Bilsdale transmitter down

Briskly

But the whole point is that under the current system they lose 3 weeks money if they cancel. In a forum designed to help people save money I am amazed at the hostile reaction to this.

NSG666

Briskly said:

But the whole point is that under the current system they lose 3 weeks money if they cancel. In a forum designed to help people save money I am amazed at the hostile reaction to this.

If your car gets crashed into and written off on the 1st of the month you lose a whole months road tax it's just the way it is and that's different as it's linked to a specific car.

Take a look at posts about claims for vehicle emissions if you want to see a hostile reaction. Money saving yes, trying it on no.

I read the other day that there are about 0.5M users on the MSE forum. If they are evenly spread across all age groups and all areas of the UK that means there are c. 3250 in the Bilsdale transmitter area that are on here with 3248 of them remaining silent.

Neil_Jones

Briskly said:

But the whole point is that under the current system they lose 3 weeks money if they cancel. In a forum designed to help people save money I am amazed at the hostile reaction to this.

All systems suck given enough time.  In fact everything in this life sucks to one degree or another.  No system is perfect.  Somebody will always lose out under any system, there are always edge cases.

Briskly

NSG666 said:

Briskly said:

But the whole point is that under the current system they lose 3 weeks money if they cancel. In a forum designed to help people save money I am amazed at the hostile reaction to this.

If your car gets crashed into and written off on the 1st of the month you lose a whole months road tax it's just the way it is and that's different as it's linked to a specific car.

Take a look at posts about claims for vehicle emissions if you want to see a hostile reaction. Money saving yes, trying it on no.

I read the other day that there are about 0.5M users on the MSE forum. If they are evenly spread across all age groups and all areas of the UK that means there are c. 3250 in the Bilsdale transmitter area that are on here with 3248 of them remaining silent.

It shoudn't be the way it is with car tax either. In the digital age the tax should be charged and refunded on a daily basis. We shouldn't have to put up with these archaic systems which disfavour the consumer. I would imagine that most of the affected people have no idea of the clumsy cancellation process.

matelodave

I guess your only answer is to write to your MP and lobby parliament coz non of us can do anything about it except listen (or read) your rants.

wild666

That could see up to 1 million people cancel their licences! 

wild666

southsidergs said:

I seriously doubt it's going to go on for months, it's been a fire so yes they have to sort certain things out & make sure it's safe first so not exactly a quick fix but they'll want to resolve it asap

They were advising to use catch-up services to view the content but I think lots of people will just cancel their licences and use on-demand saving them £159 this year. They might have to sign up to the services but if they don't watch the live as shown content or iPlayer they will be fine. 

I am entering my 34th year year licence free I succumbed to the licence between Aug 2011 and Aug 2016 only because I got BT vision with free sport for 18 months. Those 34 years have saved me over £3200 going on the payments those previous 33/34 years.  

wild666

Why?? Catchup etc is still available

You need an internet connection to get the catch-up services so those without the internet will be unable to get any TV. Smart TV's have a wi-fi card to connect to the internet. 

Money_Grabber13579

wild666 said:

Why?? Catchup etc is still available

You need an internet connection to get the catch-up services so those without the internet will be unable to get any TV. Smart TV's have a wi-fi card to connect to the internet. 

How many out of the 1m people do you think don’t have internet? It will be measured in the hundreds, if not less.  Granted, if you were one of those people, you might have a right to be disgruntled about continuing to pay (in which case you cancel). Yes, the system might mean that they lose out by about £10 but I can’t see that anyone will be persuaded to do anything about it, as the cost of changing systems to calculate the fee daily would no doubt cost millions, as that is what any system change seems to cost these days, with any upside to the consumer being negligible.

However, everyone else who has internet needs to continue paying (unless they suddenly decide not to watch live TV, relevant catch up services etc).

Cornucopia

It's not just about catch-up, though.

There must be quite a few households that have Sky, Freesat or VM who will not be dependent on the failed transmitter.

And the issue with that is that TV Licensing have no idea how people receive TV - therefore any notion of an automatic refund fails before it's even started.