Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Please do not write below the line

bbctvlicence.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 337 posts

Re: Please do not write below the line

#181

Post by throwawayffffas »

Zak wrote: post #20
cooper_ganglia wrote: post #13

A "TV License" is one of those things I alway assumed people were making up to satirize the claims of over-regulation & bureaucracy in the UK. Finding out it was real was a mixture of hilarious and sobering.

Many European countries are worse about it than the UK; even people who do not own a television are required by law to pay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence

The absurdity in the UK is that it's a License fee and that there is this whole absurd enforcement system. In other countries it's a tax if you don't pay it, you are essentially not paying your taxes. I am OK with a universal tax for a universal service even if I don't use that service. What I am not okay with is fraudulent threatening letters, weirdos creeping in the bushes trying to see if I am watching TV and goons showing up at my front door to collect what they think I owe them.

Re: Please do not write below the line

#182

Post by sangnoir »

grogenaut wrote: post #160
duxup wrote: post #95

I worked for an old company that had a lot of old processes and paperwork. Many bits of paperwork had a "do not write below the line" type areas. I always wrote something ... nothing ever happened. I once hand delivered some paperwork (I was running late) to HR rather than using the inter office mail service. I asked them about it, they told me "Oh you must be Mathew..." I was HR famous. They didn't actually mind, th…

My favorite thing when moving at the big co that owns my co is that they give you these stickers for desk items to show up... whatever you put the sticker on comes along to be by the desk. WHATEVER YOU PUT IT ON. The movers just do what the stickers said. One coworker got every white board in the area. Another got a sandwich and some empty coke cans. Another got a sofa and an empty trash bag. The Machine Works.

> The movers just do what the stickers said.

I'd be pretty pissed if movers ignored instructions and tossed any of my stuff away of their own volition. I keep some non-functional belongings that may appear worthless to others, and my judgement should be what matters when moving or discarding my stuff.

Re: Please do not write below the line

#183

Post by glaucon »

cooper_ganglia wrote: post #13

A "TV License" is one of those things I alway assumed people were making up to satirize the claims of over-regulation & bureaucracy in the UK. Finding out it was real was a mixture of hilarious and sobering.

It may be funny but it's one way of funding public broadcasting which is, at least to a minor degree, independent of government interference.

Re: Please do not write below the line

#184

Post by jimmaswell »

miki123211 wrote: post #157
GuB-42 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, Lego is a "nice" company, and they care about their image. Answering obscure question the best they can goes a long way, people will be more than willing to share their anecdote. That's great publicity, and all you need are a few guys answering emails, most of them are likely to be copy-pasted for the most part, people are not that original. And if you get a truly original question, it may take a bit mo…

More importantly, they don't need to be nice and/or care to be successful. Businesses are nice because they have to compete for customers, and that is easier if you're viewed as nice. TV Licensing is a monopoly, they can have the worst customer service on earth, and that won't affect their revenue by much. There's just nowhere else to switch to. This is also the reason why many government / publicly-run systems are s…

Something that goes to show how unnecessary much of it is is how I've found a staggering difference in paperwork between various US states. Registering a car in New York is equivalent to securing a mortgage with pages and pages of forms and a bill of sale and verification of insurance etc., while in New Hampshire you just show up with the title signed over to you and that's literally it, that's literally all you need to walk out with plates.

It fits the states' identities, New York is (somewhat exaggerating) a kafkaesque dystopia that wants to be in all of your business and have absolute control over everything you do, while New Hampshire's state motto is "Live Free or Die".

Re: Please do not write below the line

#185

Post by elcomet »

ryandrake wrote: post #180
textninja wrote: post #168

The purpose seems clear to me from the explanation provided. Here's what I read between the lines. 1. Send out thousands of letters expecting some to be returned. They may be returned due to deliverability issues, or they may be returned with a reply attached or (probably less commonly) scrawled on the pages of the letter itself. Replies to letters are of course common whether they're expressly requested or not. 2. G…

But OP was not planning on returning the letter, so it would never be scanned. I think the BBC could have solved this preemptively, by simply making the letter say "Please do not write below this line, if you are returning the letter ."

Why would they waste ink to print this ? If he doesn't return the letter, then it doesn't matter...

Re: Please do not write below the line

#186

Post by reaperducer »

duxup wrote: post #95

I worked for an old company that had a lot of old processes and paperwork. Many bits of paperwork had a "do not write below the line" type areas. I always wrote something ... nothing ever happened. I once hand delivered some paperwork (I was running late) to HR rather than using the inter office mail service. I asked them about it, they told me "Oh you must be Mathew..." I was HR famous. They didn't actually mind, th…

Many bits of paperwork had a "do not write below the line" type areas. I always wrote something

My favorite is those company get-to-know-you questions written or oral that ask you to yourself in one word.

"Does not follow directions."

Re: Please do not write below the line

#187

Post by frankus »

notatoad wrote: post #53
Zak wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many European countries are worse about it than the UK; even people who do not own a television are required by law to pay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence

that seems fine to me. whatever they want to call it, if it applies to everybody it's just a tax and they're using tax dollars to fund some TV content and/or infrastrcture. that's all totally normal. the absurd part is restricting that tax to only people who watch TV, and trying to do surveillance and enforcement to determine whether or not somebody is eligible for a TV tax.

The whole scheme seems like something an American would come up with: paying for public services with regressive user fees instead of broad-based progressive taxation.

But it's unheard of (for media[1]) in the US and common in Europe.

[1]The closest thing we have here might be parking passes for state parks, even unpopular ones where free parking would remain mostly empty.

Re: Please do not write below the line

#188

Post by icedchai »

jimnotgym wrote: post #78
FL410 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A Licensing officer may call at your property not to collect the letters but to check that you are not watching a TV. Just the thought of this is funny. What kind of uniforms do TV Officers wear? Do they get to carry a weapon? What happens if they find you watching a TV? Amazing.

They wear a shirt and tie. No weapon. You don't have to answer the door to them. You don't have to let them in. However they are generally lieing scumbags who suggest that they are allowed in. If they catch you watching TV they will report you for a £1000 fine and a criminal record. Failing to pay it will land you in prison. I spent years without a license, you don't need one for YouTube and Netflix. I unplugged the…

Sounds like a waste of public resources. Are you supposed to pay if you watch live TV over streaming services instead of using an antenna?

Re: Please do not write below the line

#189

Post by giobox »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #174
gs17 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds weirder than that to me: > colour TV: £169.50 per year; monochrome TV: £57.00 per year; blind people: 50% discount People who can't see their color TV at all pay more than people who can but have an old black-and-white one?

That's... not what https://www.gov.uk/find-licences/tv-licence says at all. If you're blind, you almost certainly qualify for a free license.

No, it really does say this. There is expressly no free TV licence for being blind, instead a 50% discount.

https://www.gov.uk/free-discount-tv-licence

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/for-your...

Post reply on HN