Tesco's informed tv licence were i live

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Cameraman

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I bought a tv for my mum for christmas from tesco's and today i recieved a letter from tv licence saying that tesco's had informed them i had bought one from them :shake: how is this right that tescos can give information away to other parties regarding were i live and what ive bought ALL BY USING MY CREDIT CARD not tescos club card i might add as i dont own one, i didnt even fill in a form at tescos for this they have used the information from my credit card.

can someone tell me if this is legal as im fuming :bang:
 
Yes, all TV retailers are obliged to inform TV Licensing of the name and address of a purchaser or, if they do not know it, the credit card company will provide the information.

Oh, and it's Tesco!
 
I think they are required to do so by law, John Lewis certainly do the same thing when you buy a tv from them.
 
No idea what you can do about it but it would make me angry too. First thing I'd do is shout at my credit card company though.
 
Cameraman said:
I bought a tv for my mum for christmas from tesco's and today i recieved a letter from tv licence saying that tesco's had informed them i had bought one from them :shake: how is this right that tescos can give information away to other parties regarding were i live and what ive bought ALL BY USING MY CREDIT CARD not tescos club crad i might add as i dont own one, i didnt even fill in a form to at tescos for this they have used the information from my credit card.

can someone tell me if this is legal as im fuming :bang:
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Buy a TV from anywhere and the same thing will happen, I have had it with Amazon, Comet and Currys. I would imagine that it is a legal requirement for any trader that sells a TV.
 
Steve Smith said:
No need to imagine it, it's true.


Steve.
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Yes, and that is just the start of it. If you don't respond to the Licencing lot to their satisfaction they will bombard you with mail and eventually turn up at your door.
 
arclight said:
Yes, and that is just the start of it. If you don't respond to the Licencing lot to their satisfaction they will bombard you with mail and eventually turn up at your door.
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They will send a letter asking why you don't have a licence. When you tell them you don't have a TV they send a letter which basically says that they don't believe you.

You will probably get about a hundred letters before you get a visit though.

I have a few friends without TVs and they regularly get letters but have never been visited.

Despite this (to the OP) what is the nature of your complaint? Do you not have a TV and are now upset because the licencing authority think you do or are you just annoyed with having your details passed on?


Steve.
 
Yes, they do it by law. I think they've been doing this for at least 10 years haven't they?
 
any retailer that sells televisions is BY LAW to provide the information.
When I worked for ToysRus if someone bought a TV we had to get a certain form to fill out and if we didnt ,it was "us" the cashier that got into big trouble ,like it is with selling knives etc.
 
When I lived in South Africa you had to produce the actual licence at the POS, or if you were having a set repaired, because you were required to have a licence to own a TV. I haven't been back in the UK for very long, and thought that you only needed one to watch TV here?
 
Julie1979 said:
Yes, they do it by law. I think they've been doing this for at least 10 years haven't they?
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I was without a TV from 1988 until 1991 and they pestered me with letters (all with poorly veiled threats) and eventually turned up at my door asking why I had an aerial on my roof.
The letters never stopped until I got another TV set and bought a licence.
 
It's been the law for umptymillion years. 30 years ago I worked in a shop selling tv sets and we used to get into real trouble with the licensing authority for not filling out and sending in the forms. The salesperson (not the shop) can actually be taken to court and fined for not complying.
 
They even do the same with Freeview boxes, I confused the hell out of Argos last year when I bought one for my Mum. She had just moved and I didn't know her full address and postcode, they were on the verge of refusing to sell it to me.
 
yup its law.

the annoying bit for me is that i bought my plasma tv in my name and my gf at the time was the licence holder at the same address and they could not seem to grasp the fact that we were covered for some reason.
 
So now we know the rule about tv licencing, what is the score on watching bbc programs on bbc's Iplayer on the computer? why is a licence not needed for that. I know of someone who does just that, no telly he just waits till its on Iplayer.

Sometimes I wish someone would invent a telly that is incapable of receiving bbc (probably has been done) so we don't need to ripped off for a licence.
 
frank said:
Sometimes I wish someone would invent a telly that is incapable of receiving bbc (probably has been done) so we don't need to ripped off for a licence.
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It's a receiving licence, not a BBC licence.



Steve.
 
frank said:
So now we know the rule about tv licencing, what is the score on watching bbc programs on bbc's Iplayer on the computer? why is a licence not needed for that. I know of someone who does just that, no telly he just waits till its on Iplayer.
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My understanding is that you need the licence to watch a 'live' program, in other words watching programmes at the time they are broadcast, so technically you wouldn't need one when watching on an i-player (I think).
This would apply to any channel, not just the BBC.
 
frank said:
Then why does bbc get all the revenue from the licence ? Click Here

Because they don't receive advertising revenue such as ITV and Channel 4.

Sometimes they are worse than the pigs that harrass innocent photographers, a perfect example Here
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He's breaking the law. End of.
 
frank said:
Sometimes I wish someone would invent a telly that is incapable of receiving bbc (probably has been done) so we don't need to ripped off for a licence.
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So if the BBC suddenly had to carry adverts do you think the licence fee would
A evaporate
B be collected by the government as a nice little earner.

