Another TV licence one

[SoUncertain]

Hi all, I just got a letter through saying an email address linked to my house has been used to watch iPlayer in recent weeks. It doesn't say what the email address is.

I don't watch iPlayer or live TV. I barely have time to watch my Netflix subscription.

We have lived here for 8 years, but still get debt collection letters for the previous owners, despite returning them to sender. I'm wondering if they have used one of their email addresses previously linked to my home.

i've already completed the declaration that we don't watch anything that needs a licence. I really don't need the stress of expecting them to turn up and check at any moment, or court or anything else.

My question is should I contact the BBC and discuss further, or should I ignore and expect some scary person turning up at the door?

It could be a scam. Wss there a link asking for you to pay it?

Considering the dirty tricks played by the firms to whom BBC TV licensing is contracted, I'd suspect they've just made it up to try to worry and bully you into buying a licence. It's probably a generic letter sent to lots of homes without TV licences in the hope that some people will be bullied into buying one.

What do you mean?

I think it’s exactly how it works.

My mum bought a house two weeks before lockdown with the plan of putting in new bathrooms and a kitchen before moving in. It ended up completely empty for well over a year and she had countless letters from TV licensing telling her that they knew she was watching tv there and that her email address was being used to watch iplayer.

Ignore all and every letter and if they do come to the door say no I don't need a license and shut the door. Don't engage. I stopped paying 8 or so years ago. We don't watch live TV and I find the BBC too biased. I signed the declaration a couple of times but it doesn't stop the harassment so now I just ignore. I've had 1 visit and 100s of letters saying all sorts of nonsense.

Yup, they did that to my son who genuinely never watches live TV nor iPlayer. They wrote him all kinds of letters threatening legal action, inspection visits, etc. They didn't know his name as he never engaged with them, yet they still pretended that he'd used his email address at that address - considering they don't know his name, there's no way they genuinely had evidence he'd used his email address to watch iPlayer.

The BBC do not write letters. To anyone. It's not Blue Peter.

I don’t to now about anyone else but none of my email addresses have any link to my home address. Clearly a scam or blah if it’s legit from the beeb.

Oh sorry, I mean the TV licensing people. It was addressed to me at my address, so I believe it's legit.

Thanks for your replies everyone. From what I've read, emails are linked to homes if someone has used their email address to declare they do or do not need a TV licence.

I will ignore it and turn them away if they turn up. It's awful that they're allowed to get away with harassing people. I've read of people paying it when they don't even need it, just to avoid the constant hassle.

They cannot come into your home. Their Right of entry is implied bollocks until they actually manage to get a magistrates warrant. Ignore them and if they turn up at your door ask for the warrant of entry.

It's disgusting that the company representing what is supposedly a highly respected official British institution are no better than scammers - who will send out emails, texts and even letters telling what they know are almost certainly lies (or at the very least they have no idea whatsoever if they are true), in the hope that somebody will either have done what they're blanket-accusing every recipient of their letters and/or will be terrified and pay up even if they legitimately do not need a licence.

Again, just like the scammers, they're deliberately preying on people who may be vulnerable, have learning disabilities or cognitive decline, elderly and not very savvy about how modern inter-connected life often works or similar circumstances.

Imagine for one moment that the UK government awarded a contract and gave free-rein to one of the disgusting Indian call centres that are extremely well-known to Scam Interceptors... you're not all that far off the reality.

We pay for our licence, because we do legitimately use a lot of BBC services and thus need one for our household; but when the TV licence model is finally scrapped as no-longer sustainable in the modern media age and it switches to subscriptions (almost certainly within the next 10 years, if not 5), a whole load of vulnerable people will at least be protected from bullying and gaslighting from on high.

I have had some very convincing scam emails from TV Licensing. The email address is always a random one. I just forward it to [email protected]

If it were genuine, I would still ignore it.

Slightly off-topic but does anyone remember those adverts pre-digital era about vans that could detect if people were watching TV? Surely that was a lie? I can’t see how this would have worked.

Yes, they've since admitted that they were all a great big lie - designed to deceive people into buying a licence (whether they technically needed one or not).

Considering that they were acting directly on behalf of the BBC - and that they kept up this lie for years - I presume the BBC will put their hands up and have a big programme exposing it, as part of their 'you know that you can trust us to always tell you the truth' narrative...

The TV Licensing website states that they still use vans.

Detector vans
We also have a fleet of detector vans that can detect the use of TV receiving equipment at specifically targeted addresses within minutes.

Go onto the TV licensing website, fill in the form to say you don’t need a license, job done.

Just ignore them - it’s really not something to get yourself stressed about.

Except it isn't. If, and it's a big if, they accept the online form without a paper follow up title only lasts 2 years and they ask you to do it again. In my experience filling out that form makes very little difference they still write incessantly and visit occasionally.

I had some letters, filled in the form online and not heard a peep since 🤷‍♀️ In my experience it was as simple as that.

Except you're then giving them personal details which they may use against you, i.e. your name, email address, etc. There've been court cases where part of the evidence used to convict was such a form stating they didn't need a TV licence and then the enforcers caught them and used their statement against them. Far better just to ignore them completely, don't give them any personal information, not even your name, and certainly no kinds of statements they can use against you. Their own statistics show that most of their successful court cases were based on admissions from the householder, i.e. admitting they watch live TV, etc rather than third party evidence or their own evidence. If you keep your mouth shut, don't let them in, and don't engage with them at all, they've really very little to get you with!

They've always claimed that, though (except in small moments of honesty - and that may well have been ex-employees rather than them themselves).

For a supposedly reputable organisation and part of the establishment, they quite merrily tell blatant lies in their adverts, letters and website info if they think that they might reel in more revenue - whether from people who have been avoiding paying or from those who have just been terrified into paying up when they never needed to.

As I said, we personally do use the services that require a licence, so we buy a licence without any fuss; but I would never trust anything they as an organisation say for a second.

I haven't had a licence for years. They send me a letter every year and I dutifully tick some box online to say I don't need one. Shouldn't have to and it pees me off, but it does mean I don't hear another peep out of them until the following year.

I’ve not had a tv licence for years either and haven’t had any visits. I do complete the form every couple of years though.

On the subject of the detector vans, there is a large museum storage facility not far from me and they actually have a very old ‘detector van’ as one of their exhibits. I’m pretty sure the guide said it had nothing in it! It’s quite cool though.

They seem to arbitrarily decide whom they will believe and whom they are convinced are lying about not needing a licence and thus chase doggedly.

It is indeed disgusting, though, that they go from the arrogant assumption that everybody wants and uses their service unless they tell them that they don't.

Netflix advertise in the hope that you'll choose them and pay to sign up; but if you don't want their service, they don't hound you demanding to know why you haven't signed up and paid. If they did, everybody would see just how ludicrous it is the way TV Licensing operates.

It might have been the case in decades gone by that pretty much everybody did watch the BBC (and other live TV); but now there are thousands of lifetimes' worth of TV programming available - even without the paid-for subscription services like Netflix or Disney+ - they really should realise that they are just one tiny option out of millions out there.