AG 1998 03 16 - Laserfiche WebLink

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531 to privacy in conformance w£th 47 U.S. Section 631. Franch£see'e written customer policies shall, at a minimum, comply with all notice requirements in the ordinance and those promulgated by the FCC. If Franchlsee'a operating rules are changed, subscribers will be not£f£ed. Rate and consumer complaint information will be distributed annually to subscribers. B. Business Offices and Personnel. Franchisee shall establish and maintain in Cabarrus County, a business office which shall, at a minimum, be open for business and for repair 45 hours per week. Franchisee shall also provide personnel, telephone service, including a locally listed telephone number, and other equipment, as needed, to ensure timely, efficient and effective service to consumers and for the purpose of receiving inquiries, requests and complaints concerning aL1 aspects of the construction, installation, operation, and maintenance of the system and for the payment of subscribers' service charges. C. Subscriber Complaints. Pursuant to the Cable Ordinance, Franchisee shall promptly respond to and resolve all subscriber complaints. However, nothing herein shall require Franchisee to maintain or repair any equipment or wiring not provided by it. D. Major Outages. Franchisee shall maintain records of all major outages defined as a discontinuation of cable service from one or more fiber nodes in the County of Cabarrus. Such records shall indicate the estimated number of subscribers affected, the date and time of first notification of the outage, the date and time service was restored, the cause of the outage and a description of the corrective action taken. Such records shall be available to the County during normal business hours upon reasonable prior notice and retained in Franchisee's files for not less than three (~) years. Upon written request, a statistical summary of such records shall be prepared by Franchisee and submitted to the County annually. E. Consumer Standards. Franchisee shall meet the FCC's Standards for Customer Service and the NCTA Consumer Standards. If Franchisee does not meet the telephone busy standards in two (2) consecutive quarters the Franchisee shall take corrective actions to ensure that such standards are met during the next quarter. Franchisee shall upon request provide to the County annual management data, including data from any service centers used by the Franchisee related to compliance with the FCC's Standards for Customer Service. At such time as Franchisee does not meet the FCC or NCTA standardst and/or the Franchise and Ordinance requirements for repair for one quarter, Franchisee shall take corrective action to ensure that such standards are met during the next quarter. At such time as the FCC no longer promulgates Consumer Service Standards, the FCC standards in effect on the effective date of this Franchise will be in force provided all other cable franchisees are held to the same standard. F. Downgrades. Subscribers shall have the right to have cable service disconnected without charge or downgraded in accordance with FCC rules. The billing for such service will be effective immediately and such physical disconnection or downgrade shall be made as soon as practicable. A refund of unused service charges shall be paid to the customer within forty- five (45) days from the date of termination of service. G. Customer Information. Franchisee shall provide written customer policies or a handbook to all new subscribers and , thereafter, upon request. Franchisee's written customer policies or handbook shall, at a minimum, comply with all notice requirements in the Ordinance and those promulgated by the FCC. If franchisee's operating rules are changed subscribers shall be notified in a timely manner. Rate and consumer complaint information will be distributed annually to subscribers. H. Itemized Billing. Franchisee shall provide consumers with itemized bills which delineate Franchisee's rates for programming tiers, pay per view, and pay per channel. I. Outages. Franchisee, upon subscriber request, shall credit the subscriber's account for verifiable outages of two (2) hours or more for the levels of service affected by such outages. J. Subscriber Contracts. Ail contracts between Franchisee and their subscribers shall be in compliance with the Cable Ordinance and this Franchise Agreement. K. Negative Option Billing. Franchisee shall comply with Federal law regarding negative option billing. XV. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION Franchisee agrees that it shall not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, disability, national origin, age, or marital status. In the employment of persons, Franchisee shall fully comply with applicable local, state and federal law, and shall take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race,