Questioned under caution by TV licensing guy - I have a TV licence

[mainlymoderate]

TV licensing guy turned up on doorstep and was very aggressive. I was so frightened I just answered his questions.

We'd moved very recently and have a TV licence, just hadn't notifiied TVL. I checked with them and that's no problem. The guy found the licence but then didn't seem able to control himself and began to ask me questions and fill in what I now realise was a caution sheet. Thankfully two people who were quoting for works to the flat turned up otherwise he would have entered the property. He asked me all kinds of personal questions in front of them. I know it sounds pathetic but I was just so frightened and confused by the whole thing, I signed the sheet of paper which I didn't even know was a caution sheet. I called TV licensing and they said once he knew I had a licence he should have stopped.

I reported him to the Police and they were shocked I'd been questioned under caution when I'd committed no offence. I was in tears. I also feel such a fool for not having understood what was going on and allowing myself to be intimidated.

I read up on it afterwards and discovered that BBC outsource this to Capita. The DG of the BBC ordered an investigation into their tactics last year. But it looks as though they are still operating in same way and they actually target vulnerable people. I've always been a supporter of the BBC but this experience has shocked me. Should the BBC really be allowed to outsource to Capita knowing how they operate?

Crapita were outsourced to look after medical records in my area. They have lost them

There are times - admittedly not many - when words completely fail me, and the trusting of such sensitive data to such a company is one of them

Good luck in hearing back from them, mainlymoderate. Doubtless they'll have to pluck the complaint from the waste bin first, and doubtless you'll get a screed of platitudes at best

SchadenfreudePersonified yes, they get bonuses based on "sales":

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39100048

*@IcedPurple, you misunderstand how the UK law works

Hate to break it to you, but there is no such thing as UK law, and especially not in relation to criminal law

a horrible, exploitative, over-reaching, greed-driven company acts badly, so the answer is to abolish a reliable public institution?

Who said anything about abolishing the institution? It's the paid licence which some have said should be scrapped, and the alternative is certainly not some system of taxpayer funding (which was an ironic suggestion since the TV licence is effectively a tax anyway)

The alternative is for the BBC to organise funding for themselves - you know, like countless other corporations have to - and quit pretending to provide some special, exalted "public service"

Okay, you want to privatise it instead. Make it a voice for the wealthy. Much better.

I had a really bad experience with one of these idiots once. I sent a formal complaint about said idiot and received a great apology back.

OP Try to use this nasty experience to gain something positive out of it.
Look at it this way: You have learned never to open your door to ANYONE without a prior appointment.
This is valuable, particularly if you are on your own for any reason.
Any older woman on her own is a soft target.
These BS are careful to pick victims who are not going to hit back. They don't want a kick in the groin or a poke with your crutch (joking)
Learn from this. Buy a chain for that front door tomorrow.
Forewarned is forearmed.

Okay, you want to privatise it instead. Make it a voice for the wealthy. Much better.

You are hilarious.

@Jenny17, if anything the licence fee is fairer than most other taxes, in that at least you can opt out of it if you choose not to have a TV or watch the BBC via iPlayer. You can't opt out of paying, say, VAT or income tax if you don't use all the services they are spent on.

The alternative is for the BBC to organise funding for themselves - you know, like countless other corporations have to - and quit pretending to provide some special, exalted "public service"

The BBC undoubtedly puts on programmes that no commercial broadcaster would contemplate producing because they wouldn't attract enough viewers or listeners to get advertising revenue. That in itself is a valuable service. The fact that we can watch/listen without having to sit through hours of adverts is a massive bonus. At around 41p per household per day it's incredibly good value - much better value than we get out of the commercial channels, and we don't get any say in what we pay out for them via increased prices on goods and services we buy.

I've had similar, for an address that doesn't even exist! My address is covered but it's a house split into 2 flats with prefix flat 1 and flat 2 and then the street number and the road. So mine is flat 1, 1 Any Street. That's the address that's licenced as it's where I live.
Had two thugs at seperate times threatening court, cautions and fines. I showed them the digital licence as I did it all online, and that my address, flat 1, 1 Any Street is licenced. They agreed that that address was licenced, as well as flat 2, 1 Any Street, but that 1 Any Street wasn't licenced - it wouldn't be because it doesn't exist.
In the end I told them to go ahead and take me to court for not having a license on a house that a) I don't live in or am responsible for and b) doesn't actually exist and see how far they got.
I couldn't seem to get the people on the phone to understand either, I don't think it's that hard a concept!
I have insisted on a paper copy of my licence and I keep it with my tenancy agreement now, so next one to show up will get shown those. Don't suppose it'll suffice for them but essentially as you, and I have done nothing wrong then it really can't go any further because it can be proven you're licenced.

