Tvlicensing Arvostelua 

Trying to report the death of someone and renew the licence in my name is a nightmare. The whole system is geared to the website, yet the website says to call customer services. Called customer services and the cut me off! Calling again, I'm forced to listen to their promo to get me using online, when I eventually get through, I hear a dial tone, then cut off AGAIN. Then they wonder why so many people don't have a licence - it's not from want of trying!

I would like if possible to give no star review. As a pensioner who prefers to read rather than watch television I will be looking into ways of not paying a tv licence. The salaries paid to employees of the BBC are ridiculous and obscene. And the constant reminders of what we get for this fee are quite frankly adverts.I am sure the people who read the news, hopefully that part of their job is just the tip of the iceberg but I don't care who reads the news, so get someone cheaper.

I needed to call today TV licencing and after several trials at last I managed to have a young lady at customer service. Well, she was rude, unfriendly and inpatient. All in one the machine woman was more friendly than this young lady.
Before I got her, I could hear from a machine man that I, as a customer must be RESPECTFUL AND POLITE with their staff. Now I ASK their BOSS :
Shirley Cameron the Director of Revenue and Customer Management and heads up the TV Licensing Management Team if SHE IS ABLE to EXPLAIN and EDUCATE her team to be RESPECTFUL AND POLITE with CUSTOMERS! I ask just the same what they expect from me!!

I received a letter this month addressed not to me by name, but to “The Legal Occupier.” That’s the whole operation in one line: they have no idea who lives here, no evidence anyone in this house has done anything wrong, and they sent a threat anyway.

The letter tells me to expect a visit from an “Enforcement Officer,” warns I “could be prosecuted,” quotes a fine of up to £1,000, and then it’s stamped in red ink: “ENFORCEMENT VISIT APPROVED.” Approved by whom, for what, based on what evidence? None. There is no offence. I don’t watch live TV. There’s nothing to enforce. The stamp is theatre, designed to make a mail-merge letter sent to thousands of addresses a day look like a personal, considered decision to come after me specifically. It isn’t. It’s a template.

I don’t ring every company whose product I don’t want to tell them so. Nobody does. If Netflix, Sky, or any other business sent threatening letters and enforcement officers to people’s homes because they hadn’t rung up to say “no thanks,” they’d be laughed out of existence and reported to the ASA. TV Licensing gets away with exactly that, at industrial scale: over 5,000 addresses a day, one every 9 seconds, and if nobody answers, they come back.

I have committed no offence. I don’t need a licence. Yet, the letter treats a gap in their database as grounds to threaten prosecution and send someone to my property. This is a public body, funded by a mandatory fee, using fear as its enforcement strategy against people who owe it nothing.

Shameful, and beneath any organisation operating under statutory authority.

TV licence is 15 pound month but you must pay 36 pound for first 6 months??? Why????. It's too much so they prefer that you will not pay them nothing than to pay 15 month. It's 15 month so we pay 15 pound month . Why they make it difficult.people in our days they struggle to put food on table and they are obliged to pay 36.

Appalling website & customer service phone line

We do not need a TV Licence. You have nothing that says we do. The letters keep arriving anyway, and they read like they were written by someone chasing a debt.
Deadlines. A reference number, as if we already have a file open. A line about officers being assigned to our address. All of it aimed at a house you have never checked and know nothing about.
Here is the part that actually makes me angry. My wife reads these letters and gets worried. She has done nothing wrong. We have done nothing wrong. There is no licence to buy here and there never was. But the envelope lands on the mat and she feels like something bad is coming, because that is precisely what the envelope was built to make her feel.
You are not investigating anybody here. You are making people nervous in their own homes and calling it a process.
And it repeats. We told you no licence was needed. The declaration ran out. The letters came back. Somebody sat down and designed that.
You work for a broadcaster that the public pays for. You had the option of simply asking us. You went with the red ink.
So send the officer round. Please do. I would much rather say this to a person than to an envelope, and I would like to hear them explain, out loud, standing at my door, what exactly brought them there.

Ethically substandard organisation that deliberately tries to trick people into paying for licences they don't need by structuring its unecessarily threatening letters in a way that makes it seem like you're breaking the law even if you don't watch live television or the BBC. This organisation does a HUGE disservice to the BBC, which is a fantastic institution. Live TV is the only product in the world where it has somehow become accepted that people who don't use it need to prove that - I don't write to Rolls Royce every three years to let them know that I still can't afford to buy one of their cars. Every letter from TV Licensing gets torn up - the eejits there are free to keep spending money on sending me their recycling. I look forward to having a 'chat' with the inspector who put a note through the door this week (also now in the recycling) should they have the gumption to knock again.

They hassle you for money when you don't even need a tv license.

Been sent countless letters threatening action and none of their clowns have turned up at my door yet.

I ended up getting a license temporarily to watch the world cup and they have some ridiculous payment plan where you have to pay more up front and ill have to claim a refund when I cancel.

