ARGOS spying for tv licensing!!??

Marty_J

slow_saver wrote: »

just pay the licence fee, its worth every penny!!:rotfl:

It really is.

Try living in the US and seeing how long it is until you want to watch the BBC channels.

fox2319

dacouch wrote: »

Fox2319 do you mean like Mr Pew Bikhair or Mr Paddy O'Furniture and give the address as Argos' Head Office so they get letters from the delightful TV Licencing, that would be childish...

The thought never occurred to me... :A

fox2319

There was a good programme on Radio 4 a couple of weeks ago, Punt PI I think it's called. They went into the science of TC detector vans and it was all possible in the old analogue days to determine which channel you were watching

However, in the end they basically drove a bunch of people with lists of which houses didn't have licenses to an area and dropped them off while they patrolled the area with the vans. Low tech and cheap.

scotsbob

Just pay cash and give any address you like. Make sure you give a valid post code because they use that to put you on the database

worried_jim

I got a pc tv card from Aldi last year and had to fill a slip in with my details and I just wrote John Doe , 1 nowhere st, anytown. uk. I have a tv license and believe its good value, I just like being belligerent.

Rich44_2

There aren't these big sophisticated tv detector vans its all !!!!!!!! to scare the public the van is a man with a laptop and a copy of the database of addresses which dont have a licence and then they just come to the door and scare you into confessing (if you have a tv and using it that is).

I have always had a licence but twice when i've moved house the numbskulls didnt amend my details and both times i've had the "heavies" round they use the same scare tactics as bailiffs and although I could prove I had a tv licence (bank statement showing DD) they were still trying it on and in the end I told the guy to FO and come back with a warrant

slow_saver

I just pay by dd for my licence & that's that, when you move house you do have to tell them, otherwise you will get problems with reminders etc. You can pay online now and (I think) print your own licence. The way I see it is I listen to radio 2 most of the day, I watch F1 beeb coverage is ace so its well worth it to me.

rmg1

Marty_J wrote: »

You don't need a TV licence to own a TV.

Sorry, Marty J, but you do (unless they've changed the rules again).
There was a documented case a few years ago where a guy only had a Sky setup and had an engineer disable hi TV from receiving a terrestrial signal. He still had to pay for a licence.

There's also the oddity (although rare now) where if you have (had) a VCR with a B&W TV, you had to buy a colour licence.

fox2319

Rich44 wrote: »

There aren't these big sophisticated tv detector vans its all !!!!!!!! to scare the public the van is a man with a laptop and a copy of the database of addresses which dont have a licence and then they just come to the door and scare you into confessing (if you have a tv and using it that is).

There were in the past. They worked by tuning into the local oscillator which is used to downconvert the RF TV signal and measuring the offset off the sidebands to tell them which channel you were tuned into. By having a couple of highly directional antennas, you could pretty much pinpoint where the set actually was. It's not on player any more but the episode guide is http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kwf9y

However, the conclusion was that although the technology was there, it was more often a bunch of people with a clipboard. Not sure if the tech would work too well these days given the type of modulation that's used in digital boxes.

Bowling_4_Gold

Guys, just remember this thread dates back to December last year, so the OP may not be appreciating your advise as much you hoped.

Anyway, now for my input.

I remember my father buying a new TV from Makro, and they just sent the details on the Makro card to the TV Licensing Agency. Problem was the address tallied, but the name was different (his business partner's) so we got chased by them... The letters stopped promptly after we told them what idiots they were lol