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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10F - Mediacom Cable TV CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT t( )Cu-n ~!P cA;;;Js ~ t~{14Jo/ Oc-1. ) . October 2, 2000 10 F Frank Boyles, City Manag AGENDA ITEM: CONSIDER APPROVAL OF REPORT REGARDING MEDIACOM CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE. DISCUSSION: History: As the Council is aware, Mediacom, LLC acquired the cable television system serving the Prior Lake - Savage area and entered into franchise agreements with each of the two communities. The Franchise Agreement for Prior Lake dated October 15, 1999 called for an upgrade of the system, which Mediacom has nearly completed. The Agreement also called for payments to the City for the purchase of public access equipment, the first of which Mediacom has provided. Current Circumstances: During the upgrade of the system, the staff answered over 60 calls about cable outages and service concerns. Many of the subscribers claimed that service outages were long-term and often outside of the 7am to 7pm time parameters Mediacom said would be typical. More important, the residents claimed that the outages were on-going and in some cases so long term that they wondered if they would ever have service re-established. There were a few weeks in August/September when we received few service complaints. Then complaints began again in the second week of September. The most recent complaints consistently indicate difficulty working with customer service and service misrepresentations by Mediacom. Attached is an e-mail from Dave Kampen which is typical of the complaints we have received. Claims by technicians that they had visited a subscriber or fixed a problem when they hadn't, according to the subscriber, were common place. I have no way of knowing whether these complaints are isolated or the proverbial "tip of the iceberg". I know that City Council members are regularly besieged by subscriber complaints about Mediacom service. At the September 18th regular City Council meeting, Council members Gundlach and Ericson related their own concerns. Mayor Mader, Councilmember Petersen and Council member Zieska have also cited poor Mediacom service. The Franchise Agreement does provide for a two-part security deposit for correcting breaches or violations of the Franchise. If the use of those tools proved necessary, the information garnered from a public meeting would be useful. 16200 Eagle Creek Ave. S,E" Prior Lake, Minnesota 55372-1714 / Ph, (612) 447-4230 / Fax (612) 447-4245 1:\COUNCIL\AGNRPTS\2000\1 002_1 OF . DOo.N EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER r Jr Conclusion: I believe it is appropriate for the City Council to discuss Mediacom service concerns at the October 2nd meeting. I have invited representatives of Mediacom to be present to offer any data they have which would help the Council to determine whether a public meeting should be conducted on Tuesday, October 24, 2000 to verify whether service concerns are wide-spread and what action is appropriate to resolve the concerns identified. I have attached letters that the Mayor and I have shared with Mediacom as well as the Mediacom responses. ALTERNATIVES: (1) Direct staff to publicize a public meeting to solicit Mediacom customer input about service concerns for Tuesday, October 24, 2000 at 7:00pm in the Fire Station Council Chambers. (2) Take no action at this time and direct the preparation of additional information for Council consideration. RECOMMENDED MOTION: Alternative (1). Motion and second to direct staff to publicize a public meeting to solicit Mediacom customer input about service concerns for Tuesday, October 24, 2000 at 7:00pm in the Fire Station Council Chambers. J 1:\COUNCIL\AGNRPTS\2000\1 002_1 OF.DOC Page 1 of 1 Frank Boyles From: Dave Kampen [davekampen@rathsburg.com] Sent: Tuesday. September 26,20009:53 AM To: fboyles@cityofpriorlake.com Subject: Fw: Cable TV From: Dave Kampen To: fl::>Qy!