I'm happy to pay my licence because I see I get something for it, ie BBC programmes with no annoying adverts, if it were scrapped in favour of adverts all we'd have is a commercial BBC which has to show a profit and a yearly fee for the governement tax coffers.
 
The January 2009 letter on the link in franks post gives misleading information. It says if you own a computer or mobile phone you must buy a tv license, this is not the case. If you own a computer or mobile which are equipped to receive tv then you should, but not otherwise.
 
Steep said:
The January 2009 letter on the link in franks post gives misleading information. It says if you own a computer or mobile phone you must buy a tv license, this is not the case. If you own a computer or mobile which are equipped to receive tv then you should, but not otherwise.
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We bought a computer recently which is supposed to be able to receive TV, and the dealer asked for our address for the TV licence authorities. We don't have a licence, because we don't have, or want, TV and the manual says you need to buy some sort of card to connect it to the antenna in any case. I thought you could do this with most computers? They sold us the computer in the end, with a few broad hints that they didn't really believe us, because no-one would actually choose to live without TV!
 
If you have the techical means by which to watch either live TV or a pre-recorded copy of live TV then you must have a TV licence by law. This includes a regular TV, a computer or any other means.

You could have a TV sat in the corner of your lounge that hasn't been switched on for years but as long as it is capable of being used then you have to have a licence.
 
Nikon_Bob said:
You could have a TV sat in the corner of your lounge that hasn't been switched on for years but as long as it is capable of being used then you have to have a licence.
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One of my friends wanted to get a TV just to watched DVDs on. She phoned the TV licencing authority and was told that as long as the TV is not used to watch TV and was not capable of receiving (aerial not plugged in), she could have a TV in the house without needing a licence.

However, I did suggest that she got that in writing before buying it.



Steve.
 
Licence is required if tv receiver is being used.
It's not required if if it is just owned or being used video games etc .

Here it is straight from the horses mouth ---> Click Here
 
Steve Smith said:
One of my friends wanted to get a TV just to watched DVDs on. She phoned the TV licencing authority and was told that as long as the TV is not used to watch TV and was not capable of receiving (aerial not plugged in), she could have a TV in the house without needing a licence.
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I suppose if you have a fully functional TV but no ariel attached to it then you don't have the technical means to watch or record live TV so you wouldn't need a licence. As soon as you attached an ariel then you would need one.
 
Another point to remember with the licence is that if you have a caravan and a tv in that then you need a seperate licence for that too. Your household licence doesn't cover it. They have also been trying to bring it in you need a seperate licence for each tv in the houshold.
 
Steve Smith said:
One of my friends wanted to get a TV just to watched DVDs on. She phoned the TV licencing authority and was told that as long as the TV is not used to watch TV and was not capable of receiving (aerial not plugged in), she could have a TV in the house without needing a licence.

However, I did suggest that she got that in writing before buying it.

Steve.
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I think they were miss informed there, when stating the TV must not be able to receive TV via and unplugged aerial the only acceptable 'legal' stance it to remove the receiver from the TV physically.

If they took action against the owner it would be claimed that they can just plug in the aerial and watch TV when they wanted. removing the internals would mean they can not receive 'any' signal ever and therefore do not have a TV to pay a licence for.

I have known students who have had to do that to TV's although these days you can just get LCD panels which have SCART/HDMI/Component inputs with no tuner in, which are ideal for people who only watch DVD's or want something for a games consul to go on and not pay for a TV licence to watch bloody repeats! (most require home cinema system for audio)
 
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kapawayna said:
Another point to remember with the licence is that if you have a caravan and a tv in that then you need a seperate licence for that too. Your household licence doesn't cover it. They have also been trying to bring it in you need a seperate licence for each tv in the houshold.
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What does your licence allow?

The licence allows installation and use of TV equipment:

* at the licensed premises by anyone
* in a vehicle, boat or caravan by:
o You and anyone who normally lives with You at the licensed place (so long as TV equipment is not being used in a non-touring caravan and at the licensed place at the same time).
o anyone, who normally works at the licensed place (so long as the vehicle, boat or caravan is being used for a business purpose).

Use of TV equipment powered by internal batteries anywhere:
o by You and anyone who normally lives with You at the licensed place.
Click to expand...


Steve.
 
What annoys me is a hotel can get away with just one licence but in halls of residence all the students need there own licence.
 
i wouldnt worry to much i had the same situation a few years ago except they wanted to see my license i said i lived at my parents i was only 15 at the time oh we cant sell you that then

my mum had to buy the tv in the end
 
Steve i did mean a non touring caravan i forgot to mention that part. I only know because my sister got collered for it when they bought a static. As i said with the differant one for each tv it is what they are trying to get not what it is at the moment. On the plus side they keep getting it blocked so i don't think they will get it through.
 
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