TV Licensing harassment letters

Ste_C

Forget the law and what you can and can't get away with, how about just doing what's fair? The TV licence funds some fantastic stuff. It's £150 a year, that's nothing.

Stop stressing about beating the system, pay it, and just enjoy your life.

Cornucopia

Ste_C wrote: »

Forget the law and what you can and can't get away with, how about just doing what's fair? The TV licence funds some fantastic stuff. It's £150 a year, that's nothing.

Stop stressing about beating the system, pay it, and just enjoy your life.

That's not the money saving way, if the same stuff is basically available (legally) for nothing.

Not to mention the growing list of BBC misdemeanours that people might want to vote (with their feet) about.

moggymutt

Haven't had a tv for several years now (only had b+w before). They seem to think I'm a parrot that likes repeating itself, constantly harassing me with letters that want me to keep repeating what I have already told them. The letters got more and more sinister looking until one day a letter got me in such a state that I was on the phone for half an hour to them, trying to get them to explain just why they thought that they had a right to harass me so much. They had sent me a letter, that to me, looked as if I was actually being taken to court. In the end , on the phone the guy actually admitted that the letter was designed to look that way, but because it hadn't got my actual name on it, and just my address, it couldn't be a summons- how the hell had I been supposed to know that!!!!! It was definitely intimidating and very nasty.

I haven't been contacted since, but I it'll only be a matter of time.

Open_Eyes

Ste_C wrote: »

Forget the law and what you can and can't get away with, how about just doing what's fair? The TV licence funds some fantastic stuff. It's £150 a year, that's nothing.

Stop stressing about beating the system, pay it, and just enjoy your life.

But £150.00 is almost a quarter of the way to a 1kg silver ingot and appreciates in value. I am certainly not a militant but I am a big believer in “What goes around comes around” and the BBC needs a serious overhaul.

I have a prominent BBC figure living a few hundred yards away and a company top of the range vehicle is sat on the drive which isn’t even of British manufacture. I don’t dispute a company vehicle may be required but a better alternative could have been found for a fraction of the price and not at the expense of 7 licence fees per month. (Cheapest lease I could find)

The BBC produces some wonderful programming and there is a lucrative worldwide demand for this commodity. There is also a plethora of other funding options which could be explored with minimal impact to your viewing pleasure.

The BBC wear a comfortable pair of slippers and to tax law abiding citizens to watch alternative suppliers of live TV is an outdated system which should have been sorted out years ago. The BBC needs to get its house in order and the licence fee needs to be phased out inline with streamlining. I could think of a few realistic options that would save millions off the top of my head and I am not even thinking that hard.

PRS/PPL also had the same reality check with the onset of the digital age and as CD sales declined so did their revenue. Corporate’s tried to back pedal with Digital Rights Management and other lame alternatives but it was the lack of preparation that really stuffed them. The fat cats of the media industry virtually had a monopoly, and possibly ran cartels, but those days are gone and the cost of a digital something is now levelling out to a realistic figure.

masqueradingman

Hi,

I'd like to add to those others who have written about harrassment by centrica (TV Licensing).

I have hidden disabilities mainly complex PTSD & specific learning difficulties & I don't have a TV! I had one but the colour became B& W but it seems I MUST carry on paying for colour & when the TV conked out completely it seems I must also keep paing for colour!!! I've written to Lord Hall the new DG ([EMAIL="tony.hall@bbc.co.uk"]tony.hall@bbc.co.uk[/EMAIL]), got an automated acknowledgement but nothing else & I have written to the Equalities Minister, currently the Lib Dem, Jo Swinton MP until she takes maternity leave this xmas ( [EMAIL="enquiries@culture.gsi.gov.uk"]enquiries@culture.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL]) FAO: The Equalities Minister & in her role as a DCMS Minister re: TV Licensing psychological abuse & was simply told it had nothing to do with them. They sesnt me some irrelevant attachments! I'm now going to write to the disabilities Minister & then the Soliciter General & Attorney General, as well as Prof Underpants (Jeremy Paxman) but basically nobody seems to give a !!!! in this coalition or in the BBC!

There is a complaints process but this does not stop the harassment it actually intensifies it!

Does anybody know of any solicitors who have taken these people on got them to stop & won proper compensation because £10 is !!!!!! all for what they have done to me & not just once but twice (I had no TV at all when I 1st came to where I live 20 yrs ago & that was the 1st time they began to harass me.

I am seriously considering the use of a baseball bat to the side of one of their jaws! It may not be good for me legally but it will bring the Police in & become a media story, which may be what is needed to shame Centrica, the BBC & this joke of a coalition!

Please if anybody has successively sued any of them would you let me know?

Regards,

Masqueradingman

Dimey

Interested to find this thread.

I'm just starting an appeal because TV Licensing have refused to transfer an exemption for licence for a 90 year old lady for when she moves from one address to another. They sent a letter saying they are going to investigate her. And it looks like they expect her to pay for a full licence at her new address.

I've only today posted a letter (as Power of Attorney) asking for clarification and suggesting to them that investigating a 90 year old is excessive. If they want any information, they only need ask us.

I'll come back here for advice if it turns out I need it.

hgotsparkle

A few years ago (living with my nan who was elderly so therefore exempt from TV licencing) I purchased a freeview box for my room, obviously had to fill my details when I purchased for licencing purposes, though having used my name and not my nans as they wanted my ID.A couple of months later, I got a letter from TV licencing saying that I owe £143 because I do not have a licence. If they would have just checked the information on the property and me having the same surname as my nan, then they would have seen that one was already in place for the house. A 6 month long battle which eventually included my mum shouting down the phone to them and they finally understood.

lincroft1710

masqueradingman wrote: »

I'd like to add to those others who have written about harrassment by centrica (TV Licensing).

Unfortunately if you referred to Centrica in your correspondence, you may well have been ignored as it is Capita who deal with TV licensing.

likelyfran

Every TV licensing member of staff I've ever encountered has been extremely rude and pushy - and I've never dodged or tried to dodge paying my license.
And they DON'T know who has one or not from their pretend detector vans either!
If they ever come to my door again they'll get extremely short shrift and door slammed in their faces.

hollydays

I didn't have a tv for quite a while and I got the letters and did ring them back to confirm I DONT HAVE A TV. I responded to their rather overbearing manner -" we might come round" telling them they are welcome to come round as " I DONT HAVE A TV" , they then proceeded to tell me about how it's illegal to watch etc etc " DO NOT PHONE OR WRITE TO ME ANYMORE."