TV licence inspectors - myth or reality

[Mixxxu]

Anyone actually been paid a visit by them.Heard a story on the radio about a mother who was dragged out her home at dawn and thrown in a cell for not paying her licence.Found this hard to believe.Ive never seen them.RTE the irish equivalent to BBC gain revenue from advertising so why should we pay an additional fee to watch their kak?

[madkink]

Originally Posted by Mixxxu

Anyone actually been paid a visit by them.Heard a story on the radio about a mother who was dragged out her home at dawn and thrown in a cell for not paying her licence.Found this hard to believe.Ive never seen them.RTE the irish equivalent to BBC gain revenue from advertising so why should we pay an additional fee to watch their kak?

It was discussed about the BBC changing to using adverts to raise there money, and it was decided not to, because one off the unique things that people 'liked' about the BBC was there was no adverts during there programs, and for this reason are reluctant to change,

As for the inspectors i have only ever seen one, when i forgot to renew my licence they came to the door to discuss it and that was it,

i find it hard to believe they would do a dawn raid for it, i would say if she was constantly evading and avoiding court summons mayby

[sKipper]

Originally Posted by Mixxxu

Anyone actually been paid a visit by them.Heard a story on the radio about a mother who was dragged out her home at dawn and thrown in a cell for not paying her licence.Found this hard to believe.Ive never seen them.RTE the irish equivalent to BBC gain revenue from advertising so why should we pay an additional fee to watch their kak?

Oh they exist all right. Was one myself for half a year. Caught hunners too !

[Tkraz]

Not allowed in your home though without a permit.

[hibbill2002]

i used to live in capelaw court in oxgangs, about 30 years ago, my mates bird answered the door to 2 tv detector gadgies, she shouted through who they were , and me having no licence and an old black and white tv who,s picture only looked good during the winter olympics , told her to hold on a minute while i opened the balcony door and lobbed the tv into the burn 9 floors below, told them they were welcome to come in and look round, as i had no telly

[Zitelli`s Heid!]

A guy I know lost his wife, job, car due to a drink problem. Lives in Fala Court, penniless, drunk and depressed.

Anyway the were onto him big-time and visited more than once.

So, he dets a FINAL FINAL letter from them, they were coming round next day.
"Fuck them" he said, "I`ll put a fucking hammer through it in front of them!" (he would have too)

So they came, 2 of them, his TV is the only luxury he`s got, and both he and his flat truly are minging.
So, he lets them in, listens to all of the pish, picks up the hammer and told them what he would do to the telly if it satified them. He simply can`t afford it.

The main suit at this point said "Can we go into another room, sir?"
So they do. Suit tells him that they will be back tomorrow, does he have a cupboard it would fit in, or a neighbour who would keep the telly for him.

He has a big cupboard in his bedroom, he tells him.
Ok, we`ll be back tomorrow, says the suit.

Back they come, search the house, blatantly ignore the cupboard, and then Suit says "OK Mr ******, we are satisfied you don`t have one, and will remove you from our target list. Good day."

Some decent folk out there, after all.

Bastards finally caught me at aged 36. (I`m rather proud of that)

[wester hailes]

Originally Posted by Mixxxu

Anyone actually been paid a visit by them.Heard a story on the radio about a mother who was dragged out her home at dawn and thrown in a cell for not paying her licence.Found this hard to believe.Ive never seen them.RTE the irish equivalent to BBC gain revenue from advertising so why should we pay an additional fee to watch their kak?

caught twice a;ready

[Dub]

Originally Posted by Zitelli`s Heid!

A guy I know lost his wife, job, car due to a drink problem. Lives in Fala Court, penniless, drunk and depressed.

Anyway the were onto him big-time and visited more than once.

So, he dets a FINAL FINAL letter from them, they were coming round next day.
"Fuck them" he said, "I`ll put a fucking hammer through it in front of them!" (he would have too)

So they came, 2 of them, his TV is the only luxury he`s got, and both he and his flat truly are minging.
So, he lets them in, listens to all of the pish, picks up the hammer and told them what he would do to the telly if it satified them. He simply can`t afford it.

The main suit at this point said "Can we go into another room, sir?"
So they do. Suit tells him that they will be back tomorrow, does he have a cupboard it would fit in, or a neighbour who would keep the telly for him.