Even then the content I am watching asks me to get a TV license.

Cant wait to cancel, figure out refund process, then back to receiving threatening letters.

Can’t talk to a advisor to change bank detail but instead talking to a bot with no help, how am I supposed to pay for Tv licence when having Diffculties.

Doesn't help having learning Difficulties and special needs that don’t provide no help and website doesn't help trying to change bank details. Have no choice to go to citizen advice or get someone to help sort a simple issue before payment date.

why i sould pay £180 for nothing? because i have tv,laptop,tablet,smart phone? i pay for internet,amazon,netflix. have no antena or cable in my house. so any reason i should pay?

3 letters have been sent, this 3rd letter is red with officers have been authorised to visit. The website to report no TV licence required, demands info this company is not entitled to have, since I am not doing business with said company.

Find that this company is harassing me and aggressive sales tactics. Your not getting any of my details your not entitled to, as I am not doing business with your company. Your not getting my email or private number to harass me or aggressively sell your product.

I have TV and film on dvd/Blu-ray bought from store. Which does not require a TV licence, so kindly change your website to report no TV licence required. As you are not entitled to any of my private info, as a company I am not doing business with. Data Protection Act.

Edit: And I see this trust pilot profile is unclaimed. Probably too busy acting like a thug company with it's henchmen.

Guess I'll have to write a 'Cease and Disist' to them. Or that £1000 threat. And bulletin 1 "Offices visit properties every day, morning, afternoon evening. Could be classed as intimidation and definitely is harassment. Will end up with them paying punitive damages and pain and suffering. Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 > section 228 'Aggressive practices'.

Appalling service. They have someone else’s name living at my address. Eventually I am told there was a data breach and I am told to send back the offending letter (which threatens legal action). I ask for a SAE. I am told they do not do this. I ask if they will report this to the Info Commissioner, and get no answer. But it is run by Capita! So absolutely no surprise: data breaches are de rigeur in this shambles of a private company.

UPDATE. Next letter arrives, threatening a visit, etc etc and the licence is cancelled at this address (there is already a licence in my name). Getting through on the phone requires strategy. Claim you are reporting a death, and there is a slight chance. Their website is down at this time also. Why Capita is given this contract is beyond belief.

What an awful service. Sent me a letter asking to update email address. Can't log in despite being certain all details are correct. Page keeps returning to 'sign in' button. Virtual assistant useless. Finally found phone number, automatic system useless. Impossible to get an email address to contact them. Link to make a complaint need you to sign in, see above, wasted an hour going round and round in TVL circles. This is a public service and the worst I have ever come across! Get it sorted!

I have a visual impairment and Adhd. I was overdue in my payments and have difficulty reading the standard print letters. I eventually managed to pay the outstanding balance. I noticed it said in larger print if you have sight problems you can get this information bh email or in Braille, large print or audio by calling 03007906076. I called the number pressed the the option for sight impairment to request my letters and cashplan schedule in large print. I was than told I would be transferred to the correct department, which to me made no sense because I pressed the option for sight impairments at the start of the call. Once through to the "correct" department I answered their questions and made my request. I was than told my reqest would be passed on to a descision maker and that they get a lot of requests for reasonable adjustments and it would be down to the descision maker. I expressed that I was a bit concerned they would say no to my request because I have had difficulty getting reasonable adjustments under the equality act. I was told she didn't understand what I was saying, and at no point did she say the descision maker would say no and started repeating herself in a really patronising way, she never said this, she never said that. I never implied that she had said anything. I merely expressed I was worried my request for reasonable adjustments would be denied based on previous experiences. TV licensing staff need to be trained on how to speak to neurodivergent customers.

Dreadful, dreadful experience!! Impossible to speak to anyone, you are fed chatbots that don't answer questions and left with nowhere to go
The worst customer service I have ever come across and we pay for this!!

Paid for license online on their website …
No licence arrived…..!!!?
They don’t know what happened…
Charge on my credit card!!?
So no licence and licensing don’t know why despite their system telling me payment made!!?
Charge is on my credit card!!

What a dysfunctional system help!

Ive had over 100 letters over 15 years saying the same rubbish. Ive never watched any tv at my property. They are scared of weaning themselves off a luxury getting money for free that is backed by our governments shame on them . Netflix, disney, amazon prime, TV paramount, is the way to go, having a choice, not forced. A family member pays for their TV license, but only watches 2-3 programs per year on bbc 1, never anything else. And the bbc makes money extra from there other channels with ads, ukgold ect.

Just tried to cancel our TV license and customer service sounded we are trying to evade paying license with so many questions of why cancel!!!??

I told the rude customer service that we are selling the property and we are abroad

A barage of questions for cancelling and indifference attitude makes me wonder why I pay BBC license all these years for nonsense reporting supporting the far-right!

TV license organisation is simply pathetic!!

sent correspondence to cancel my mums tv license as she passed away and these absolute scumbags ask to talk to her to cancel it are they serious