~~@QitY_QfRriQrl~kl;l_c<::~l1J. Sent: Tuesday, September 26,20009:50 AM Subject: Cable TV Frank, I had been a subscriber to the local cable provider since 1992. We all put up with the poor reception and lack of service through Triax over the years, and after the last go around with Triax during the open forum and the "promises" to fix the issues I and I am sure you thought that they had heard us loud and clear. Prior Lake went ahead and signed up for a new contract based on these "promises". Now recently Triax got sold and Mediacom? took over and promised new equipment and better reception along with a raised level of customer service. What I saw prior to the reconstruction was a degraded level of customer service. One hour holds not uncommon along with rude and arrogant customer service reps. Then the long awaited fiber optic rewiring program with the "promise" of better reception. Never happened!!! After they did my comer of the world my picture quality got worse on many channels. Calls to Mediacom got "promises" of technicians coming by. Never happened!!! Many calls to Mediacom went unanswered by a human voice. I gave up many times. Time of the day did not help either in an attempt to get though. I was told one time that my in house wiring must be bad. Of course for a fee they would come and check it out. Strange that the bad picture quality changed form channel to channel on any given day. But it still had to be my home wiring as they had completed the upgrading in my neighborhood. Funny how an internal wiring problem could be so selective from day to day and channel to channel. I finally gave up and cancelled my Mediacom service and signed up for DISH TV. Amazingly I have a perfect picture on all channels using the same internal wiring that I was told was defective. I would rather not have signed up for DISH TV as I miss the Prior Lake access channel. But I do get most of the local stations and I will stay with DISH TV until Prior Lake can convince or force Mediacom to correct and live up to their contractual requirements to the City of Prior Lake. One other issue regarding Mediacom. For the basic rate service Prior Lake is getting the short end of the deal. Check around other local communities and see what they get for a basis package and the next level upgrade. Not only do they get more choices, the costs are cheaper. Frank, you and Prior Lake need to demand that the citizens get what they are paying for and also a competitive package of channels to select from. Do not let Mediacom dictate to us what we get for choice and quality of service. Dave Kampen, Sales Engineer Rathsburg Associates, Inc. Minneapolis, MN 612-893-1400, 612-893-1444(fax) .. 9/26/00 July 26, 2000 Mr. Bruce J. Gluckman Vice President Legal and Regulatory Affairs MEDIACOM 100 Crystal Run Road Middletown, NY 10941 . Re: Cable Franchise I Prior Lake, Minnesota Dear Mr. Gluckman: We have been very disappointed with the performance of your Company since your acquisition of Triax Cablevision. If your goal is to lose subscribers, you are implementing a near perfect strategy. I presume you are aware that system performance has been terrible. We expected interruptions while the system upgrade was being accomplished, but we also expected professionalism in dealing with customer complaints. The last straw for me was hearing from citizens that they were told that I, as the Mayor, knew the rebuild schedule (which is not true). The implication to your customers is that it was my job, riot yours, to tell the citizens to expect the down time. I also learned first-hand how customer service calls are handled when I called in to report a several day outage. The common theme on the street in Prior Lake is th~t your company is not trustworthy. To add insult to injury, your decision to announce a price increase at this time is incredible. Your timing couldn't be worse. I cannot defend your performance to our residents. If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me at your convenience. Kind regards, w~ ~' fj1~ Wesley M. Mader, Mayor cc: Tom Bordwell Frank Boyles, City Manager Council members 4 16200 Eagle Creek Ave, S,E., Prior Lake, Minnesota 55372-1714 / Ph, (612) 447-4230 / Fax (612) 447-4245 AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY E1-1PLOYER ~yg-04-00 11:07A Mediacom-Prior Lake 6124409661 P.02 * .--- ~ Medlacom Jam~~ M. Cany Se"ior V;t:~ P,.t!.~i"e/Jf of ()pt1rt1fimM August 4, 2000 Mr. Wesley M. Mader, Mayor City of Prior r .ake 16200 Eagle Creek Avenue S.E. Prior Lake. Minnesota 55372-1714 Denr Mayor Mader, 1 want to thank you for taking time to speak with me yesterday about our company's performance and operation in Prior Lake. ! also appreciate the meeting I had with your City Manager, Mr. Frank Boyles, und the time he provided us to convey Mediacom's plans for your City. I recogni:Ge that this upgrade process has been ul141cceptable to you and the City Council. and our customers. 