He has a big cupboard in his bedroom, he tells him.
Ok, we`ll be back tomorrow, says the suit.

Back they come, search the house, blatantly ignore the cupboard, and then Suit says "OK Mr ******, we are satisfied you don`t have one, and will remove you from our target list. Good day."

Some decent folk out there, after all.

Bastards finally caught me at aged 36. (I`m rather proud of that)

You slow down after age 35. Its a fact I tell ya

Good of these guys to do that for the bloke.

[Peevemor]

Originally Posted by madkink

It was discussed about the BBC changing to using adverts to raise there money, and it was decided not to, because one off the unique things that people 'liked' about the BBC was there was no adverts during there programs, and for this reason are reluctant to change

Across here, the state run channels have adverts but only between programmes - never during. It means that at the end of a film for example, there will be a break of 15-20 minutes before the next programme starts. It takes getting used to, but once you are it's fine - you can make a cuppa, go for a dump, check the interweb, etc.

[madkink]

Originally Posted by Peevemor

Across here, the state run channels have adverts but only between programmes - never during. It means that at the end of a film for example, there will be a break of 15-20 minutes before the next programme starts. It takes getting used to, but once you are it's fine - you can make a cuppa, go for a dump, check the interweb, etc.

i'd be quite happy if they did that

[Ossian]

I've only ever seen one detector van in all my long years, and that was a long time back. I was quite surprised to see that it was actually labeled up 'BBC Licence Detection' or something similar, which seemed a bit unsubtle (although it was cruising one of the few parts of the West Midlands where it was unlikely to get fire-bombed and there was not much chance of anybody being short of the price of a licence).

I don't know of anybody who's ever had a visit, but if I did they would almost certainly be a Wolves supporter.

[madkink]

Originally Posted by Ossian

I've only ever seen one detector van in all my long years, and that was a long time back. I was quite surprised to see that it was actually labeled up 'BBC Licence Detection' or something similar, which seemed a bit unsubtle (although it was cruising one of the few parts of the West Midlands where it was unlikely to get fire-bombed and there was not much chance of anybody being short of the price of a licence).

I don't know of anybody who's ever had a visit, but if I did they would almost certainly be a Wolves supporter.

they were a scare tactic and couldn't detect anything

[hibs1986]

I have known people who don't have tellies who are, frankly, harassed. You might be right that the vans don't come round, but if your address isn't on the list, you seem to be singled out. Thing is (and I mean this in the nicest possible way....,) you can tell these folk are telling the truth just by looking at them.

[Dub]

In the good old days the TV detector people used to be pretty active. I remember my then girlfriends dad legging out the back door with the telly when I lived in Broomie. Before the days of super detection you bought a telly and simply registered it in the name of someone who had a license IE your mum. My mum had about 14 tellys at one time

[nabser]

Originally Posted by Mixxxu

Anyone actually been paid a visit by them.Heard a story on the radio about a mother who was dragged out her home at dawn and thrown in a cell for not paying her licence.Found this hard to believe.Ive never seen them.RTE the irish equivalent to BBC gain revenue from advertising so why should we pay an additional fee to watch their kak?

I know of a few guys who did not pay various fines and get a knock at the door at five or six in the morning and carted off to prison usually cork as its nearest to waterford.As for tv licence inspectors yes they are real and they do call and they will catch up with you.As for the licence fee with RTE they will say we dont have the same population as the uk so they have to generate all the revenue they can.

[HailHail]

Got caught twice by them at my old pad in livi, both times the guy said he was from 'royal mail' when he rang my buzzer. Gave him a false name the 1st time, told the next one to 'f### off and come back with a polisman' and slammed n locked the door in his face then ignored the knocking 'till he went away.

I pay it now though.They're up blackford/Grange fairly often.

[BurbankHibee]

I've never had a TV license and I never bought a TV, I always got a hand me down TV. But one day they did chap the door and told me I had to get one. "Don't worry sir, as soon as the post office opens tomorrow I will get one. Thanks for bringing that oversight to my attention. Good day." I got a couple of letters and then I never heard from them again. I moved house not long after. That was a while back, they may be more persistent these days.