Am I a deviant in need of compulsory re-education?

bompington
bompington Posts: 7,674
edited October 2009 in The bottom bracket
[rant]
The TV license people were round today while we were out. They've been sending me threatening letters monthly for ages now, strongly worded threats of prosecution, fines, all the rest.

Of course if you look closely at the small print you can find the bit where it says you don't have to pay if you don't have a TV.

Now you can contact them about almost anything through their website, or send back a pre-paid reply to pay up, but to say "I have no TV" you need to phone a 08xxx number or write to them at your own expense. And it doesn't make any difference to what happens next - they still come knocking on your door either way, so why bother?.

It's only pennies but they have made me feel a bit unreasonable here, I do not intend to spend a penny of my money to inform them that I am one of those strange people who doesn't have a TV.

I also have no intention of informing the CAA that the reason I don't have a pilot's license is that I don't fly planes, but at least I haven't received any letters from the police telling me that I am a wicked criminal about to get locked up but if I come down to the station and tell them that I'm not, well maybe that'll be OK
[/rant]

Comments

  • clanton
    clanton Posts: 1,289
    We seem to have stopped recieving the letters now thankfully. We used to get one a year saying pay your licence, we'd reply got no TV, they'd say fine but we're coming to check so you'd better pay or else, and then never pitch up at all.

    So I'm surprised they actually came round to you.
  • tebbit
    tebbit Posts: 604
    No your perfectly normal, but the retards can't get it into their heads that not everybody has a tv, I used to get home from visiting my father when he was in the last stages of cancer and I'd return home to these letters threatening me about no TV licence. I have very bitter memories of it.

    They used to have a rotation of letters, first pleasant, second slightly annoying and the third very threatening, then three months later it would start over again.

    Why don't you have a TV licence

    Cos I don't have a f***king television!

    No need to swear!

    F***k off!!
  • ride_whenever
    ride_whenever Posts: 13,279
    Just ignore them, they don't have the manpower to do anything about it.

    If you inform them and they continue to harass you then you take them to court.
    Neeermad
    Carbon 456
    456 lefty
    Pompino
    White Inbred
  • Old Pedaller
    Old Pedaller Posts: 104
    I finally got fed up enough to point out to them that there was little point in coming round and leaving calling cards while, like many, I was out at work. When they finally twigged and came round in the evening it was a farce - they only looked in one room - I could have had any number of sets in the bedrooms.

    I think the line I liked best in one of the letters was something like "sometimes people realise that they do have a TV after all".
  • freehub
    freehub Posts: 4,257
    They're scum.
  • downfader
    downfader Posts: 3,686
    I'll say what I said before about TV licenses - waste of any authories' or companies' resources. They should do away with them and bring in advertising on the BBC, or allow TVs to be sold without BBC channels.

    Anyway.. their days are numbered as the internet is now the no1 daddy in most houses thesdays.
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    downfader wrote:
    I'll say what I said before about TV licenses - waste of any authories' or companies' resources. They should do away with them and bring in advertising on the BBC, or allow TVs to be sold without BBC channels.

    Anyway.. their days are numbered as the internet is now the no1 daddy in most houses thesdays.

    I'm not a massive fan of the BBC these days, but I'd prefer to have at least one channel which is publicly funded to provide some quality stuff. In particular the BBC's wildlife documentaries, which are 4,780 689 times better than anybody else's.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,602
    Why do they bother taking your name and address when you buy a TV if they then send letters to everyone anyway!
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    Pross wrote:
    Why do they bother taking your name and address when you buy a TV if they then send letters to everyone anyway!

    This peed me off when I bought a telly last. That Comet wanted my name, address, DoB all that jazz for the privelgae of giving them £400. I guard my privacy jealously, I won't have abloody Nectar card because it'sa massive data gathering exercise, I won't give out my address or details to anybody who isn't entitled to it.

    So after going round and round the loop of "As far as you're concerned, I'm a man with £400 who is willing to give it to you in exchange for goods"

    "I can't sell you it wthout that information"

    "What are you gonna use it for?"

    "Dunno"

    "Then you can't have it"

    "I've got money..."

    I walked out and bought it in a different shop.

    As for the TV licensing people, stuff em. I haven't paid a license fee since they spent god knows how much on Celebrity Dog School.
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • desweller
    desweller Posts: 5,175
    As a point of fact you still need a TV licence to receive live broadcasts over the interweb, but not for downloading them afterwards.

    But yes, I remember having all those letters. I would have been happy to inform them of my no-TV status, but the first letter they sent me was so fantastically rude I decided to let them waste their time instead. You don't have to tell them, you haven't done anything wrong, just bin their letters when they arrive and have a chuckle over how stupid they're gonna look if they pursue it!

    johnfinch, +1 on the BBC NHU output, although the soundtrack on the latest Life series is laid on a bit thick! Planet Earth had me glued to the screen though, superlative in every way.
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  • Mothyman
    Mothyman Posts: 655
    ...it all boils down to the rudeness and attitiude of the letters..they are written assuming guilt, not innocence....
    i wouldnt reply to a rude letter at my own expense either.
  • balthazar
    balthazar Posts: 1,565
    I didn't buy a license for a while, simply because I refused to recognise those infuriating, disgustingly rude letters. I do support the BBC in principle, however, so I swallow my pride and pay up now – but I'd much prefer that it was collected by the BBC*, rather than by some thuggish collection agency.

