Just a little notice to the companies out there – You get on the right side of me, you get praise and cheer. You get on the wrong side of me, well, let’s just say a rather negative blog post will appear quite high on Google when people search for it. 
But it seems I don’t have to do that with the TV Licensing people, as people have already done that in their hundreds. But hey, one more won’t hurt.
I’m only writing this blog post due to the overly personal letter I got today in the post about the halls now being under investigation (dun dun DUN!).
It’s not something to get overly worked up about. I don’t watch live TV anymore because I know it’s against the law. There’s a TV socket in my room, so naturally they’re going to be curious. But what I’m against is the apparent lack of trust in me and they can’t just take my word for it.
The site makes it as hard as possible to tell them you don’t have a TV License, which is stupid to start with. But what’s worse is the fact I have to tell them in the first place. If I watch TV live, I’ll get a TV license. If I don’t, I won’t. Stop bullying me.
One of the sites I found on Google linked to this YouTube video, and when you search YouTube, you get nothing but negative comments about the company. I know these people are only doing their job, but maybe someone a little bit higher than them can put a stop to these bully-like tactics?
Despite not knowing whether I’m a guy or a girl, the letter spouts off some facts like 99% of students bring laptops and computers to halls and that 75% of them watch TV online. It’s that sort of misleading statistic that gets my goat. Sure, 75% of those students may very well watch the iPlayer or 4OD for example, but they aren’t watching it live like they’re making us out to do.
The letter’s full of ways you can give them your money, but I don’t have any money to give them for something I don’t use. Go away, you silly little people.
I know a few people – including a couple of people on Plurk – who have really had enough of the TV Licensing people. They aren’t alone, it seems. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a professional boxer of an 80-year old lady, you’re going to be bullied and harassed as much as possible to get you to cough up the money you don’t owe them.
In summary, no Carl Shimeild, Operations Director for TV Licensing, I do not have to buy a TV License "as soon as I can", I do know what’s legal and illegal unlike some people you try the same tactics on, and I’d like to see you on the 1st November (note: this is the date they said they would come and investigate, 20 days ago) to check I don’t need a TV License yourself.
(Oh, and one final note, correct your template. It’s Halls’ license, not Hall’s license. Yours faithfully, GCSE English.)
Today I bought my first TV licence since I moved into this address 17 months ago.
Of course, today is the first day I’ve needed such licence, as I had a nice man come and install Sky television for me so I’m capable of watching live television now (no aerial in flat, and reception was terrible the one time I tried to watch on a portable one).
I must have had around 20 threatening letters from them (1 or 2 a month), and apparently I missed one visit (I was at college). They have up to now never got the address correct. I do own a television (I have a Wii, a video player and over 200 videos) and a computer and their implication from the letters is that this means I was breaking the law. I know I wasn’t, and I didn’t want to tell them I wasn’t as I didn’t see why I should.
I don’t like the TV Licencing people at all.