tv license and IQOR

[Guest Cartaphilus]

Nothing that adds anything to this thread but a TV licence home worker (forgotten the exact job title) was recently prosecuted for not disclosing payments he'd collected from people's homes to his employers. Quite a few other things came to light asides from this 'oversight'. Ran into £££ss of money not being passed to TV Licensing. He'd been doing it for a long while and when caught, said to his employers that his house had been burgled and the 'burglars' had taken all the payment books, stubs. Conveniently just before he'd been caught. Been doing it a while. It only came to light when someone who had proof she'd paid brought it to the attention of TV Licensing and that her licence hadn't been renewed.

 

I mention it because I wonder how many others - who wouldn't know their money never reached TV Licencing but had gone elsewhere - have found themselves on the receiving ends of a DCA as a result?

[snowy101]

Nothing that adds anything to this thread but a TV licence home worker (forgotten the exact job title) was recently prosecuted for not disclosing payments he'd collected from people's homes to his employers. Quite a few other things came to light asides from this 'oversight'. Ran into £££ss of money not being passed to TV Licensing. He'd been doing it for a long while and when caught, said to his employers that his house had been burgled and the 'burglars' had taken all the payment books, stubs. Conveniently just before he'd been caught. Been doing it a while. It only came to light when someone who had proof she'd paid brought it to the attention of TV Licensing and that her licence hadn't been renewed.

 

I mention it because I wonder how many others - who wouldn't know their money never reached TV Licencing but had gone elsewhere - have found themselves on the receiving ends of a DCA as a result?

 

The shocking thing is that the TVL / Capita goons who call round to investigate/ lie / pretend they have powers are not CRB checked by their employers.

You could have a criminal or sex offenders record but they will employ you to call at private address`s.

 

I haven't paid for a licence for nearly a year now & never intend to again.

Never open the door to them, don't speak to them & bin the treatograms they send. You are under no legal obligation to communicate with them or inform them you no longer require a licence.

[STBINNZ]

All UK TV should be commercial, remove the TV license. Problem goes away. BBC is mostly commercial now anyway with all the ads for programs etc.

 

This is why I love New Zealand. No TV license. Sky+ all programs and skip the ads or watch On Demand...

[t-star]

So...

 

Instead of using heavy handed techniques to collect the TV License themselves, which they were critisised for. They now employ somebody else to do the work for them. But surely TVL/ Capita are still resposible for the actions of iQor. Maybe some more critisising is in order.....

 

 

t-star

[Bazooka Boo]

One for the new Government to contemplate I believe, after all, if they abolished the TV licence it would save the government millions of pounds a year as they wouldn't need to subsidise the concessionary fees attached to some of the licence fee payers, ie ,blind concessions, over 74/75's.

[debt4get]

what balderdash...abolish the fees!!!!!! hmmmppphhhh...and what about the jobs for the old boy network....

[loopinlouie]

I had issue with duff info they gave me previoulsy I have thread in digital tv forum flabbergasted thread. Found out today the peeps who deal with the not even in arrears accounts payment plans are IQOR, they told me today.

 

So a dca got my phone number today because I thought they were the trusted BBC.

 

They said a manger would ring me back before 20.00 tonight and of course as dcas go, they keep their word yep, NOPE and then cut me off when it turne 20.00 as they closed when I rang.

 

So a dca has the phone number possibly of every uk address, handy if you are a dca:(

 

I plan now not to reknew my license and just watch dvds etc on computer or old analogue tv portable, no wires and not reknew due to BBC getting dca involved with my account without my consent. All I was trying to do was buy new license in advance of new telly and they lied to me, not giving them my bank details put it that way

 

Should thank them saved me 500.00 was going to allow my son to pressure me into buying new telly, might get new cooker instead. xxxx

[BanditQueen]