1 am totally cmbarrasscd about this sitl,l8lion and it has my tutu] fucus and utmost concern until it is recti tied. We at Mediacom pride ourselves in being the premiere provider of state of the art broadband services in smaller markets. We have Cl1mpleted cll1se to 1 n,non miles of upgrade in the past three years in communities similar to yours. Most of these have gone extremely well and we have l'cceived testimonial letters from numerous city and county ofticials across th~ C(luntry thanking us for delivering what we promised. Unfortunately, th~ Prior Lake system that we purchased rrom Triax was in much worse shape than we thought, making the UPbrrade process more time consuming and complicated. This created more outages than expected. To exasperate the problem. we did a poor j()h of communicating this to you and our customers. We recognize that in order for us to be successful and tu realize a return on this major invcstment. we must regain the confidence that we have lost through this ordeal. Mediacom will use every resow.ce it has available to see that this happens. As a start to repairing the damage, our short-tenn plans include: . Completion of our rebuild and upgrade l'lf the system in the next two weeks, The pust~ upgrade product wi II retlect the benefits of a fiber optic system incl uding better reception and increased signal quality. Mediacom will sweep and balance the system tu ensure that all end of line measurements meet signal quality requirements. Mediacom will also contact each uf nur customers in Prior Lake to address any remaining system performance issues that may be illternalto our cuslumer's residence. . Mediacom will issue appropriate credit tu customers for outages experienced during the.::: construction process. Mediacum Cummunicatinnll Corporation 100 Crvlltal nun R~'lad . MiddLetuwn. NY 10941 . 914-6')5-2600 · FlIx 9]4-695-2639 Aug-04-OO 11:0BA Med;acom-pr;or Lake 6124409661 P.03' . Mediacom will be providing at no charge the Sta17, movie prcmiwn channeL to all uf our customers for the month of September. . Mediacum will keep our customers informed of the plans for deploying new products including digital televisic:m Ilnd high speed Internet access. We anticipate that these products will be available early next ye~r. . Our customer service staff will 1m prove their communication with our field uperations to provide clearer and mUTe acCurate information, The investment we have made in our new billing system aflords our customer ~ervice reps easier access to customer data and will increase their ability t.o address customer inquiries with more infumlulion and greater cflicicncy. . Medlacom will inform the public about our activities and products via the newspaper, product demonstrations, and direct mail to increase our exposure and provide the community with a clear message of our plans, products and services. Again. 1 want to assure you that Mcdiacom will accumplish our goal of providing the Cit.y of Prior Lake with the best services and products otl"ered in our industry. We are nearing the end of lhe 11rst and most important step In that plan: the rebuild/upgrade of the systel1\. This will provide the platform to Launch new product~ and services and enhance picture quality. The arorementioned is just a start and all oCMediacom's efforts will contlnue to rOC\.lS on making this investment u SUcce!)s in the eyes of your community and our customers, Thank you again for thl: opportunity to serve the City of Prior Lake. Please do not hesitate LO contact me personally at any time. Sincerely, -4-; s M. Carey Jal August25,2000 Mr. Tom Bordwell Government Relations Manager MEDIACOM LLC 14162 Commerce Avenue Suite 100 Prior Lake, MN 55372 Mr. Jim M. Carrey Senior Vice President of Operations MEDIACOM LLC 100 Crystal Run Road Middleton, NY 10941 Mr. Mike Pheiler Area Plant Manager MEDIACOM LLC 2381 Wilshire Blvd. Mound, MN 55364 Re: City of Prior Lake Enforcement of Franchise Agreement Gentlemen: As you know, the Cable Television Franchise Agreement dated October 15, 1999 between the City of Prior Lake and Mediacom LLC provides at 3.10 (Procedure for Enforcing Franchise Agreement (b)) that: "In the event the Council finds that a material violation or breach exists, and that the grantee has not cured the same in a satisfactory manner, has not diligently commenced correction of such violation or breach, or is has not diligently proceeded to remedy such violation or breach, the Council may impose liquidated damages, assessable from the security fund, of $300 per day or incident for unexcused violations or breaches of the system upgrade and/or re-build completion schedule provided in section 4.1 herein, and up to $150 per day or per incident for all other violations or breaches of this agreement and/or the ordinance, provided that all the violations or breaches of a similar nature occurring in the same time shall be considered one incident. However, the City reserves the right to impose separate penalties for each day said violation continues. " 16200 Eagle Creek Ave, S,E., Prior Lake, Minnesota 55372-1714 / Ph. (612) 447-4230 / Fax (612) 447-4245 At-; EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER .