TV licencing visit/light rant

[Pebbles167]

Hi all.

Had a visit from a TV licence employee yesterday. Surprising in itself as in the past all I'd ever recieved is nasty letters threatening a visit, and more surprising as we actually have a TV licence that my girlfriend takes care of.

Anyway. Guy turns up at the door, expecting a package I answer politely, confirm my name and he asks if my partner is in, and states who he is and that we recently cancelled our licence. I said that I didn't think we had, at which point he pulls out his forms and starts jotting stuff down saying he'll need to go through it with me and I'll need to sign.

At this point I assumed that something had got messed up in our recent change of address and so we're potentially unlicensed, and not wanting to potentially incriminate either myself or my girlfriend with their dirty tactics, I told him I wasn't interested in signing anything, and asked him to leave as I closed the door.

I looked out the window when I returned inside and saw that down the driveway he'd collared my girlfriend who was reversing her car in, as she was returning from work, and had his clipboard stuck right in through her car window telling her she needed to sign his form.

Annoyed, I walked outside and shouted at him to fk off, after which he instantly buggered off down the street.

Turns out when we changed address they'd cancelled our licence for whatever reason, doesn't matter as we haven't even got our sky box working.

I felt pretty bad afterwards as I'm generally very friendly and hate being rude, but I was angered that his first thought was to get us to sign some form admitting guilt and accepting a fine. Why are they like this? No other company i know of does business this way.

Anyway, my girlfriend set up a new licence immediately and so no problems there. Is there anything further we can expect from Capita? Or is that likely to be it?

Cheers.

[bluezedd]

You did nothing wrong. I think anyone would have done the same in this situation.

It's pretty nasty the way the bbc/Capita deal with things so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

[Dog Star]

I’ve lately been watching some videos on this on YouTube and a lot of these tv license people appear to be proper scum, I’m a very friendly person (and I do have a licence which I resent paying) but if one of those tosses knocked on my door I wouldn’t even engage him whatsoever. I’d just close the door.

Sooner this gets abolished the better.

ETA - this is my favourite. The comments are golden. Top rockets.

https://youtu.be/Rp4sISW9oUw

Edited by Dog Star on Thursday 27th May 10:46

[Artsy]

I've had one of those letters too with a large notice on it saying I need to visit tvlicensing to stop the investigation.

With this in mind, I got thinking.

We don't watch BBC or iPlayer or anything like that.

However we do sometimes watch Sky News (says it's live but it doesn't look like it as it's on constant repeat) though the Apple TV box.

Does this fall foul of the BBC's rather threatening tone of live tv, catch up etc?

I've tried to look up references to Sky News online but can't find anything.

[Over over under steer]

I know it's a bit extreme on my part, but I was so fed up with letter after letter along with the stories of visits to a property I was doing up (even though I told them I didn't need a licence) that I've cancelled my TV licence completely and just use streaming services.

It's not the money but more the behaviour and the lack of compelling content.

[Over over under steer]

Artsy said:

I've had one of those letters too with a large notice on it saying I need to visit tvlicensing to stop the investigation.

With this in mind, I got thinking.

We don't watch BBC or iPlayer or anything like that.

However we do sometimes watch Sky News (says it's live but it doesn't look like it as it's on constant repeat) though the Apple TV box.

Does this fall foul of the BBC's rather threatening tone of live tv, catch up etc?

I've tried to look up references to Sky News online but can't find anything.

Watching anything live, regardless of whether it's on an app, would require a TV licence, sadly.

[anonymous-user]

The licencing people are a bunch or aholes.

[Chris32345]

Defund the bcc and make them go commercial like every other network

[sociopath]

Capita might be aholes of the highest order, but at the end of the day the guy was correct. You didn't have a licence.

[Riley Blue]

bluezedd said:

You did nothing wrong. I think anyone would have done the same in this situation.

It's pretty nasty the way the bbc/Capita deal with things so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

They are not known as Crapita for nothing.

[Dr Interceptor]

I've cancelled mine... Both at home and work.

The last straw was Fawlty fking Towers being screened at prime time on a Tuesday night. If I wanted to watch half a decade old television I'd crack out the old VHS collection.

The other bonus is never having to listen to that moaning cow Laura sberg on the news.

[vaud]

Dr Interceptor said:

I've cancelled mine... Both at home and work.

The last straw was Fawlty fking Towers being screened at prime time on a Tuesday night. If I wanted to watch half a decade old television I'd crack out the old VHS collection.

Half a decade?

[Pebbles167]

Spoke to my girlfriend about it again. Seems she was getting charged twice, once for the old place and once for the new. She managed to get the old house cancelled, but they'd also cancelled the new house licence too. I'm surprised they didn't send anything through the post first, they usually love sending letters out.

bluezedd said:

You did nothing wrong. I think anyone would have done the same in this situation.

It's pretty nasty the way the bbc/Capita deal with things so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

I dislike the way they try to instantly get you to admit guilt. I guess that's how they make their commission. It's their job at the end of the day, but like an overzealous parking warden, they make it hard to like them.

sociopath said:

Capita might be aholes of the highest order, but at the end of the day the guy was correct. You didn't have a licence.

This is true, but we hadn't actually watched any TV, so he'd have been unable to do anything. But if he'd had it his way we'd have signed some crap saying we'd been doing so, and would be getting a fine or court summons too, over some admin error.

[Dr Interceptor]

vaud said:

Half a decade?

Apologies, was too busy ranting.

Half a century.

[Pebbles167]

Dr Interceptor said:

I've cancelled mine... Both at home and work.

The last straw was Fawlty fking Towers being screened at prime time on a Tuesday night. If I wanted to watch half a decade old television I'd crack out the old VHS collection.

The other bonus is never having to listen to that moaning cow Laura sberg on the news.

I do like Fawlty Towers mind, Laura less so

[Lopey]

Is a TV licence needed to watch live youtube/twitch/of/etc content?

[Mojooo]

sounds like he achieved his objective though.

[Pebbles167]

Lopey said:

Is a TV licence needed to watch live youtube/twitch/of/etc content?

As I understand it, yes. For things such as news, etc. Hard for them to prove that though.

Mojooo said:

sounds like he achieved his objective though.

In part. We bought a licence, he didn't sell us it though so that's one less on his weekly quota.

[Lotusgone]

There's some Youtube content on the Capita people that says, basically that they are salesmen and the best thing to do is get the door shut pronto.

They cannot enter without a warrant, they cannot get one without evidence and they cannot get evidence unless you give it to them.

[final_edition]

I must have around 50 letters from them.

When does it become harassment?