I pay every two weeks, still got threatened with IQOR, despite being up to date, having a license and they actually owe me £45.00 as well, because their records are not correct and up to date and have me behind by £23.00. I have added up all my payments, card payments, and recent payment not yet recorded and am actually two weeks in advance. I am on income related ESA and have in writting that I can pay every two weeks from the Licence Authority. My payments are actually more than what they asked for and I am in credit, so how can I be £23.00 in arrears? I have tried complaining to the TV Licence people and the BBC Trust and have been in dispute with them over variety of stuff since 2009 when I cancelled direct debit and changed to card payments. They confirm that they owe me £45 but have only credited £30.00 back to me. They have always been trouble and their records as far as I am concerned have always been wrong. They even took my spouse to court two years ago when he had cancer, despite us having a valid licence and when I posted to the court the licence, it was thrown out, but did they say sorry, of course not. Then got letter two weeks ago saying owed, £32.00 and I ignored them as I knew it was wrong and useless to complain further. I got one the other day, now it was down to £23.00 arrears, so it is going down and if I do not pay in 72 hours and IGOR agent will call at my home. Traced IQOR through the various forums and have sent a warning letter forbidding them to come to my home and telling them I will not discus the matter further and that I dispute the debt. I know they do not have any legal powers, IQoR that is, but I am concerned as my mother is looking after our house next week, and she is very elderly and has just lost my father. I do not want these goons turning up when she is here. I have cancelled the post so she only needs to come twice or so, but there is no telling if these idiots will take note of the warning.

 

Sorry if this is a bit out of date, but as it is on topic, thought I would post anyhow. What should I do if they come to the front door? Remove them?

[Bang!]

To stop their goons turning up at the front door, send off an email based on the ones here to stop DCAs from visiting. Then keep asking them if they are complying with your instructions, until they definitively agree. So - no more visits (although you may need to send one to TV Licensing, and another to IQOR).

 

Treat them the same as most other places featured as being liars here, and only converse via email.

 

"Sign" your emails "The legal occupier" - as that is what all their mail for me stated, although they tried to get my name to "check I was who I said". But as I pointed out - if I was not saying, and they did not know - then they were just trying to harvest info.

 

The only time it seems you do need to use a real name - is if you wish to appeal against their declining to furnish some of the FoI information requested. So it wont really apply to most people.

 

I have told them I don't have a TV - which is true.

 

I had collected well over a dozen letters threatening lots of people would visit and I would be prosecuted and it began to annoy me.

 

So I filled in the section on their website saying I did not have a TV, and they said they would send someone to check. I then sent them an email similar to the "removing common law right of access" that is used here for debt collectors - and after a bit of pushing they agreed no one would visit now.

 

But I still got some letters - so each time one arrived, I submitted some FoI requests to cost them time.

 

I never hear from them now.

 

The UK seems to be getting so punitive against people who are unemployed/ill/disabled/poor that it really seems to have scapegoated them into being a new pseudocriminal class.

 

I think on a point of principle, if I did watch TV I would avoid the need for a licence, by watching programmes streamed from the net, as the only criteria for paying the TV tax is that you watch programmes as they are transmitted.

 

This pretty much makes a mockery of TV sellers forwarding your details when purchasing.

 

I suspect my next monitor will be a TV, although wont be used as one. I suspect this could lead to dozens of FoI requests!!!!

Edited June 22, 2012 by Bang!

[BanditQueen]

]Hi Bang, I have done just that yesterday and another one to another address tonight and may-be I should use one to get my money back from them? I normally do not bother to get up and answer the door unless it is a parcel or the window person, but if I do open the door, I just say NO Thanks and close it; no-one gets a word in edge wise and they normally go away. Would love to have them removed by some large bloke and carted down to the cop shop!

 

Cheers and thanks, will follow advice

[BanditQueen]

]Hi Bang, I have done just that yesterday and another one to another address tonight and may-be I should use one to get my money back from them? I normally do not bother to get up and answer the door unless it is a parcel or the window person, but if I do open the door, I just say NO Thanks and close it; no-one gets a word in edge wise and they normally go away. Would love to have them removed by some large bloke and carted down to the cop shop!

 

Cheers and thanks, will follow advice

[Bang!]

You can always ask the first offenders - pensioners amongst them -who ended up in jail for not paying the fine whether they will go for the jugular or not. It is not something to be messed with. And, yes, their detector vans are highly sophisticated pieces of equipment.

 

In the past TVs with valves and CRTs used perhaps 20 times as much power as now. This made internal transmissions sufficiently high that there could be a chance detection technology could work. Also - 30 years ago a TV was only really used as a TV unless you counted the new technology "TV tennis".

 

Now LCD/LED screens are used in many things. My computer, phones, microwave, washing machine, satnav.... all have one. Now what type of detector will differentiate between a TV, and a TV being used to play a DVD, or used as a computer monitor, against the background interference of all other similar equipment?

 

Even once you buy a TV now, they have no idea if its used as a TV or monitor.

 

Interestingly, all FoI requests about detection equipment are declined based on their being "related to the administration of justice". When they make these detectors sound so wonderful on their websites, you would have thought they would have wished to continue such enthusiasm into their FoI replies.

