Never complained about the TV licence...until now

Jono8

Jono8

Jono8

Caporegime
Joined
20 May 2007
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Surrey
Ok, so i have just moved into a new flat and only got my tv and everything set up today so , being a good citizen i just went online to buy a tv licence. Now i thought i was buying an annual TV licence for £145.50 however apparantly i have not. I have actually just been fleeced out of a months worth of tv licence.

They say my licence expires on the 31st July 2013 as they only do everything by the month! I have just had a quick google and found others complaining about it as well. I think it is absolutely disgraceful and will be writing a letter of complaint

If i had been a bit cheeky i could have just waited two days and got the full year but no, as always, being honest and doing the write thing just screws you over.

It is not the money, it is the principle. Nowhere when i was applying through their website did it say this clearly and i think this is nothing less than sharp practice.

Rant over /
 
inogen said:
At least it will happen to you once.

To be honest, I just pay mine DD, then it makes no difference.
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Well, it will because presumably they would bill me for this month ( august) even though i only will have used 2 days of it.
 
estebanrey said:
Could say the same for road tax (VED for pedants)
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Are you sure?

Whenever you renew it, it goes by the month on your previous tax disc. I know because last year I totally forgot that my tax was due for renewal, and drove around for almost 5 weeks with an expired tax disc (!). Either I didn't get my reminder notice or I accidentally binned it with the mountain of junk mail and previous-tenant mail that arrives every day. As soon as I noticed I went to the post office and got it renewed. This was a week or so into June, but the date on the new disc was set to May 2012 (and rightly so).
 
I am still waiting for my court summons. I was off work few weeks ago and i had the usual north african looking tv license inspector knock on my door. So i went to the window and looked who it was but i think he saw me look. I didn't answer the door and he knocked three times. Well a few days later i received the "register to vote" form from the council, threatening to fine me £1000 if i don't join their database. I am still waiting for the court summons. But i think that the tv license people must have tried to look up my details on the vote database and this is what prompted the threatening letter. lol.
 
Similar happened with my holiday allowance at my new employer last year. They allocate leave pro-rata to each FULL month that I work. Because I started on the 4th of May instead of the 1st, I didn't get the entitlement from May, only from June onwards.
 
Duff-Man said:
Are you sure?

Whenever you renew it, it goes by the month on your previous tax disc. I know because last year I totally forgot that my tax was due for renewal, and drove around for almost 5 weeks with an expired tax disc (!). Either I didn't get my reminder notice or I accidentally binned it with the mountain of junk mail and previous-tenant mail that arrives every day. As soon as I noticed I went to the post office and got it renewed. This was a week or so into June, but the date on the new disc was set to May 2012 (and rightly so).
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That's because you were essentially evading it whilst you 'forgot' hence they backdated the disc.

I'm talking about people taxing a car for the first time or after a SORN declaration (my car has been SORN off the road for 3 years, I'd be screwed if the date of my next disc started in some month in 2009 :D).
 
Happened to me too, paid on the 26th of the month I think. I'm moving into new rented property soon, and that already has a TV licence, so I'm just going to cancel this one a month early, as I've actually paid for it I don't feel guilty in any way.
 
I bought my first ever TV licence a few months ago and the same thing happened to me. I had no idea until it was too late. I think it's unacceptable, which is why when it runs out, I don't plan to renew it until a month later. I'm sure I'll get threatened etc. and if they want to take me to court over it, they can.
 
Redrum said:
I bought my first ever TV licence a few months ago and the same thing happened to me. I had no idea until it was too late. I think it's unacceptable, which is why when it runs out, I don't plan to renew it until a month later. I'm sure I'll get threatened etc. and if they want to take me to court over it, they can.
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What can they say, just tell them you aren't going to watch it for 20 days. Those vans they used to use in their ads with a man outside being able top detect people using TVs don't actually exist.
 
I've also had problems dealing with TV licensing.
When I first ordered a license, they were slow to give me a license (but fast to take my money).
The worst problem was trying to get a refund, but certainly not as bad as others have posted.
I filled in the form on the website and got a confirmation email (with ref num) of my request, saying I would get a refund within x days (think approx 2 weeks).

Well after that period, no refund. I phoned up and they had no record of my request, and the ref num meant nothing.
Fortunately, they we able to back date my refund, so I was able to get my money back. In fairness, they were polite & helpful on the phone, and not the worst company I've dealt with just in the last month.

So, just a warning - in my experience they can 'lose' requests for refunds, so keep tabs on them.
 
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Surveyor said:
It seems like they only refund for full quarters not months.
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True, but I'll have been here for 15 months, and I will have paid for 1 full year & another quarter (so the full 15 months) but if I cancelled from the date I leave, I would have to pay for 18 months (what a rip off :/)
 
Entire TV license idea is flawed anyway, it's just another tax but they don't want to call it that. At least road tax is vaguely honest, even though I doubt much of it ends up on the roads.
 
You guys need to think before acting, it's only a tv license, you arn't going to get sent to Guantanamo for missing a few days or a month here and there.
 
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