Oh bigger we had that too. Flat A and Flat B both had licences, no licence for number 2. Because it isn’t an address. Apparently their brains couldn’t cope with that, and my neighbour spent ages on the doorstep arguing with them.

We don’t have a TV now (haven’t since analogue signal was switched off, we bought a freeview box and digital aerial but still couldn’t get a signal so we took it back to Argos). We get letters all the time, but nobody’s ever turned up. Or maybe they have, we don’t have a doorbell either so if you don’t have our mobile numbers there’s no way of alerting us that you’re outside.

These people turn up at peoples doors with absolutely zero evidence and make statements that they know the householdwr has a television.

It's an utter disgrace that they are allowed to do this.

I'm seriously considering cancelling my annual direct debit and letting them try their charm on me.

We shouldn't be getting forced to subscribe to their service before being allowed to own a telly anyway in this day and age considering the amount of alternatives there are to the old boys network.

You were not over reacting at all.

Please don't beat yourself up. This is all on the psychopath employee of Capita you had the terrible misfortune to encounter.

Is there an Ombudsman you could lodge a complaint with?

@saturdaynext

There is no such thing as opting out. Not paying yes opting out no.

Letters, visits by capita and dodgy tactics taking people to court. We've seen videos of people who do not watch tv, let the thugs in who then connect up the service declare that tv can be watched and then take it further.

It makes no sense that a hotel only needs to buy one but a house with locks on the door needs multiple. It is unfair that a single person pays the same amount as a family of x adults. It's unfair that our taxes went to support the Jimmy Seville's of this world. It's unfair that we are paying for programmes nobody wants to watch.

TIME TO SCRAP THE TV LICENCE

@TheCounter

We shouldn't be getting forced to subscribe to their service before being allowed to own a telly

On a small point of pedantry - it's perfectly legal to own a telly and not have a licence. The key is in what you do with the telly.

The BBC undoubtedly puts on programmes that no commercial broadcaster would contemplate producing because they wouldn't attract enough viewers or listeners to get advertising revenue

Good to know that advertising is the only business model. Those crazy Netflix people, it will never catch on.

@ReflectentMonatomism

Also the way some folk bang on you'd think the BBC never advertises.

I listen to Radio 4 and 5 quite a lot - they are both liberally littered with pushy adverts for other BBC programmes including utter shite like Eastenders as if it was the most important thing in the world.

And that's without the adverts for the licence fee.

FarAwayFromTheMidnightAir

Are you sure that email was from the BBC? It sounds very suspicious and there are scammy emails going around purporting to be from the tv licence people.

This is awful OP. Please do also write to to your MP. I know they are busy with Brexit, but it is the kind of thing they need to know about being a form of state operated harassment.

to you

So in just about 4 hours you managed to get replies from
The BBC
The police
The CEO of Capita
Your husband
A mumsnet thread
Not bad for someone who is scared out of their wits.
You now only need the Daily Mail on your side and you’re sorted.

Good to know that advertising is the only business model. Those crazy Netflix people, it will never catch on.

Are you using the Netflix too? That's two of us. I just wish they'd start putting some actual programming on, it's pretty annoying that they take my money and then just show me a blank screen.

Ooh, another Saskia - hello, namesake

The BBC undoubtedly puts on programmes that no commercial broadcaster would contemplate ... that in itself is a valuable service

I take your point, and back when access to information/entertainment was more restricted I might have agreed. But with countless other sources in the 21st century it just doesn't wash any more

FWIW I do agree about the irritation of endless adverts, but as PPs have said, this isn't the only alternative. Easier, though, to just sit back and take the money when it's supplied by a de facto tax

I got full on taken to court before because I'd just moved and the tv license man appeared and said I don't have one, I said no, you're correct - reason for that is that I don't have a tv (it got broken when being put in storage when I moved out of my last address) and when I get one. I will phone up and get a tv license, like I always have done. He answered a load of questions on his paper as though it was me and even signed it as me! It was an absolute farce!

I do agree about the irritation of endless adverts

So do I - endless adverts for how great the BBC is - on the BBC.