S 7146: Requires certain businesses to provide a free, efficient, universally accessible, inclusive, nondiscriminatory and evaluable customer service telephone line; requires corporations to establish an annual customer service call-answer rate of at least ninety percent.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 7146 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE April 2, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. HOYLMAN-SIGAL -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Consumer Protection AN ACT to amend the general business law and the public service law, in relation to customer service access The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The general business law is amended by adding a new section 2 391-x to read as follows: 3 § 391-x. Customer service access. 1. Businesses that provide products 4 or services in New York, regardless of the geographical location of the 5 point of communication between the organization or third party and 6 customer, that are targeted to residents of New York, have at least one 7 hundred employees, and whose annual revenue exceed fifty million 8 dollars, shall provide a free, efficient, universally accessible, inclu- 9 sive, nondiscriminatory and evaluable customer service telephone line 10 which must be able to provide the following, including but not limited 11 to: 12 (a) allowing a customer to connect with a human representative within 13 five minutes of beginning a call; 14 (b) allowing a customer to present complaints, claims, incidents or 15 queries and receive communication with regard to any complaint, claim, 16 incident or query; 17 (c) have proof of complaints, claims, incidents or queries to custom- 18 ers by providing an identification key and a written record on a medium 19 of the customer's choice that includes proof of content, date, and time 20 of receipt by the company; 21 (d) when appropriate, provide a refund of the price of the good or 22 service, in whole or in part, and other legally applicable compensation 23 in the event of non-compliance or defective compliance with the contract 24 or commercial offer; and EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD08386-01-5 
 S. 7146 2 1 (e) provide truthful, effective, comprehensive, transparent and up to 2 date information on any incident that arises around the normal provision 3 of services. 4 2. The use of answering machines or other similar means as an exclu- 5 sive means of customer service is prohibited. 6 3. Instructions to access a customer service communication line estab- 7 lished by each business pursuant to this section must appear in any 8 contract with the consumer, on any invoices the business issues to 9 customers, and on the website of the business, in an easy to identify, 10 separate section, and in the case of the web pages on the home page of 11 such website. 12 4. Any business that knowingly fails to comply with the requirements 13 of this section shall be assessed a civil penalty for such violation by 14 the attorney general not to exceed fifty thousand dollars per day. Each 15 day such offense shall continue shall constitute a separate additional 16 violation. In determination of any such violation the attorney general 17 shall be authorized to take proof and make a determination of relevant 18 facts and to issue subpoenas in accordance with the civil practice law 19 and rules. 20 § 2. The public service law is amended by adding a new section 66-x to 21 read as follows: 22 § 66-x. Customer service access. 1. For purposes of this section: 23 (a) "call-answer rate" means the metric the department shall use to 24 examine the percent of customers who request to speak with a customer 25 service representative and are answered within thirty seconds by such 26 customer service representative; and 27 (b) "corporation" means a gas corporation, electric corporation, 28 and/or combination gas and electric corporation. 29 2. (a) Notwithstanding any law, rule, regulation, order, or tariff to 30 the contrary, the department shall require every corporation to estab- 31 lish an annual customer service call-answer rate of at least ninety 32 percent. 33 (b) The department shall have the authority to establish negative 34 revenue adjustments for each corporation that fails to satisfy the annu- 35 al customer service call-answer rate of at least ninety percent. 36 (i) The department shall set the negative revenue adjustments at a 37 rate proportional to the corporation's failure to achieve the mandated 38 call-answer rate. 39 (ii) The department shall apply sur-credits to the corporation's rate 40 base when negative revenue adjustments are issued for a corporation's 41 failure to achieve the mandated call-answer rate. The company shall 42 clearly indicate the sur-credit on the customer's bill and include a 43 brief description of the reason for the sur-credit. 44 (c) Every corporation shall file an annual report with the department 45 that indicates what their call-answer rate was for the prior calendar 46 year. If a corporation fails to meet the target call-answer rate, the 47 report shall, at a minimum, include an explanation of such and the steps 48 the corporation is taking to improve its performance in the next calen- 49 dar year. A copy of the reports will be shared by the department with 50 the assembly, senate, and the governor on an annual basis. The reports 51 shall also be published publicly online on every gas corporation, elec- 52 tric corporation, and combination gas and electric corporation's public 53 facing website. 54 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after 55 it shall have become a law.