To be really pissed off at TV licensing??

[BatmansWilly]

I have always been against having to pay for a TV license. I think its stupid that you are forced to pay for a channel you neither want nor use but as it is 'law' I always had one begrudgingly anyway.

But after christmas I deciding I wasn't prepared to pay for something I never used anymore. Money is tight enough as it is so I got rid of the cables so to the TV literally does not receive signals. I then cancelled my TV license.

Days later I got a letter from them saying there was no license at this address and I needed to buy one immediately I phoned and told them I didn't need one as I no longer used the TV. She said "that's fine, I'll pass that on"

A couple of days later another letter arrives. A reminder to buy a TV license ASAP or my details would be passed on to enforcement officers so I phoned again and told them I had no intentions of buying a license as I did not need one. She said "ok, but be aware someone might come around to check". I said "that's fine".

So a couple of days ago, a bloke turns up asking why I had no license. I told him I didn't need one. He checked the TV over and agreed that it was obvious it wasn't used HOWEVER he told me "you may as well just buy a licence anyway though because they'll never leave you alone otherwise" I said that's like saying you may as well buy car tax whether you drive or not! I would not pay for something I didn't use. He agreed with me 'in principle' but said "if you want my honest advice, I'd just reconnect the wires so you can use the telly and buy yourself a licence"

He put it down on his report that I didn't use the TV and didn't legally need a licence.

So this morning I got a letter saying:

"Despite numerous warnings there is still no licence at this address. Therefore I have passed your details on to the enforcement officers who will be visiting you sometime soon. We catch thousands of licence dodgers every day, YOU could be next. To avoid a fine, please call us immediately to buy your licence".

FFS! I feel like a fucking benefit fraudster. I will not be bullied into buying something I do not want. I am absolutely LIVID.

AIBU???

We have been renovating a practially derelict house for 5 years. In that 5 years we have had every kind of letter and visit you can imagine from the tv licensing people. In the end dp let them in to see that the house didn't even have any electric sockets let alone a tv to plug in them!

In that time we were living at my house with a tv licence. We moved to the (still partiall derelict ha ha) other house in October. I rang up the licensing people to say 'this licence needs to be transferred to this other address cos we are moving there and taking the tv with us. This house will be empty while we do it up so don't bug us for a licence'.

Not even a week passed before i the letters started.

AND ANOTHER THING. In my area to get the digital channels bbc 3 4, cbeebies, bbc news etc that we supposedly pay the farking licence fee for, we can't get a digital signal. So we are paying for bbc channels that we can't get because THEY haven't upgraded the transmitters with our licence money!! So we've had to cough up for a freesat dish to get channels that we are already paying for.

We bought a digi box for my mum and they had to take the address it was bought for, because by law anyone who sells contraptions capable of receiving a tv signal, must inform the licensing people so they can check if the buyer has a licence.

Aaaarghghghghghghghgh.

I mean, I think it's unfair to watch iplayer without a license fee. Legal but essential unethical in my opinion!

The regulations state that the license fee is for equipment capable of receiving a tv signal - I think its only a matter of time before they update the regulations to include watching it on iplayer..

What's sad is the whole rest of the world thinks the bbc is the last bastion of journalistic objectivity and a cultural jewel in our crown.
We don't seem to appreciate what we have.
Although I don't support the harrassment by tv licensing either!

My parents have never had a tv and yet a few years ago started getting harassed. I don't know why they suddenly thought that my parents were being dishonest after 30 odd years of married life.

yeah, the silly thing is I half agree, given how great BBC radio is/can be. We watch very little TV on iPlayer (less than one programme a week) but I listen to lots of radio, most of it BBC. But if we got a license it would seem absurd to have it and not have TV. And I don't want TV.

To the op - that they are being so hopeless

I stopped ours last year, I have had one letter since and no further contact! So they arent always hopeless (probably just most of the time!)

No, you don't need a licence if you watch iPlayer - if you look at the website coppertop linked to it says "You must be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record television programmes as they're being shown on TV" (my emphasis) iPlayer doesn't have things on until after they've been shown.

Nor do you need a licence if you have a TV which doesn't recieve broadcast signals - my brother has a TV he occasionally watches videos on, and sometimes gets visits - they have always confirmed that he doesn't need a licence. Though at first they are always reluctant to believe he doesn't have a TV aerial, as he does have a 40 foot aerial mast in his back garden for his amateur radio (for which he does have a licence)

Well, we pay our license fee and I'm happy to do so - Doctor Who is my own personal justification, but that's neither here nor there - but I can't bloody well watch iplayer.

Because my ISP is using an american proxy server wotsit. So for anyone watching iplayer in this country without a license, you can put it on my tab, given that I can't sodding well enjoy the privilege.

angry Kay? Need a nice calming cuppa?

I'm all in favour of the licence fee itself, just not the rude, ignorant twerps who run TV Licensing and will NOT stop sending you letters when you either do not have a TV or actually have a bloody licence that you have paid for!

I haven't read everyones responses, but I know how you feel. I haven't had a Tv for years now and each time we move I end up having letters going backwards and forwards for weeks. They never believe me and it always ends in a threatening letter saying that I will be visited under caution. The first time that happened I was pg and it worried me so much that my Mum waded in and got in touch with them (you dont mess with my Mum!). Anyway, as it is, I have never had a visit. I dont own a TV, so they have nothing to check.

I cannot believe that he said that you ought to buy one just to shut the TV licensing people up.

Just stick to your guns and they will stop.

They just dont seem to care if they harass innocent people

when we moved house we phoned the mad licencing people and told them to change the address... They did and dutifully sent us a new licence within 2 days with new address on it. very efficient

but..

then the letters started.. every time we got one we phoned them and they said oh yes its on our system we can see it .. you wont get any more letters. They kept coming.. we started answering by letter , and we got written confirmation we had a licence but still the letters of demand came

And then 7pm one night I was in myself and heavily pregnant when I got 2 big burly guys at my door demanding I pay them £200 fine immediately

They werent exactly apologetic either when I produced my licence.

That seemed to stop the letters for a while. Then we bought a digibox as a present for my dad and the letters started again

Thats when we realised.. the licence is tied to the house but when you buy a new tv as we did for the new house or a digibox the retailer asks for your name. The retailer passes the name but not the address to the licencing eejits.

Our licence has hubbys name on it but we had purchased the tv and digibox with my name. Took us over a year to get them off our case

Years ago I moved into a flatshare. The other people hadn't bothered to get a TV licence. Stupidly, on the grounds that I'm the unlucky one who would get caught out if I didn't pay up, I applied for one. Only to get a deluge of increasingly threatening letters, despite telling then again and again I had a sodding licene! None of my flatmates who had been viewing without a licence was ever bothered...