TV Licensing on Twitter Revisited

It has been a good couple of years since we performed our last analysis of TV Licensing's Twitter activity.

TV Licensing regularly fills the newspapers with the stories it wants people to see, but it is much less enthusiastic about its dirty linen being publicly aired on Twitter. It is a bit of a running joke that whenever anyone criticises TV Licensing on Twitter, its default response is to try and shift the conversation into private. "Can you contact us about this by email/telephone?" is the usual cry.

Below we have published the latest ten interactions on the official TV Licensing Twitter account. We have not cherry picked the most critical - we have simply chosen the ten most recent, which we suggest is a fairly typical representation of comments directed at TV Licensing on Twitter.

It won't come as a surprise that nine of those interactions are critical of TV Licensing. The tenth was a neutral comment. We have reproduced those tweets as they were written, which includes any typographical and/or grammatical errors.
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Marlon Martins (@23mmartins) is clearly frustrated that TV Licensing seems to be ignoring his earlier tweet: "@tvlicensing any replies here?"

GoCrazyRobin (@David13Robinson) had an exchange with TV Licensing six weeks earlier and is annoyed that, in the finest traditions of the organisation, his complaint has been totally ignored: "@tvlicensing can someone contact me NOW before I seek legal advice about a unlawful caution and complaint I made 6 weeks ago"

Gemma-Lou Stevenson (@gstevensonsport) contacted TV Licensing about a refund more than a week ago, but has heard nothing back despite being promised a response within 48 hours: "@tvlicensing I applied for a refund of part of my licence over a week ago - was told I'd get a call within 48hrs - still nothing, discuss"

Jenny Figg (@JenRoseFigg) has been doing battle with TV Licensing's horrendous telephone system: "@tvlicensing tried calling 5 times no one available and no hold service. Need help please advise."

Martin Jowle (@jottajowle) wasted his time telling TV Licensing he didn't need a TV licence two months ago. True to form, TV Licensing has continued to send him threatograms and has visited his home: "@tvlicensing what kind of joke system do you use?? Saying I've not been in touch but I got an email proving I have 2 months ago!!"

Livia Dixon (@LiviaMay) posted the neutral comment we mentioned earlier. She was querying whether a TV licence refund offer was genuine. Of course it wasn't, because TV Licensing makes getting a refund as difficult as humanly possible: "@tvlicensing had an email to say I'm due a refund, it is legit?"

Carol Head (@scambagger) is another TV Licensing customer frustrated at having her earlier correspondence ignored for 8 days: "@tvlicensing still waiting a personal Email reply 8 working days after initial contact. Is there anyone in your Email dept?"

Charlie Farrell (@TheTrueChazzyf) went to the effort of informing TV Licensing of his no-TV status, despite being under no legal obligation to tell them anything. He contacted TV Licensing in early July and has just received a threatogram: "Same here. Responded to letters within 2 days, email confirmation from @tvlicensing on 10th Jul. First threatening letter yesterday. Fuck 'em"

Kevin (@UkuleleKev) is one of an increasing number of TV Licensing customers accused of having no TV licence despite having one all along: "Alright @tvlicensing, I suggest you check your database a little more thoroughly before you start sending out threatening letters next time"

Donella Webb (@Webbdonella) has also declared no-TV. Repeating a familiar pattern, so is annoyed to have received a TV Licensing threatogram. She tweeted her complaint to the TV Licensing media relations account (@tvlicensingnews), which booted it back across to the main TV Licensing account: "@tvlicensingnews you know that I know you know I don't require a TV licence <wink> now stop harassing me"
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As a further demonstration of customer discontent, we have counted the number of times TV Licensing apologised in its last 100 tweets. Those tweets were made between 8th and 29th September 2017.

Of the 100 TV Licensing tweets in question there were 11 containing the word "sorry".

In response to our earlier commentary TV Licensing has actually shifted away from making direct apologies on Twitter. It now prefers to respond to complaints with an invitation to get in touch by email or telephone.

Of the 100 tweets analysed TV Licensing asked the customer to get in touch on 45 occasions, 40 of which were in response to a complaint.

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