TV licence harrasment. How to fend yourself?

[MarillionFan]

Serious answer:

Yes, I do, and I completely agree 100% with you in this case. It's £363 just for having the radio on.

I've got a load of CD's etc for sale in the cafe from local and touring artists and only played them for a while as I had the copyright holder's permission to do so without royalty and I did it to upset the PRS rep that kept coming round, but the Mrs signed up with them while I was away 'cause she can't take the aggro

You can get around the whole PRS license by 'stocking' a company called Global Journey. They have their own catalogue and you can play or sell their CDs in your...'cafe'. I did so for seven years and everytime
i was contacted i told them i sold their
products and so was exempt.

In practice there is only so much whale/red indian/obscure chill out tunes your staff can take and they're bound to
stick the radio on at some point, but it does save you the
license each year and you can make a little cash on the side.

[TestMangler]

You can get around the whole PRS license by 'stocking' a company called Global Journal. They have their own catalogue and you can play or sell their CDs in your...'cafe'. I did so for seven years and everytime
i was contacted i told them i sold their
products and so was exempt.

In practice there is only so much whale/red indian/obscure chill out tunes your staff can take and they're bound to
stick the radio on at some point, but it does save you the
license each year and you can make a little cash on the side.

Thanks for that. Interesting stuff !!

I'm not working there at the moment so it'll only be the wife and the cook who have to listen to it, so i might just go for it

I think the playing with copyright holder's permission' thing would work too if you had access to enough of that kind of material (You don't want to be playing the same CD over and over). I wanted to push the PRS rep to his limit with it, but MrS Mangler spoiled it.

[configman]

I am getting letters from TV licensing saying that they want me to explain why do I use the premises for the company and not paying TV licence. The address they send is my home address. The company registered address is with NW. I dont use my home for work. And the home licence is paid.

I understand that their strategy is to scatter a potential client with mud and then let him clean himself waiting if he slips or make a mistake so they can quickly check the pockets.

I am not interested in arguing here capitalism vs socialism, freedom vs ordered society. I am asking for practical advice - how to stop the harrasment?

If I answer their letters the game will take into another level and then up and up. This is designed for it. So I am ignoring the letters so far (I dont use my home for work and I dont use TV for work and the TV I have is already paid by individual licence).

I dont want some stinky individual sitting in the bush next to my house every morning trying my nerve system.

What my options are?

Invoice them for wasting company time or report it as a crime - harassment. I used harassment to report a Double Glazing company that kept knocking my door every 2 weeks and being abusive when I said I wasn't interested.

[xoggoth]

I just ignored PRS letters. They phoned once and I shouted at them to stop wasting my time. Never heard any more.

[craig1]

Invoice them for wasting company time or report it as a crime - harassment. I used harassment to report a Double Glazing company that kept knocking my door every 2 weeks and being abusive when I said I wasn't interested.

Although at risk of taking the thread off-topic, here's how I deal with double glazing salesmen: "Sorry, we rent this place and can't do any changes" even though we are the owners. That stops them in their tracks as even the most dense realises that there's no point trying to bully a tenant into buying double glazing.

Even further off-topic, I get rid of other pesky people with another trick. I put my cat's name when filling in "customer details" forms when buying anything. Take the example of the TV license people, if they came to the door enquiring based on getting information that my cat had just bought a telly the conversation would probably go like this:

TV: "Can I speak to Oliver please?"
Me: "Wait there, I'll see if he's free"
...
Me: "Sorry, he can't come to the door right now"
TV: "When will he be available?"
Me: "No idea, he's currently under the dining room table licking his bum, I'll ask him when he's finished"
(Close door and leave TV license guy open mouthed)

Works just as well with telephone spam from those companies who use that data to ignore the TPS notice.

[psychocandy]

Although at risk of taking the thread off-topic, here's how I deal with double glazing salesmen: "Sorry, we rent this place and can't do any changes" even though we are the owners. That stops them in their tracks as even the most dense realises that there's no point trying to bully a tenant into buying double glazing.

Even further off-topic, I get rid of other pesky people with another trick. I put my cat's name when filling in "customer details" forms when buying anything. Take the example of the TV license people, if they came to the door enquiring based on getting information that my cat had just bought a telly the conversation would probably go like this:

TV: "Can I speak to Oliver please?"
Me: "Wait there, I'll see if he's free"
...
Me: "Sorry, he can't come to the door right now"
TV: "When will he be available?"
Me: "No idea, he's currently under the dining room table licking his bum, I'll ask him when he's finished"
(Close door and leave TV license guy open mouthed)

Works just as well with telephone spam from those companies who use that data to ignore the TPS notice.

I used to do that a lot i.e. use the cats name. Cat is eric so I used to put name as Eric Catona.

Another name is Bert E. B. O'locks

[Jog On]

I have a direct debit paying my TV license on a rolling basis - should I cancel it at once?!

[Wobblyheed]

Licence - UK english
License - US english

[hyperD]

I have a direct debit paying my TV license on a rolling basis - should I cancel it at once?!

Your call, it's a totally optional tax to pay.

[maxima]

Thank you guys. Is it fesible to bring the harassment charges against them?

As I said I paid the licence and I dont use the home for work so I dont really see why should I be subject of their bullying. If they believe I have to pay they should brought me to court. But they dont because if they study the case they find very quickly that they gonna lose.

So basically they are actually harassing me for money. And I dont want to live with chain on my door. I dont want to be accused of something I didnt do.

However I would prefer to file the case as an individual who living at that address.. I am not sure if this is possible to link the harassment to the private life...