    *You know, by David Attenborough personally, or something.
  • simple_salmon
    simple_salmon Posts: 457
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    As for the TV licensing people, stuff em. I haven't paid a license fee since they spent god knows how much on Celebrity Dog School.

    And yet you wonder why the shop tried so hard to get your details. Why should I pay extra so that people who feel 'aggrieved' can get away with paying nothing? :roll:
  • TommyEss
    TommyEss Posts: 1,855
    balthazar wrote:
    I didn't buy a license for a while, simply because I refused to recognise those infuriating, disgustingly rude letters. I do support the BBC in principle, however, so I swallow my pride and pay up now – but I'd much prefer that it was collected by the BBC*, rather than by some thuggish collection agency.

    *You know, by David Attenborough personally, or something.

    He's worth the license fee alone, isn't he?
    Cannondale Synapse 105, Giant Defy 3, Giant Omnium, Giant Trance X2, EMC R1.0, Ridgeback Platinum, On One Il Pompino...
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    simple_salmon wrote:
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    As for the TV licensing people, stuff em. I haven't paid a license fee since they spent god knows how much on Celebrity Dog School.

    And yet you wonder why the shop tried so hard to get your details. Why should I pay extra so that people who feel 'aggrieved' can get away with paying nothing? :roll:

    Calm down, I have an arrangement now whereby the missus pays it and I pay for other stuff.

    For two years back there, you had a point though
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • simple_salmon
    simple_salmon Posts: 457
    Fair enough; I have a similar arrangement with my missus where she pays the bills and I pay for bike kit :lol:
  • clanton
    clanton Posts: 1,289
    simple_salmon wrote:
    Fair enough; I have a similar arrangement with my missus where she pays the bills and I pay for bike kit :lol:

    At first I thought - mad I want a missue slike that! Then I realsied that I would actually just impoverish me if I had a free run with the bike stuff..... :oops:
  • desweller
    desweller Posts: 5,175
    TommyEss wrote:
    balthazar wrote:
    I didn't buy a license for a while, simply because I refused to recognise those infuriating, disgustingly rude letters. I do support the BBC in principle, however, so I swallow my pride and pay up now – but I'd much prefer that it was collected by the BBC*, rather than by some thuggish collection agency.

    *You know, by David Attenborough personally, or something.

    He's worth the license fee alone, isn't he?

    Hell, yes.

    PS His autobiog is well worth a read.
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  • downfader
    downfader Posts: 3,686
    Wheres that Monty Python clip when you need it..? :lol:

    I dont agree on the wildlife documentary thing tbh. I prefer the stuff on Channel 5 and from the independent tv crews thesedays. I'm a bit sick of lions in the serengetti (sp?) being filmed for the upteenth time in a year. I like the quirky little animals and stuff you rarely see.
  • robdaykin
    robdaykin Posts: 102
    If you have told them that you have not got a TV, then this may be of interest:

    http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Malicious+prosecution

    If they have no reason to re-contact you, such as beng notified that you have bought a TV, then I'd like to see how they respond to an offer to see them in court...

    Yep, I too have had the threatening letters, but I'm alright now... ?

    Any lawyers care to comment?
  • Crapaud
    Crapaud Posts: 2,483
    downfader wrote:
    Wheres that Monty Python clip when you need it..? :lol:
    Not the Nine O'clock News: Points of View :roll:

    :wink:
    A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject - Churchill
  • downfader
    downfader Posts: 3,686
    Crapaud wrote:
    downfader wrote:
    Wheres that Monty Python clip when you need it..? :lol:
    Not the Nine O'clock News: Points of View :roll:

    :wink:

    You know, I was sure Eric Idle did something similar. :lol:
  • UncleFred
    UncleFred Posts: 227
    Ok, I'm going to move back to the UK at the end of year.

    I'm not going to get freeview or sky, but am planning on buying an internet enabled TV for watching iPlayer stuff.

    So do I need a license?
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    UncleFred wrote:
    Ok, I'm going to move back to the UK at the end of year.

    I'm not going to get freeview or sky, but am planning on buying an internet enabled TV for watching iPlayer stuff.

    So do I need a license?
    Yes is the correct legal answer - if you watch or record live TV, or watch it live on the internet you need a license. You do not need a license to watch iPlayer stuff that is not live.
    Of course whether they can catch you at it is another matter...
  • Spiny_Norman
    Spiny_Norman Posts: 128
    bompington wrote:
    Now you can contact them about almost anything through their website, or send back a pre-paid reply to pay up, but to say "I have no TV" you need to phone a 08xxx number or write to them at your own expense.
    If anyone tries to force you to use one of those sodding 08xxx numbers to get in touch with them, just head over to Say No To 0870, stick the number you were given into their search database, and they'll invariably come up with a "normal" equivalent number to use.
    N00b commuter with delusions of competence

    FCN 11 - If you scalp me, do I not bleed?
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    Spiny_Norman wrote:
    If anyone tries to force you to use one of those sodding 08xxx numbers to get in touch with them, just head over to Say No To 0870, stick the number you were given into their search database, and they'll invariably come up with a "normal" equivalent number to use.
    I'm a great fan of saynoto0870, I use it frequently... when I want to find out a number. I have no desire to speak to these people, so I'm not making the effort.
    Like I said, irrational to the point of downright immature, but that's how this whole business makes me feel.
  • Shezzer
    Shezzer Posts: 229
    I thought if you had a web enabled PC you needed a TV licence? Whether or not you actually watch live broadcasts on it you have the ability to ... or something like that. I'm no lawyer though.

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