~.~.- "....,..........., '"...-..---......----.__._'--_.~'"'_.. Mediacom LLC August25,2000 Page 2 or 2 A review of my records reveals that there have been material violations and breaches of the Franchise, including but not limited to: 1. Mediacom has repeatedly failed to attend City pre-construction meetings for road reconstruction. They have also repeatedly failed to mark the location of their cable as part of the Gopher State One call program. The result is repeated cutting of cable, leading to repeated complaints by customers. We have taken many of these calls at the City for reconveyance to Mediacom. 2. Public access channels 50 and 51 are regularly out of service, or service is so poor that it is not worth watching. The past weekend and as recently as last night, one or both channels were inoperable. There has been no out-bound signal from the Fire Station Training Center for the last Planning Commission and last City Council meetings. This is becoming the standard, not the exception. 3. Following the "upgrade" the video signal and audio are not appreciably improved if my home is Q..t-r..'^'",.\ \\ an example. The signal, particularly on chanliels 4, 5 and 20 (in addition to channels 50 and 51 ~~(\ zo previously mentioned) are unacceptable. Audio varies dramatically from station to station. 4. My staff has become an extension of the Mediacom service department. My assistant, for example can document 22 calls. She estimates, however, that she has received between 50-60. Not all of these calls relate to the upgrade. Some are just exasperation with the continuing inability of Mediacom to operate a minimally acceptable system. Many of the calls are repeat calls because they indicate either (1) their phone call is not answered by a person at Mediacom; or (2) a service person never responds; or (3) when the service person responds, the problem is not resolved; or (4) if the problem is resolved, it is simply a short-term solution and the same or similar problems are repeated in the future. It is important to note that all persons contacting the City have only done so after numerous attempts to resolve the issues with Mediacom directly. It is not just staff members who are receiving complaints such as those set forth above. City Councilmembers are regularly besieged by cable customers who say, in effect, "How can the City allow Mediacom to continue to operate when they have so poignantly demonstrated their inability to do so?' Mayor Mader's letter should demonstrate the level of frustration that elected officials in Prior Lake are feeling. Please consider this letter as your last warning from the City. If the issues I refer to above are not resolved, I will have no option but to formalize this complaint in accordance with the Franchise and request Council action on this matter. I believe that between my meeting with the three of you in July, the Mayor's letter which you received prior to that meeting, and this correspondence, you have certainly had adequate notice of our concerns. Please let me know if you have questions. Cc: Mayor Mader and City Council Medi~ 14162 Commerce Ave., Suite 100 Prior Lake, MN 55372 Email: tbordwell(ji)mediacomcc.com Phone: (952) 440-9680 ext. 222 Toll Free: (888) 591-8062 ext. 222 Fax: (612) 440-9661 Tom Bordwell Director of Government Relations September 18, 2000 Mr. Frank Boyles City Manager City of Prior Lake 16200 Eagle Creek Ave SE Prior Lake, MN 55372 Dear Mr. Boyles, I would like to update you on our activities in improving our customer service in the City of Prior Lake, and to address the issues raised in your letter of August 25t\ 2000. 1. Pre-construction meetings. Mike Pfeiler, our Area Plant Manager, is the key contact for advising Mediacom on these meetings and will designate appropriate staff to cover these. Mr. Pfeiler's cell phone number is 612-919-3926. As a back-up resource, your staffmay also contact Steve Haeg, 612-919-7482. 