An elderly RAF veteran has described how TV Licensing caused him sleepless nights by threatening him with prosecution even though he had a valid TV licence.
Eighty-nine year old John Luck, of Nuthall in Nottinghamshire, who served with the RAF for more than two decades, made sure his new home was correctly licensed before he moved in December last year.
After only a few weeks things turned sour when TV Licensing, which is the BBC's revenue generation and collection arm, started to send threatening letters wrongly accusing John of being a TV licence evader.
It is a very regular story and one which TV Licensing chalks down all too frequently to an "administrative error", rather than the incompetence and disorgansation that it truly is.
Speaking to the Nottinghamshire Post, John said: "I emailed them asking why I'm getting threatened, stressing that it's all legal and stressing that I've got all of the paperwork.
"This should all be in the systems and they should know about this, I licensed the property from November and it has made me feel so bad.
"I'm under the hospital, I've managed to reach 89 and I've still got my brains, I'm looking forward to my 90th birthday and I'm an ex RAF veteran for 20-odd years.
"I'm virtually housebound, not in the best of health and this harassment is making my remaining years unbearable.
"I'm not used to all this rubbish that they're doing to me, I can't sleep at night because I keep waking up worrying.
"I've never owed a penny to anybody. I've kept all of the mail and the letters, everything I've got is in writing.
"I could understand it if it was a couple of months, but this has been going on for six or seven months.
"I don't get out that much and I feel people are looking at me because I'm a debtor, I know it sounds stupid but this has never happened before."
Spookily, after months of ignoring John's pleas, TV Licensing sprung into action the moment the local newspaper got in touch.
"An administrative error meant that the licence he purchased was attributed to his previous address, which triggered unlicensed mailings he should not have received," bleated a TV Licensing PR harlot.
"This issue has now been resolved and we have written to apologise.
"In light of his poor experience, we have arranged for a goodwill payment to be sent to Mr Luck."
Skip forward a fortnight and would you believe that TV Licensing still haven't got round to sending that apology or goodwill payment to John, further proving what an utterly despicable, worthless and incompetent organisation it is.
This story is further proof, as if any were needed, that trying to reason with TV Licensing is a completely futile effort.
Anyone with cause to complain about TV Licensing's regular failings is advised to follow the advice in our earlier article.
No comments:
Post a Comment