 

Have you ever seen a TV detector van?

 

Even checking newspaper articles mentioning convictions, they never mention detection equipment, its always the door knocker who sees the TV.

 

So it looks like its just a bit more of DCAesque scare tactics to make people pay out.

 

Now a cynic might say if you have removed their door knockers right of access, then their only real detector can no longer peer into your house when you answer the door. Clearly leaving a different door open for those thinking it's an iniquitous tax mainly discriminating against the poor, and so they don't wish to encourage this by buying one.

Edited June 22, 2012 by Bang!

[debt4get]

In the past TVs with valves and CRTs used perhaps 20 times as much power as now. This made internal transmissions sufficiently high that there could be a chance detection technology could work. Also - 30 years ago a TV was only really used as a TV unless you counted the new technology "TV tennis".

 

Now LCD/LED screens are used in many things. My computer, phones, microwave, washing machine, satnav.... all have one. Now what type of detector will differentiate between a TV, and a TV being used to play a DVD, or used as a computer monitor, against the background interference of all other similar equipment?

 

Even once you buy a TV now, they have no idea if its used as a TV or monitor.

 

Interestingly, all FoI requests about detection equipment are declined based on their being "related to the administration of justice". When they make these detectors sound so wonderful on their websites, you would have thought they would have wished to continue such enthusiasm into their FoI replies.

 

Have you ever seen a TV detector van?

 

Even checking newspaper articles mentioning convictions, they never mention detection equipment, its always the door knocker who sees the TV.

 

So it looks like its just a bit more of DCAesque scare tactics to make people pay out.

 

Now a cynic might say if you have removed their door knockers right of access, then their only real detector can no longer peer into your house when you answer the door. Clearly leaving a different door open for those thinking it's an iniquitous tax mainly discriminating against the poor, and so they don't wish to encourage this by buying one.

tv detector vans is one of the biggest cons ever...if they are going to use them, then they have to produce the evidence in court.....as far as i can tell this has NEVER been done...dont believe they have or have ever had the technology in order to detect a receiver.

[Bazooka Boo]

tv detector vans is one of the biggest cons ever...if they are going to use them, then they have to produce the evidence in court.....as far as i can tell this has NEVER been done...dont believe they have or have ever had the technology in order to detect a receiver.

 

Your not wrong there D4G,

 

All the articles in the papers claiming to have prosecuted thousands of so called 'TV Licence evaders' are a fabrication, simply to imply that they are out there and are using some coat hanger attached to a 9v battery to work out which room in your house has a TV!

 

Please, I may have a brain injury but even I don't believe that.

 

The simplest method of dealing with the BBC, who use the trading name of TVL, but employ capita gophers, is to have no contact, in a FOI request when asked whether you had to reply to any letters they sent, they replied NO.

 

Do you have to inform them that you don't need a TV licence? NO.

 

Do you have to give any of their employees who might turn up at your door any information? NO.

 

There is plenty of Info on the net about the BBC and the emotive TV Licence.

[snowy101]

I have been LLF [ legally license free] for a long time now, i don`t watch live feeds. Does this stop the TVL / Capita attempts at intimidation..... NO.

Tuesday & Wednesday [ this week] i have had a TVL / Capita Officer [ ahem] at my door, i did`t answer because i don`t have too. He left 2 leaflets stating i was under investigation because this property is unlicensed . He has written on each leaflet " urgent Now" in very bold aggressive writing .

Binned both , it shows their attitude that you must be guilty , even without any proof.

The sooner the BBC is self sufficient & has to make its own way in the world just like the rest of us, the better. IMHO , its a corrupt organisation that is far removed from its original conception & has no place in the modern world.

[Bazooka Boo]

middxx I completely agree with you, I don't have a licence either, I have no need for one, but still their puerile deforestation falls through my door each month, they claim I 'May be breaking the law', well if that is the case why aren't the Police knocking my door down to arrest me? Oh yes that's right, because there is no law that says I must buy a TV licence.

 

They can stand at my door all they like, I either don't open it, or grab my coat walk out straight past them and go shopping, or stand there in silence just looking at them.

Try and intimidate me in my own home and they will wish they had never bothered.

[snowy101]

middxx I completely agree with you, I don't have a licence either, I have no need for one, but still their puerile deforestation falls through my door each month, they claim I 'May be breaking the law', well if that is the case why aren't the Police knocking my door down to arrest me? Oh yes that's right, because there is no law that says I must buy a TV licence.

