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2 Beaches cities seek deal with Comcast Customer compensation plan sought

Posted on: Friday, 12 March 2004, 06:00 CST

Jacksonville Beach and Atlantic Beach officials have begun negotiating a franchise agreement with Comcast on a wide range of cable regulations, seeking a Beaches office for greater convenience, stiffer penalties for failure to provide good customer service and compensation for past cable problems that overwhelmed city employees.

Beaches officials said Comcast wasn't receptive to their franchise renewal proposal, which is modeled on the agreement Jacksonville reached with the cable company last year.

"They just don't want to give us any settlement at all," said Jacksonville Beach City Clerk Heidi Reagan, who attended a Feb. 24 meeting between Comcast and Beaches officials.

Beaches officials plan to present the draft agreement to Comcast in about two weeks. The present cable franchise agreement will expire next year.

Among other things, Jacksonville Beach and Atlantic Beach officials will ask for compensation to reimburse Beaches residents for the same service-related cable problems that needled Jacksonville residents in 2001 and 2002, when AT&T was the cable operator. Jacksonville Beach City Hall employees handled about 1,200 calls from frustrated cable customers within one month that year.

Jacksonville's settlement and revised franchise agreement with Comcast included $3.5 million in reimbursements for more than a year of poor cable service that led Jacksonville to the brink of revoking AT&T's franchise. The two Beaches cities will ask for compensation based on their proportion of the county's population, Reagan said. Neptune Beach is not part of the negotiations because its agreement with Comcast doesn't expire next year.

Comcast, which took over for AT&T Broadband on Nov. 18, 2002, brokered much of the deal signed in January 2003. Company spokesman Bill Ferry said the settlement money is targeted for education and public safety to benefit all of Duval County, including the Beaches.

In addition, Ferry said Comcast has vastly improved the level of cable service and can't be held responsible for the performance of former cable operators.

"We have shown the community what we can do," Ferry said.

He also noted that Beaches officials never filed a notice of breach of contract, which is required under the existing franchise agreement to be eligible for compensation.

Some of the other customer service provisions in the cable agreement's draft include fines if the company doesn't meet standards such as answering 90 percent of calls within 30 seconds; an automatic $20 credit if Comcast misses a scheduled appointment; shortening the term of the franchise agreement to seven years; and adding construction standards, including protecting trees in the right of way against root damage.

Jacksonville Beach City Manager George Forbes said the agreement is meant to protect consumers and ensure long-term cable performance.

"We've been burned so badly in customer service," Forbes said, referring to AT&T Broadband and the number of times that the area's cable provider has changed hands.

Local governments are responsible for enforcing a variety of cable television regulations through their franchise agreement. Residents are encouraged to call City Hall when they have a complaint about cable service, rates or programming. But small towns like Jacksonville Beach and Atlantic Beach don't have enough staff to run cable departments, city managers have said.

The Federal Communications Commission also regulates cable television to a degree.

But the local and federal oversight is limited. The 1996 Telecommunications Cable Act removed municipalities' ability to regulate cable rates. In addition to setting their own rates, cable companies also make their own programming decisions.

Comcast raised its monthly rates for many of its Northeast Florida customers, including Beaches residents, on March 1, its first rate hike in 18 months. The cable company will raise its expanded basic rate for Duval and St. Johns county customers by $1.34 to $42.99 and its digital cable packages by $3 to $4 a month. At the same time, the company is expanding its cable packages, including the introduction of its On Demand service for digital customers and the addition of new channels such as Chicago cable station WGN.

While cable companies operate as a monopoly in most cities, they compete with direct broadcast satellite companies like DirecTV.

Atlantic Beach City Manager Jim Hanson said Comcast had "improved service dramatically." But he was put off by Ferry's reaction to the proposed draft and he fears the negotiations could take a long time and run up the two cities' legal bills.

"He didn't think that was appropriate for negotiations," Hanson said. "They didn't want to start with that."

Staff writer Caren Burmeister can be reached at (904) 249-4947, extension 21, or via e-mail at caren.burmeister@jacksonville.com.

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