The rapid growth of cable television in the late 80s and early 90s saw growing pains for the industry as they struggled to meet the needs of thousands of new customers. Those disgruntled consumers turned to the Federal government for relief and thus, the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 was born.

Under this new Act, Congress mandated the Federal Communications Commission with the responsibility to adopt customer service standards relating to office hours, telephone availability of customer service representatives, installation, outages, service calls and communication between the cable operator and the subscriber.

The above mentioned standards are considered “self-executing” by the FCC. However, since Cable TV is regulated at the local (as well as Federal) level, your municipality may enforce the basic standards (as outlined by the FCC) or adopt more stringent standards.

So, what are these standards and what do they mean for you, the cable customer? While franchise agreements may differ from the City of Pittsburgh to Erie and from Scranton to Philadelphia, every municipality in the Commonwealth has a set of basic, straight forward standards that customers can expect when dealing with their cable television provider:

Telephone Contact

During normal business hours, the cable provider must provide non-automated answering of its telephone number. Furthermore, the time from when the connection is made until the phone is answered cannot exceed 30 seconds (including wait time). Busy signals are only allowed 3 percent of the time.

Bill Payment

Bill payment and customer service centers should be open during normal business hours and be conveniently located.

Installation Standards

Standard cable service installation is required to be performed within seven business days from when the order is received. Cable providers are required by the FCC to give a customer a four hour window of time during the day as to when the service will be provided.

Outages

Cable providers are required to begin working on “service interruptions” no later than 24 hours after learning of the outage.

Cancellation of Appointments

Appointment cancellations must be made prior to the close of business before the scheduled appointment. If the cable provider is late, he or she is obligated to contact the customer and reschedule at a time convenient for the customer.

Changes in rates, programming, or channel positions

The FCC states that subscribers must be notified (either through a cable system announcement or in writing) of any changes to cable rates, programming or channel position (where possible, a thirty day notice). The most common mechanism is through bill insert.

Billing

Bills must be fully itemized and note all activity during the billing period. Refunds are required to be issued within 30 days of the next billing cycle following resolution of the refund request.

For more information on cable customer service and consumer protection:

The Federal Communications Commission
www.fcc.gov