Letters from TV Licensing

Two letters arrived in quick succession today. First, the red envelope (which I now have a clean scan of), containing the “final stages of investigation” letter that we’ve had before arrived with our post.

Apparently they’ve stopped opening investigations and started actively investigating! Is this the start of a new trend? Or is it simply yet another meaningless form letter that isn’t going to make the slightest bit of difference to anyone?

Also, it’s been two months since their last letter. They’re slipping.

The print quality on this “official notice” is rather poor. The date is stretched out and the first line of the “please read carefully” box is a bit squashed.

Also, I note that they’ve plastered my address all over this letter in multiple locations, presumably to make it look more like a personalised threat and less what it is - one of a run of thousands of form letters.

This letter was delivered in a bright red envelope that I’ve never seen before. Why don’t I scan it, I hear you ask? Because there was a bright red liquid on it.

Today we received a letter from TV Licensing that we’d never seen before. The tone of the letter seems to have shifted - from pushy and arrogant to darkly disturbing. When you open the envelope, all you see is your address, TV Licensing, a date, a reference number, and the words “You know. We know.” This is the kind of threat sent by mobsters. And they close with a threat that they’ll “visit soon”.

They also talk about how someone’s GCSE project was to download the UK Postal Address File and put it in an Access database, or something, I don’t know.

I’m not really concerned for my safety. But I worry that those who don’t know this is a form letter might be.

Yep, they’re definitely repeating themselves now. Same letter, in the same envelope, as January.

They’ve started an investigation. Whether it’s the same as the investigations they’ve supposedly started in the past, or this is a brand new one, remains unclear.

“We have had no option but to start an investigation”... of course they did, they could’ve listened to me every single time I responded. But no, they just want to send more vaguely-threatening letters until I cough up for something I don’t need. It’s not going to work.

Also, apparently, the salesman “will explain why they are visiting and will be polite and fair”. Hah. I’ll believe that when I see it.

This letter arrived on the 17th. So are they supposedly giving me ten days from now, or ten days from the 22nd? Can I expect a visit at 8pm on the 21st? Or is this just more rhetoric?

In any case, it’s a bit off to see them trying a different approach. I’m used to nothing but threats, so the words “we know how difficult it is to pay bills at the moment” seem very out of place.

They don’t seem to consider the possibility that I’m already correctly licensed - a fact that I’ve told them several times. And I’m doing fine, having no financial problems at all, thanks. I just don’t watch TV, so I don’t need a licence. Why should I pay for something I don’t need or want?

Last month, I wondered where they could go, given that they were in the “final stages of [their] investigation”. Now I have the answer, and it’s rather unimpressive. They’ve opened another investigation.

I think that makes a total of four now? Are they carrying out all these investigations concurrently, or do they get to the end of one, realise we aren’t breaking the law, and start over? Either way, it sounds like a total waste of their time and money.

Wow, they couldn’t even wait a whole month before sending us yet another vaguely-worded threat.