Have you paid your TV Licence?

[PvtPyle]

This site makes for very interesting reading:

Linky

The guy raises an excellent point. Should you wish to stop using terrestrial free-to-air television, rather than show any measure of concern, the BBC and TVL are satisfied by simply threatening and harassing the general public into paying them more money. Which is rude.

[Belmit]

I assume that the purpose of such a statement is to alarm me, or perhaps embarrass me in front of the postman.

[PvtPyle]

I thought it was a nice touch comparing the letters he received to British Gas.

[BBx]

I hate licensing I think its completely ghey.

But of course I pay this one

We have one at work called the National Newspaper Licensing Agency. Which states that if we printout/photocopy any of the press that we have been in (written ourselves) and if it is printed in Trade Press or such like we have to pay for this licence.

What bit my bit (?! - whatever the phrase is ) is that they contacted us last year for indemity which over the last four years meant we had to pay for the reproduction.. which they cannot prove!!! Ridiculous.

Apols for the mini rant!

/waffle

BB x

[iCraig]

It's all just scare tactics and it isn't on. They bombard expired properties with demands for payment rather than ascertaining whether a license is in fact required. It's poor etiquette and is nothing short of harassment. When I move in to my flat, we're getting digital TV so we will be getting a license but before then my soon-to-be roommate has a single 15" CRT television. He watches no TV and can't get a signal if he tried. Roof aerial doesn't work and he doesn't own an indoor aerial. He uses it for his 360, nothing more. However he has been harassed non-stop for months. He's called them and explained that they can come and do all the checks they need, in order to confirm his TV isn't receiving a signal, yet they won't come over to him. They just send more letters, demanding the license fee, telling him that he's going to be taken to court and that he's breaking the law. He's had 22 letters so far this year from them, it's damn ridiculous and I believe he's currently researching on the best place to complain about it, because it simply is an attempt to acquire money by harassment at the end of the day.

[Stan_Lite]

TVL are utterly useless and pay no attention when you do contact them anyway.

When I was living in the company flat, my employers paid the licence fee and we always kept the licence handy just in case. I decided I wanted some 37" HD LCD goodness so popped down to the local Hydro Electric shop to spend some of my hard earned cash. They, of course, took my details and two weeks later I received a letter from TVL stating that they were aware that I'd recently purchased a television but there was no record of a licence in my name at that address. OK, thought I, that's fair enough even though it should have been relatively simple to check their database and discover that there was actually a valid licence for that address in a different name. There was a form on the back for the purpose of informing them of this in which I had to input the name on the existing licence and the licence number etc. which I filled in and dutifully posted to them.

Two weeks later I received another demand from them so I filled in the form again but added a comment that I had already done so and that if they could not manage to check their own system, I would no longer play their game.

I got another demand a few weeks later and decided I was just going to ignore them. I got several more letters similar to the guy in the link until I finally got a visit. The guy knocked on the door and asked my name which I told him, he then told me his detector had detected that I was watching telly which I admitted. He then proceeded to tell me that it was an offence to watch telly without a valid TV licence which I agreed with. I then showed him the licence with my employers name on it. He went very red and mumbled what I took to be an apology and scrpered rather quickly

Numpties.

[loki]

Originally Posted by iCraig

It's all just scare tactics and it isn't on. They bombard expired properties with demands for payment rather than ascertaining whether a license is in fact required. It's poor etiquette and is nothing short of harassment. When I move in to my flat, we're getting digital TV so we will be getting a license but before then my soon-to-be roommate has a single 15" CRT television. He watches no TV and can't get a signal if he tried. Roof aerial doesn't work and he doesn't own an indoor aerial. He uses it for his 360, nothing more. However he has been harassed non-stop for months. He's called them and explained that they can come and do all the checks they need, in order to confirm his TV isn't receiving a signal, yet they won't come over to him. They just send more letters, demanding the license fee, telling him that he's going to be taken to court and that he's breaking the law. He's had 22 letters so far this year from them, it's damn ridiculous and I believe he's currently researching on the best place to complain about it, because it simply is an attempt to acquire money by harassment at the end of the day.

Would the burden of proof be upon the TV licensing in this case or your friend ? I mean how on earth can he prove he doesn't watch TV without making a statement to that effect in good faith.

What really annoys me about the licensing fee is that it helps stifles better radio programming. iirc the BBC have about 80% of the available bandwidth for their FM broadcasts which makes it nigh on impossible for any other broadcaster to operate on a national basis

[Treefrog]

Yup, had exactly the same procedure from TV licensing since I moved into the flat 10 years ago. Letter after letter after letter - all of a threatening tone, not one asking whether I had a TV or not.

I could have replied and told them that I didn't have one, but after their thinly veiled accusations that I was watching TV without a licence I wasn't prepared to pay for a stamp in order to tell them that I didn't have a TV.

I can be an awkward sod like that

[PvtPyle]

Originally Posted by Bigstan

TVL are utterly useless and pay no attention when you do contact them anyway.

<snippage>

Numpties.

Similar thing happened when I was in halls at University. Unpleasant little bald man turned up at people's doors demanding to see licenses, he got through two entire floors visited over 80 rooms and he'd already filled in three or four forms for people who didn't have a license. Then someone mentioned it at the security desk at the front of the building, and they escorted him off the premises because he didn't sign himself in when he arrived. They recommended he throw away any evidence of the people he'd caught in order to save himself the hassle of the Uni filing an official complaint! 'Twas awesome.

Originally Posted by loki

Would the burden of proof be upon the TV licensing in this case or your friend ? I mean how on earth can he prove he doesn't watch TV without making a statement to that effect in good faith.

Surely the burden of proof lies with the TV licensing agency. We are after all still innocent until proven guilty, so they ought to produce evidence to suggest that he does in fact receive a signal and watch telly, rather than the individual, in this case iCraig's mate, proving that he doesn't.

[iCraig]

Originally Posted by loki

Would the burden of proof be upon the TV licensing in this case or your friend ? I mean how on earth can he prove he doesn't watch TV without making a statement to that effect in good faith.

Well he's offered on more than one occasion for them to come around. He said, come over, any day, any time and run your tests. I have nothing to hide, but they just ignored that and carried on sending him letters. It shouldn't be up to him anyway to prove his TV is only used for X. It's down to them to prove it's being used for Y before they can take him to court over anything. Innocent until proven guilty, you don't ram him into court and go "Right, you're guilty of not paying your TV license. You now have the opportunity to prove your innocence. Begin!"

Until they have proof, they shouldn't go around threatening and harassing people.