SENATE DOCKET, NO. 2331        FILED ON: 2/19/2021

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 206

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Barry R. Finegold

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act relative to ensuring the availability of customer service.

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PETITION OF:

SENATE DOCKET, NO. 2331        FILED ON: 2/19/2021

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 206

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Second General Court
(2021-2022)

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An Act relative to ensuring the availability of customer service.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Amends Section 2 of Chapter 24A of the General Laws to require, under the oversight of the The Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations, all companies with no less than 50 employees to provide a toll free phone number and toll free TeleTYpe (TTY) phone number that connects customers with company representatives for the purpose of customer service related to billing and payments, products and services.

(a) Customer service phone numbers must be accessible and visible via the company’s public website and shared with the customer via all electronic correspondence, including but not limited to purchase confirmation emails.

(b) If the company does not have a public website, the customer service phone numbers must at minimum be made available to the customer via electronic correspondence, including but not limited to purchase confirmation emails

(c) Automated customer service phone numbers and web-based customer service chat services must provide the customer the option to select to speak with a human customer service representative within the first menu of customer services

SECTION 2. Companies with no less than 50 employees must employ no less than one customer service representative employee, available to answer customer calls via the toll free phone and TTY numbers, for every 500 customers the company has sold products and/or services to

SECTION 3. Upon substantial evidence of customer dissatisfaction as determined by the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, the Office may require, after one year of implementation, the company to increase the number of customer service representatives for the respective customer base to improve customer satisfaction.

SECTION 4. After one year of implementation, the company may petition The Office to reduce the number of customer service representatives for their customer base as a result of customer satisfaction.