City Fines Falcon Cable for Franchise Violations

Saying its service record was “very disappointing,” the city has levied its first fine against a cable operator by charging Falcon Cable $12,300 for failing to provide timely customer refunds or respond to hundreds of subscriber complaints.

The Malibu-based company has until Sept. 15 to pay the fine or the city will confiscate a $10,000 certificate of deposit that Falcon placed in a city account as part of its franchise agreement with the city, according to Caroline Milton, Thousand Oaks’ media services coordinator.

She said Falcon--the smallest of three cable companies operating in Thousand Oaks--would then have to replenish the account and the city would take out the remaining $2,300 owed. If the money is not paid there could be additional fines or a possible revocation of its license.

“Falcon’s performance has been very disappointing. Customers who’ve called have used such words as ‘deplorable’ and ‘disgusting.’ They’re so flustered they can hardly talk,” she said.

“Because Falcon has failed to remedy the problems in a timely manner, the city believes it was appropriate to assess [the fines]. Customers have been paying for services that have not been provided on a consistent basis.”

Milton called the fine lenient and said the city could have levied a fine of tens of thousands of dollars more. “The city was conservative in assessing the damages,” Milton said.

Falcon’s fine is based on the total number of days the company was in violation of its franchise agreement, rather than being based on the number of separate occurrences during the violation period, Milton said.

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Falcon’s fine includes $10,700 for failure to provide refunds within a 30-day period to 38 customers who canceled service. The city charged Falcon $100 per day for 107 days of noncompliance. The city reviewed records from May 1 to Aug. 15.

The remainder of the fine comes from charging Falcon $50 per day for 32 days, from July 15 to Aug. 15, for failing to respond to complaints from 95 customers within 10 days, as required under its franchise agreement. The city often records customer complaints, which it then relays to Falcon. The company has 10 calendar days to begin responding to a customer’s problem.

“Many times the customer cannot get through to Falcon directly so they call the city,” Milton said. Her office number is printed on bills from the city’s three providers: Falcon, GTE, and TCI.

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Michael Singpiel, Falcon’s vice president for operations, said his company is reviewing the charges to determine if the fine is justified.

“If the claims are valid, we would pay the fine,” he said.

Since March, Milton said, the city has received more than 300 written complaints and approximately 350 telephone calls from angry, neglected customers.

Singpiel said he was unaware of the number of customer complaints his company receives, but said Falcon recently spent more than $30,000 on a new automated phone system that will update customers about service interruptions so they will not have to wait for a live operator to get on the line.

Under its franchise agreement with the city, Falcon is required to answer 90% of its calls within 30 seconds.

“Their response rate for the first five months of the year has been about one-third of what it should be,” Milton said. She said Falcon faces additional fines if its phone records from Sept. 1 through Nov. 30 fail to show a drastically-improved response time.

Falcon attributes its periodic service interruptions to its ongoing installation of underground fiber-optic cable that transmits a clearer signal than the old copper wire.

Singpiel said the project should be complete within 60 days. The result, he said, will be fewer complaints about service interruption and picture quality.

“People will receive excellent reception, more programming choices,” he said. “Reception problems will be at a minimum.”

Falcon’s subscriber membership in Thousand Oaks has declined sharply in recently months--from about 5,000 to 3,300.

By comparison, TCI of Ventura County has about 28,000 customers while GTE Media Ventures has about 9,500.

Milton said GTE and TCI’s operations are in compliance with their franchise agreements.