How to Speak to a Person at TV Licensing

With the TV Licensing website reliably unreliable, there are times when people have no option other than to contact TV Licensing by telephone.

The number for TV Licensing general enquiries is 0300 790 6131.

Calls are charged at the standard UK geographic rate, which means they are covered by the inclusive minutes of a mobile phone contract.

Anyone calling TV Licensing for "assistance" faces a baffling array of 71 options spread over 7 different menus. Depending on the nature of their enquiry that could mean a caller faces almost two minutes of irritating menu options before being connected in the right direction. In all likelihood they will then have to wait even longer for a call handler to become available.

The quickest way of speaking to a TV Licensing call handler is the following: 

• Call 0300 790 6131.
• Listen to the 30 second welcome message (tortuous, but you can't do anything else at this stage).
• As soon as the voice begins to read out the first menu options press 5.
• As soon as the voice begins to read out the second menu options press 5.
• As soon as the voice begins to read out the third menu options press 3.
• As soon as the voice begins to read out the fourth menu options press 2.
• Your call will then be connected to a person who will attempt, probably very poorly, to answer your specific TV Licensing questions. 

By anticipating the menu options in this manner you can avoid almost two minutes worth of TV Licensing claptrap and save almost two minutes worth of call charges.

The TV Licensing call centre is the responsibility of operations contractor Capita, which gives a good indication of the quality of service it provides: absolutely shit. Please only call if you really need to, as you will probably end up frustrated by the outcome.

Another couple of important points to be aware of:

• The TV Licensing call centre is only open between 8.30 am and 6.30 pm weekdays and 8.30 am and 1 pm on Saturdays. It is closed on a Sunday. At the time of writing the opening hours have been further reduced due to the coronavirus restrictions, which means the call centre is also closed on a Saturday. 
• There is no point calling outside these times. If you do you will end up listening to a rambling message that goes on for several minutes before saying the call centre is closed. Not only is this a waste of your valuable time, but it will also incur several minutes of unnecessary call costs. TV Licensing knows that people are frustrated by this rambling message, but has done nothing to rectify the issue.
• TV Licensing is in the habit of terminating incoming customer calls if demand is too high. That being the case, don't be too surprised if the system simply hangs up after you've been waiting on the line for several minutes. 

We hope you found this information useful. Please see our Quick Guide page for a five minute crash course on TV Licensing rules and enforcement.

If you've found this article useful please consider liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter or downloading our free ebook.