TV License! (I know, I know but need a little rant)

Surprisingly we've not actually had any letters from them in our uni house, I would have thought that with 4 of us here and no license on the house they would be harassing us by now!
 
I'm actually quite looking forward to them turning up. Our TV broke last May (not that we have an aerial), and I promptly canceled the direct debit. With the payments I had in hand, the license was set to expire this January. In December, the TV was replaced under warranty (w00t!). We still don't have a TV aerial. Given that expiry is imminent, I've already had letters pestering and threatening the 'millionty pound fine!'.

If and when an inspector turns up, I'll invite him in, hand him the TV remote and tell him 'knock yourself out'. We use iPlayer etc exclusively, and other than that, we have no means of reception. I look forward to threatening fines and such :D
 
When I bought my house I had a load of letters from TV Licensing threatening me.. I just phoned up the number on the letter and kicked off at the guy on the other end. Haven't had a letter since last June time now! :)
 
You know, its funny, I moved into my flat 3 years ago, a week after I moved in, I shocked the guy by letting him in and showing him that I had no tv, he left, I didn't hear a thing until about 6 months ago when I got 1 letter asking if I still had no tv and to update online, which I did, and I've not heard a thing since..

Some people have all the bad luck..
 
I, unlike a lot of the whingers here, had no problem with the guy who came round to my place.

"Do you live here? I'm from TV licensing. Here's my card."
"Yes, I do live here"
"Do you own the place or are you renting?"
"We rent it"
"Do you have a TV?"
"No, we don't. Do you want to come in and see?"
"No it's ok, I can tell when people are lying!"

Finished.
 
When we moved we transfered the license to our new house and since our flat is now empty don't need one - however we're still getting threatening letters from the TV licensing folks. I wouldn't mind but they clearly feel that they have a right to pester people, one of the reasons I'd love this just to be included in a tax so we can save the money of having to collect it, or indeed scrap it and the BBC entirely.
 
A question on detector vans. Am I wrong but did they used to pick up signals received via aerials or could they detect what your TV was currently showing.

Just wondered how effective they are for people without aerials or using communal aerials and cable TV.
 
Biohazard said:
Can you pay monthly or does it have to be quarterly?
Click to expand...
Either. Or yearly too.


Third Opinion said:
A question on detector vans. Am I wrong but did they used to pick up signals received via aerials or could they detect what your TV was currently showing.

Just wondered how effective they are for people without aerials or using communal aerials and cable TV.
Click to expand...
They don't exist.
 
Lysander said:
I, unlike a lot of the whingers here, had no problem with the guy who came round to my place.

"Do you live here? I'm from TV licensing. Here's my card."
"Yes, I do live here"
"Do you own the place or are you renting?"
"We rent it"
"Do you have a TV?"
"No, we don't. Do you want to come in and see?"
"No it's ok, I can tell when people are lying!"

Finished.
Click to expand...

we had a similar thing. the guy came round a couple of days after we moved in and said "we've noted that there is no license on file for this property" and i said that thats because we don't have a television.

i took him inside, showed him the lack of television and he said, "thanks very much" and left. since then (that was first week of october) we've only received one letter which was about three days after he came.

then again, i did see the MOUNTAINOUS pile of letters they'd sent to the property during the summer so i have NO trouble believing any of the horror stories about 'em.
 
dbmzk1 said:
Either. Or yearly too.



They don't exist.
Click to expand...

I used to think that, turns out they are entirely possible, and as the technology exists, I doubt that it's been developed and not used. Although the way that the detectors work may only work for CRT style TVs, I'm not sure about LCDs/plasma/etc.
From my understanding of the tech, they can tell that a TV is being used in a given area, possibly what channel, but that's it.

It's worth a read if you have the time and can find a decent source (lost mine now sadly) as it's quite interesting how it's done!
 
DAnDan said:
I used to think that, turns out they are entirely possible, and as the technology exists, I doubt that it's been developed and not used. Although the way that the detectors work may only work for CRT style TVs, I'm not sure about LCDs/plasma/etc.
From my understanding of the tech, they can tell that a TV is being used in a given area, possibly what channel, but that's it.

It's worth a read if you have the time and can find a decent source (lost mine now sadly) as it's quite interesting how it's done!
Click to expand...

Huh I always thought it was a myth, learn something new everyday. :o

Although when say given area, I wonder how accurate it could be. For example could they pick out a flat in an apartment block?

I think our license expires soon, can't remember but if those quotes about only needing one for live broadcast are true then I might not both renewing as most of the stuff I watch is on iplayer or similar.
 
When i was a kid many years ago we had a van come round and parked in the play ground and the class was invited to sit in the back and have a look around if they do not work then they sure spent a lot of money on dummy equipment just to scare us :D

The last i read on the subject was the same as DAnDan post.
 
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