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Please do not write below the line

bbctvlicence.com

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Re: Please do not write below the line

#141

Post by bigmadden »

Rendello wrote: post #65
kamaitachi wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not just a U.K. thing. Many European countries have something similar, although it might be called something else. It’s a form of tax that pays for public service broadcasting, including radio stations. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence#

In Japan there was an infamous political party focused on getting rid of the hated TV licence system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZG95grO-vc

Some people actually voted them into office as a joke and they turned out to be a bunch of racists with some really awful views and were overall absolute shite politicians. Who could have imagined?

Re: Please do not write below the line

#142

Post by 9dev »

ho_schi wrote: post #54
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

This fee is hot topic in Germany. Our French friends also enjoy ARTE[1] but seem not to suffer anymore from this ridiculous fee. Actually I’m surprised that the Swiss fee is even higher, despite everything in the Swiss is expensive. [1] Big parts of our public television suck. But ARTE is awesome ! * Borgen * Occupied * Mit offenen Karten * Karambolage * … PS: ARTE is watchable outside of France and Germany in a lot…

While the public television may suck, it still pays for the only real Independent news coverage in Germany. No matter what you think of the ARD or ZDF and their management boards, the work of the Deutschlandfunk and regional broadcasters is outstanding and a pillar of a free democracy.

I hate having to pay for distribution licenses for soccer games, but if that ensures continued support for high-quality journalism, so be it.

Re: Please do not write below the line

#143

Post by Nition »

GuB-42 wrote: post #135
Nition wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could have told him that though if it's the case, and the mystery would be solved. But there obviously wasn't any desire (or more charitably - time) on their end to really look into the reasoning or even understand the question. ---- Edit: I will share what I think is a nice a little counterpoint story here, from a business that is clearly still interested in understanding. I sent Lego an email a while ago: I'm…

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…

The only thing I would say against this is that sometimes that kind of curiosity can help the business itself as well. For example imagine a situation similar to the post except that it's someone's job to manually write the equivalent of "Please do not write below the line" on every letter. Sometimes little tasks like that can waste time for years before someone finally asks 'do we actually need to be doing this?'

I do realise that is not the case in the post, where it's probably even simpler to print the same message on every letter vs. only on some. And your point is of course well made in general.

Re: Please do not write below the line

#144

Post by bigmadden »

Wasn’t there a Simpson episode when Lisa was a cigarette sponsor and used her position to tell people not to smoke? They were able to fire her because Homer wrote “ok” in the ‘do not write below this line’ section of the application form. I do wonder if in theory a form could be invalidated for that reason if they really, really wanted to.

Re: Please do not write below the line

#145

Post by dcminter »

michaelmrose wrote: post #92

The people who you contacted don't understand any part of what the customer facing interface to their own job which is entirely usual. Its entirely possible that there was at one time instructions for return of the letter on an envelope that the party responding hasn't actually seen in years. They like a lot of people exist in a tiny silo with limited information outside of a tiny scope. They kept asking you to essen…

The author of the page is not the submitter (me). Not sure who you're addressing here.

Re: Please do not write below the line

#146

Post by puzzledobserver »

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…

I mean, it is similar in spirit to a LOTO (lockout / tagout) lock, no? Except without the who to contact bits, perhaps.

"Don't turn this knob. But if you really need to, talk to this person first."

And that little bit of process is perhaps what keeps many industries safe.

Re: Please do not write below the line

#147

Post by ClassyJacket »

ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #61

The most baffling thing here is how the hell did the author get the organisation to respond , on topic, multiple times? In my experience conversing with various entities that are supposed to provide customer support, absolutely anything outside of an extremely narrow set of vetted topics with prepared answers and especially anything technical gets ignored and receives an irrelevant response at best.

Because it's government. People in government jobs often sit around half the day doing nothing because they have so much spare time. Case in point: me, right now.

Re: Please do not write below the line

#148

Post by sva_ »

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.

In Germany, many people went to jail for not paying it.

Re: Please do not write below the line

#149

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Please do not write below the line

#150

Post by sva_ »

9dev wrote: post #142
ho_schi wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This fee is hot topic in Germany. Our French friends also enjoy ARTE[1] but seem not to suffer anymore from this ridiculous fee. Actually I’m surprised that the Swiss fee is even higher, despite everything in the Swiss is expensive. [1] Big parts of our public television suck. But ARTE is awesome ! * Borgen * Occupied * Mit offenen Karten * Karambolage * … PS: ARTE is watchable outside of France and Germany in a lot…

While the public television may suck, it still pays for the only real Independent news coverage in Germany. No matter what you think of the ARD or ZDF and their management boards, the work of the Deutschlandfunk and regional broadcasters is outstanding and a pillar of a free democracy. I hate having to pay for distribution licenses for soccer games, but if that ensures continued support for high-quality journalism, s…

> I hate having to pay for distribution licenses for soccer games, but if that ensures continued support for high-quality journalism, so be it.

You sound like you're in an abusive relationship. Get help while you still can.

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