The wait may soon be over for California consumers under a law passed by the state Senate on Wednesday and headed for Gov. Gray Davis' desk.
The measure by Sen. Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, requires that utilities such as phone, cable and electric companies tell consumers of their right to a four-hour appointment window when they call for service at their home.
Torlakson wrote the bill after hearing from constituents who waited more than 10 hours for telephone repair and cable installation, despite a nearly 10-year-old state law entitling them to four-hour appointment windows.
Pacific Bell, for example, will in some cases schedule installation appointments stretching out for an entire business day, even though customers are entitled to such service in a four-hour window. That's perfectly legal now, as long as the company notifies customers of their right to a four-hour window three times each year in the fine print of their telephone bills.
But the bill passed Wednesday would change that, forcing companies to explicitly tell customers of this right when they call for service.
The bill received an especially strong endorsement from Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who found himself arguing with a company representative when he wanted a delivery scheduled within a four-hour window.
The representative told him there was no such requirement, but made the mistake of arguing the point with the man who wrote the original law requiring four-hour appointments.
"Imagine, to have the firsthand experience of having authored that statute, and been there when it was signed by the governor, and seen it go into effect, and then to be told by a company employee that it didn't apply," said Nathan Barankin, an aide to Lockyer who described the story. "It was a little odd to say the least."
Pacific Bell said it is testing four-hour windows for service installation and began scheduling all repair services in four-hour windows this past May. But it isn't opposing the legislation.
Like the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups that opposed Lockyer's four-hour legislation in 1989, it is doing something of a political about-face and is not raising its voice against Torlakson's bill.
A spokesman said the governor had not decided whether to sign the bill. In addition to requiring that utilities verbally notify customers of their right to a four-hour window, the legislation raises the penalty for a missed appointment to $600 from $500 and demands that utilities negotiate a mutually agreeable appointment time with customers.
"It comes from listening to real people having to take time off from work and using vacation time to be around for appointments," Torlakson said.
Gail Hillebrand, a senior attorney for Consumers Union in San Francisco, agreed. "Working people shouldn't have to take off the whole day to get something done," she said.
Consumers Union, The Utility Reform Network, Utility Consumers Action Network and the Public Utilities Commission supported the bill. No group stepped forward to formally oppose it, but Sen. Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin, was among four senators who voted against the bill.
Enforcement and education surrounding the four-hour window law should be left to state regulators, he said, and increased competition for cable, telephone and energy services make heavy-handed rules unnecessary.
Ryan Tate is a business reporter. Reach him at 925-977-8568 or rtate@cctimes.com.
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