Bought a video at Christmas from Curry's. Paid at the till, gave them my address details as they ask. Today I get a letter from the TV licence people telling Dixon's have grassed me up to them. They want me to buy a TV licence because my name wasn't shown at the address. Well tough ****, we have a licence but it isn't in my name.

Watch out people, Big Brother is out to get us.

 

This has been law for years even before that scooby hit that lake

Every supplier is obliged to inform the authorities

Phil

 

Curry's have no option I'm afraid. Not impressed with that policy though.

 

Simple: just give a false address if you don't have a license

 

It was a present........for my uncle in Bombay

 

Close, it was a gift for my father in Egypt...

 

Surely they cant divulge your info due to the data protection act or are the government above that?

 

agreed surely theres DPA issues, what would happen if you said no though? They cant *make* you give those details.

Gary

 

I got one of these and ignored it.
I bought the telly, yet the licence was in my wifes name.
If they bothered just looking at the address they would have seen that a current licence was held.


Nick

 

Having moved into my new place I have been receiving the standard barrage of threatening letters becoming more and more severe. Simply because of the obnoxious tone I have held out until I received the "an inspector WILL be coming round to make sure you are done to the tune of £1000" letter (about the 7th letter!) and purchased a TV license online. It was probably yet another bluff but unfortunately the TV is in view of the window so I couldn't take the chance. [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

At least I can be content knowing their bullyboy tactics ended up costing them!

 

<Judge Dread> Its the law </JD>

The reseller has a form to fill in and send when they sell a bit of telly kit.

 

I found the same when I bought a TV-tuner PCI card for my PC years ago. I enquired with Simply (who sold it) and was told that it's the law - they have to report any TV-related purchases.

 

Jonathan Miller has an anti-licence fee site here:

http://www.tvlicensing.biz/

Sign the petition.

 

Come on lads compared to all the other taxes we pay the tv licence is nothing

The bbc have to get the money for all that crap from somewhere

 

I had exactly the same when i bought a big Sony Tv online.
i used my card and ordered it in my name.

A few weeks later comes a letter from the TV people saying i hadnt got a licence.But i did,only it was in the girlfriends name!!!
The useless f£"!%$s!!Couldnt even just check that my address had a licence before sending it.

How i gave them some shi*" on the phone
Surely you could just go and buy a tv from Asda,safeway etc and they wouldnt need your details?

SN

 

ajm you tax dodging scumbag, how dare you try to evade tax, its people like you who have made the bbc shi*e

 

this happened to me. i got a letter before xmas saying they wanted a licence, i ignored it and on monday i got another letter saying that if i didnt let them know, they'd let the recovery agency know and they would 'pay me a vist'!. my girlfriends got a licence for the address, so bollox to 'em. if they send the recovery agency round, they'll see we have a licence.
oh, and while we're on the subject, isnt the price of a tv licence fixed by the beeb? is that allowed? why cant i get a discount?

 

p.s. I never paid the licence fee for about 6 years. Just never answered the door when I saw who was at it (nice view of the whole street from my pad) and binned the letters. My m8's dad worked with the detector vans and all they have in them is <empty space> and a database of names and adresses of those who dont have a licence. Only paid up when I got Sky due to the dish making it a bit obvious

Anyone notice they hardly ever use the stupid vans with the 'detectors' just cars and unmarked small vans now.

 

Just noticed on the site linked above that the BBC takes £8m a day from the public - approaching £3 billion a year, ffs............

 

LOL!

I would have happily bought a license but for their scare tactics, I always have in the past! The first threatening letter was already on the doorstep when I moved in ffs! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

I bet you anything they now back date it to when the last occupiers expired at which point I am going to demand they prove I have had a TV in the interim!

 

Just a a photocopy of last yaers licence and tell them you just watch the repeats!!!!

 

As someone said above, it is not really a license per say, more a tax with a tenuous justification attached to it - like road tax!

I'd be interested how much of a cut the government gets compared with what goes to the BBC....

[Edited by ajm - 1/13/2004 1:34:17 PM]

 

Unfortunately, if you have a TV with the capability of view public broadcast channels then the government want a license fee.

Even if you sat watching DVD's or videos, they'd still want it.

Stefan

 

Not true. Don't need a licence to watch DVD's.

http://www.jifvik.org/tv/

A summary of when you need a licence
Action | Need a licence?
Own a TV No
Plug TV into mains No
Own a VCR No
Watch pre-recorded videos on your TV No
Own a DVD player No
Watch DVDs on your TV No
Own a games console No
Play games on your TV No
Connect aerial/cable box/satellite, tune channels, receive broadcasts YES if the broadcasts are transmitted from within the UK
Record broadcasts for time-shifting YES if the broadcasts are transmitted from within the UK
Watch recordings of broadcasts No, but the person who recorded them may be breaking copyright laws unless they were recorded solely for the purposes of "time-shifted viewing"

 

As said, it's the law. No hiding behind the DPA here.

On the subject of the "TV" License:
- It pays for BBC TV, BBC National and Local Radio
- It pays for BBCi, which IMHO is a fantastic resource

The alternative is:
- ITV1 (TV From Hell)
- Commercial Radio, which is honest if nothing else. Commercials with some music in between (and I work for a station)

I really don't see what the problem is with having a TV License, although I agree that people do get unfairly hounded if they don't own a TV.

 

PMSL @ Imsbman

 

Ah, I stand (well sit) corrected.

Cheers,

Stefan

 

So they have a database of all the addresses without a license do they? Well, just get a B & W license, I did and I've got away with it for years.