CABLE TV PRICING BECOMING CLEARER; SIMI VALLEY, COMCAST CLOSE TO REACHING RATE, SERVICE AGREEMENT.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Daily News Staff Writer

The city and executives at Comcast Cablevision have come to a tentative meeting of the minds, with both sides giving a little in order to get a little in the war over cable rates and services.

Even though Comcast earned poor marks on an informal customer service test the city conducted last month, the City Council let the cable company off the hook for now by stopping short of requiring that it establish a local customer service office.

Plus, the council approved a 20-cent rate increase this year to $28.15 for basic service, to go into affect Friday.

But the City Council asked the company to go back to the drawing board and alter its proposal of a tiered system of pricing to make it more palpable for consumers.

``I'm pleased that they moved forward with something that is realistic,'' said Mayor Bill Davis of the proposals presented to the council Monday night. ``But I can tell you that they tried to come up with two channels that are advertising for their pay-per-view and they expect my constituents to pay $1.22 for it. We compromised and said we will accept one and I'm not even happy with that. But you do have to make a compromise and I accept that.''

In an effort to appease council members critical of cable rates - the highest in the county - the company presented two different tiered-pricing options at a meeting Monday night.

One would provide 23 channels for $15.76 and expanded service of 43 channels for $28.15. The second offers 23 channels for $14.03 and expanded service of 43 channels for $28.15.

The council said it preferred the second option because it did not require that a customer rent a converter box.

The company is now expected to remove one of the pay-per-view channels, which constantly run promotions until a customer pays an additional fee to view a movie. The new tier would offer a total of 22 channels and cost about $13.42.

Comcast officials said that since the issue erupted in January their discussions with city officials over rates and services have been productive.

``I think we're going to be coming to a satisfactory resolution,'' said John Jackson, general manager of the Simi Valley cable offices.

One issue to surface from the fight over cable rates has been how the company handles customer complaints.

Over the course of one week last month, city staff members conducted an informal survey, calling the company's central customer service office in Santa Ana to ask a series of questions.

When asked three of those questions - including what the cost was to start service - all five customer service representatives questioned gave out the wrong information, city officials said.

City officials said they will continue to monitor the customer service complaints before taking the next step, which would be to require that the company maintain an office in Simi Valley.

``It does raise a flag of concern,'' Jackson said of the survey. ``But it really came at a time when rates were being changed, and we have a new billing system implemented. We had a lot of other things going on at the time. That's not an excuse, but it did factor in. It raises some serious issues we have to address.''