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INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 8iDi-
December 16, 1997
0 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council
Plrx
Subject: MARCUS CABLE CUSTOMER SERVICE MONITORING
On August 29, 1995, City Council approved Ordinance No. 12105 which transferred the cable television
from Sammons of Fort Worth to Marcus Cable Associates, L.P. The transfer of the systern became
official on November 1, 1995.
For the past year, cable staff has been monitoring customer service, especially those areas set by the
Federal Communications Commission as being minimum requirements to satisfy the cable television
subscriber. In the Transfer Agreement included as part of Ordinance No. 12105, Marcus is required to
comply with these custorner service standards. Additionally, Marcus agreed to abide by the National
Cable Television Association (NCTA) on-time guarantee for installations. That guarantee would credit
$20 to a Subscriber if a service technician did not meet the four-hour time window for installations. It is
no longer doing this.
During the quarter ending September 30, 1997,calls into the city's cable office increased 5 1.1% from 133
received in the quarter end ing June 30 to 258 September 30. Of those 258 cal Is, 56 were complaining
about tile system upgrade project. Most often those complaints pertained to channels being scrambled
with no warning. The remaining 202 calls relate to customer service problems. Most often mentioned is
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routine of sending a fax to the company when a subscriber calls the city as staff is also unable to reach the
im company bytelephone.
During the quarter ending on September 3U, staff made 105 phone calls io Marcus tu test the company's
phone system and responsiveness. These calls were made with the following results: 30of the calls
(28.55%) nuo\ the FCC requirement o[answering within 30 seconds, transferring within 30 meouodm; 46 of
the calls(43.DY6)did not meet the time requirement. All these calls were on hold for various lengths nf
tinuo--dhe longest was 10 minutes before the staff person hung up. Another 24of the calls(22.W96)
received u busy signal and 5 ouUy (4.7Y4) were either never picked Lip orthe telephone system hung up
before ucustomer service representative could be reached.
The voice nuui| line set up by city staff to receive calls from subscribers who desire to protest the June l
rate increase has received 484 calls through October. When the city filed its rate complaint with the FCC
in mid-July, 128 cu||a had been received. Because the telephone number has been well publicized, nouuy
of the messages on the system currently refer to customer service pnVh|oms as v/e|| as ru0:y. Outages were
reported uafollows: July, 126; August, 168; and September, 121.
The city continues to have concerns that Marcus Cable's customer service needs to improve. Citizen
complaints indicate that there is only moderate concern over the oySn:oo upgrade. The primary issue with
the citizens is the inadequate customer service telephone system and the lack of an adequate number of
representatives who can handle the volume of calls that io being generated.
The city is reviewing of Marcus customer service performance for the July-September quarter and will
review the current quarter at the conclusion of the quarter on December 3 1. Appropriate steps will be
taken after each review.
City Manager
ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH,TEXAS-------