2. Public Access Channels. As you are aware, the equipment issues have been addressed to improve the quality of the signals and to limit the access to the equipment controls that can effect the signal. We have also installed the automatic switch that will negate the need for a manual switch when a signal is originating from the Fire Station. 3. Signal Ouality & 4. General Customer Service Issues. To address these matters in an ongoing and comprehensive manner, Mediacom has proactively embarked upon a campaign designed to contact each and every customer by telephone, by mail, and/or both, to identify and address any service issues and or billing concerns. I have attached copies of the customer correspondence relating to this effort. We also have provided for additional technical field support to be able to accommodate expanded appointment opportunities for our customers. Our upgrade quality assurance crews have also been working in the system to recheck levels and balance the system post construction. At times, this work may be noticeable to some customs, but will serve all of us well as we move forward in operating the new system. As part of this effort, we have indicated that we are providing free Starz movie channel (20) for our customers, and have extended the offer to include our "basic" level customer on Channel 67 as well. .. ---....- ... ......-...----....-....-....... ..~._--..........,.......-""1r"""'..-...--_.---...-.-.....-..... Media-com J Mediacom P,Q. Box 110 Waseca, MN 56093 Phone: (800) 332-0245 Fax: (507) 835-4567 Dear Prior Lake Mediacom Customer: Since purchasing your cable television system, Mediacom has embarked upon making the needed changes to improve the products and services you receive. In just a few short months, we have constructed the broadband fiber optic system that will provide you with Internet access, digital television, pay per view products, and even more! We have also converted our billing system to enable our Customer Service Representatives to improve our billing and repair telephone services. While these changes have been long needed, Mediacom does recognize the inconvenience that you may have experienced with these changes. In addition, here is our plan to move forward in improving our service to you: 1. Mediacom will provide our Prior Lake customers with every available opportunity to address any remaining service issues. Our fiber construction is complete. Additional work will continue on the system as we get ready to launch Internet and Digital Television in the next few months. If you are not satisfied with your picture and signal quality, please call us or take the opportunity to send back the attached card. We will have our trained technicians answer every request. Our goal is to leave you 100% satisfied. There are many reasons that signal quality may be affected. Please give us the opportunity to make sure you are receiving the best signal possible. 2. All Prior Lake Customers will receive the Starz! premium movie channel free for the month of September in recognition of your patience and support as we make the needed improvements to your system. Tune in to Channel 20 and enjoy! 3, Expect a telephone call! Our Mediacom staff is committed to making sure you are satisfied and we will conduct quality calls to gain your comments and to provide the opportunity to schedule a technician for service. Once again, our goal is to leave you 100% satisfied. 4, Let us know! In addition, give yourself a chance to win a color television and ONE YEAR OF FREE SERVICE, Please return the attached form! Again, all of us at Mediacom thank you for your business! We think these few months will be well worth it, as we serve you in the future with the best products and service available! ~ereI7' I ( '~#5 n~Y~UL/'--) Roy D.Kuchenbecker l Director of Customer Service North Central Region Mediacom II *- ;) Medlacom c MEDIACOM'S PRIOR LAKE MINNESOTA CUSTOMER RESPONSE FORM _ Please contact me to schedule a service technician. Briefly describe any problem you may have at the current time: I do not currently have a service problem, but would like to speak to someone regarding: Please contact me in the future regarding High Speed Internet access or Digital Television. Please enter my name for the Mediacom Drawing for a free color television and One Year of Free Service! Name: Address: Phone: Day: Evening: Best time to contact: Return to: Mediacom 3951 West 143rd Street Savage, MN 55378 Fax: (952) 895-9860