 

They can stand at my door all they like, I either don't open it, or grab my coat walk out straight past them and go shopping, or stand there in silence just looking at them.

Try and intimidate me in my own home and they will wish they had never bothered.

 

Hi Boo

There is one recent event that has been all over the internet. Two TVL / Capita officers we`re caught filming & taking photo`s of a 9 year old girls bedroom [ while she was in there]. The father chased them & filmed the encounter. I have seen the letter from TVL /Capita & their reply tells you everything you need to know about this organisation.

Not once do they apologize for their actions but instead try to rebuke the father for his aggressive nature in chasing & filming the event. Staggering arrogance & IMHO charges should be brought against the 2 peeping toms & those who sanctioned this action.

What other company can plot up outside your property & film / photograph a 9 yo girls bedroom with her in there & think its an OK thing to do, & all because the Father has no need for a TV license & withdrew the implied right of access.

 

I hope i live to see the BBC smashed to pieces.

[ebonie]

Hello, since the Big Switch, I have decided not to renew my TVL which is a big national rip-off. I am collecting all the TVL threatening letters that I receive on a regular basis . They phoned my house and I told them that I did not need a TV licence, because I did not watch live TV, and I put the phone down. This was my first and last response to them.

Edited June 23, 2012 by ebonie
grammatical error.

[renegadeimp]

I've only ever used my TV for watching bluray movies and as an extra computer monitor. I don't watch TV and i don't even have an antenna for it, so i couldnt watch it even if i wanted to. I've had multiple letters etc over the years, which i just ignore or send back to them in a nice big envelope with their prepaid details on it.

[debt4get]

the BBC is an outmoded, dated, institution, but of course part of the establishment and 'jobs for the boys' ....it should be made to compete in the open market along with other tv companies.....if people want to pay to watch BBC they are perfectly entitled to...though i still pay grudgingly for my licence...cos the wife insists and doesnt want the hassle.....i completely agree with everyones thoughts....i pay enough already without the added burden of this corrupt system...

[Bazooka Boo]

You make a very good point D4G, everyone's situation is different, I live on my own, so I am able to ignore the likes of DCA's, TVL and other hawkers.

 

But others might have a lot more to lose, I have nothing so can happily give people a good run for their money.

[renegadeimp]

There is a law actually Boo.

 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/part/4

 

 

However:

 

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi-legal-framework-AB16/

 

Why do I need a TV Licence?

A TV Licence is a legal permission to install or use television receiving equipment (e.g. TVs, computers, mobile phones, games consoles, digital boxes and DVD/VHS recorders) to watch or record television programmes, as they are being shown on TV. This applies regardless of which television channels a person receives or how those channels are received. The licence fee is not a payment for BBC services (or any other television service), although licence fee revenue is used to fund the BBC.

 

yet http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/part/4 says:

 

TV licences

 

(1)A licence for the purposes of section 363 (“a TV licence”)—

 

 

(a)may be issued by the BBC subject to such restrictions and conditions as the BBC think fit; and

 

 

(b)must be issued subject to such restrictions and conditions as the Secretary of State may require by a direction to the BBC.

 

 

So why exactly do we have conflicting messages?

[Bazooka Boo]

Hi Boo

There is one recent event that has been all over the internet. Two TVL / Capita officers we`re caught filming & taking photo`s of a 9 year old girls bedroom [ while she was in there]..

 

Just watched it, and it is very disturbing, not only an invasion of privacy, but also goes against the right to a private life, I don't care who they think they are, the only reason this type of surveillance should ever be used is for counter terrorism, not the pathetic BBC, who the hell do they think they are??

[BanditQueen]

Just watched it, and it is very disturbing, not only an invasion of privacy, but also goes against the right to a private life, I don't care who they think they are, the only reason this type of surveillance should ever be used is for counter terrorism, not the pathetic BBC, who the hell do they think they are??

 

In that case they had better put all their surveillance on me as if I get anyone coming to my door I may well just resort to terrorism to get rid of them! Never answer the phone or the letters from these morons unless to send them a formal warning that they do not have a right to come to your home. Then ignore them and put the phone down if they call.

[snowy101]

From what i have read on TVL related sites , if the " legal occupier " issues the TVL /Capita / BBC with a removal of there implied rights of access notice,

It seems to enrage them & flags you up for attention & visits. I just completely ignore them & although they have called round , its their time there wasting & these so called officers don`t hang around a lost cause to long as their not getting their £20 bonus.