or (iii) for other good cause shown.
M. Knowledgeable, qualified representatives shall be available to respond to customer telephone inquiries during the hours the office is required to be open. After hours, if the cable communications system operator uses persons to answer the phone, it will use reasonable efforts to provide multi-lingual alternatives. When service calls are scheduled by a nonenglish speaking customer, cable communications system operator will make a reasonable effort to have the service call made by a multi-lingual representative.
N. The term “normal operating conditions” means those service conditions that are within the control of grantee. Those conditions that 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 that are ordinarily within the control of the grantee include, but are not limited to, special promotions, pay-per-view events, rate increases, and maintenance, regular peak or seasonal demand periods or upgrade of a cable communications system; provided, that in the event that a cable communications system operator provides customer service via a center that serves multiple communities, and a controllable event occurs in the other communities but not in the City of Redmond, conditions will be deemed to be “normal operating conditions” for purposes of determining compliance with this chapter, unless the cable communications system operator has used reasonable efforts to mitigate circumstances within its control and has been unable to correct such circumstances.
O. The term “service interruption” means the loss of picture or sound or any other significant part of a signal on one or more cable channels.
P. Changes in Service. Except as otherwise provided by federal law, subscribers shall not be required to pay any additional fee or charge, other than the regular service fee, in order to receive the services selected (such as upgrade or downgrade charges). Charges may only be imposed for any service or product that the subscriber has affirmatively selected.
Q. Deposits. The grantee may require a reasonable, nondiscriminatory deposit on equipment provided to subscribers. Unless otherwise provided in subsection H.3 of this section, the deposit must be issued to the subscriber, within thirty (30) days after the equipment is returned to the grantee, or the subscriber’s next regular billing cycle, whichever is sooner.
R. Parental Control Option. The grantee must provide parental control devices to all subscribers who desire to block the video or audio portion of any programming that the subscriber finds objectionable. Such devices will be provided at no charge to the subscriber, unless otherwise provided by federal law or unless a converter box is required to be installed for the purpose of providing the parental control device.
S. Web Site. Subject to force majeure, grantee is encouraged to maintain a web site so that subscribers can request credits, service and changes thereto as well as receiving notification of planned outages and upgrades with respect to the cable communications system. (Ord. 2546 § 2 (part), 2010: Ord. 2174 § 1 (part), 2003).