Buying your first TV Llicense - Authorised scam

dis.appointed

Hi all, did you know that if you were to buy your first TV license for a new property on the last day of the month you would only get 11 months license coverage for your money?

I brought the subject up with the TV licensing people and this is what they said,

"Television licences are issued subject to terms and conditions laid down by the Licensing Authority. New licences are always dated to expire twelve months from the first day of the month in which they were bought. When renewed, the original expiry date is retained. This can mean that the first licence may run for less than twelve months.

This system of dating is used so that licences expire on one of twelve monthly dates rather than on any day of the year. To operate a system of 365 possible expiry dates would be very costly in terms of administration and enforcement."

Surely, if they are incapable of creating an efficient system to operate renewals in a fair way they should absorb the cost themselves and set the anniversary date to the end of the month in which the first license was purchased.

This organisation must have made millions of pounds from this little scam so I would advise anyone to buy their first TV license at the beginning of the month to avoid being ripped off.

Pollycat

Was it clear in any paperwork that you filled in or on the website that this would happen?

If not, I'd agree that this is a sneaky way to generate extra revenue.
I guess buying car tax is the same thing, as that is on a month-by-month basis too.

moonrakerz

I am afraid the response you got from TV Licensing is up to their usual high standards of arrogant/bullying behaviour.

I wouldn't bother trying to get any more sense out of them - however I would suggest that you write to your MP about this bunch of "licensed" cowboys. I did, and it would appear that my MP has already had a considerable number of complaints to date.

Lip_Stick

I remember bringing this issue up a few years ago with TV Licencing when I first bought mine. IIRC I'd bought mine at the end of the month after moving into my flat so lost out by nearly a month. Is it really that hard to generate renewals when most things are automatically processed by computer?

moonrakerz

Lip_Stick wrote: »

Is it really that hard to generate renewals when most things are automatically processed by computer?

Their latest threatening "advert" on TV claims:- "It's all in the data base" - but only 12 dates by the look of it !!

CamillaInLondon

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, am planning on moving out within a year so hopefully i'll remember this when i get my first TV license.