Hey CAG, Posting on behalf of a friend. In short she doesn't have a tv licence as doesn't watch live tv only netflix. However her young daughter downloaded BBC iplayer on her tablet and signed up and gave her mums post code etc and obviously must of said she had a TV licence. Fast forward a few weeks and my friend gets an email that says "Our records show you've used BBC iplayer on a number of occasions in recent weeks. As your no licence need status is now invalid you need to buy a TV licence" and gives her a link to buy. Does she need to buy one, her daughter being on early teens did not know her mum needed a TV licence. Anything she can do?

https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/2836966/bbc-secret-shopper-finds-two-thirds-of-tesco-customers-overcharged-by-expired-deals/

BBC 1 now

I made the mistake of ordering a sewing machine online without checking the company's credentials beforehand. Got carried away with a bargain (more fool me). It turns out they've been on BBC Watchdog and Rogue Traders in the past and haven't changed their ways since. I immediately cancelled my order - same day and my request went ignored. They sent me an email saying they were processing my order. I reiterated that I wished to cancel. They sent me a dispatch notification saying they'll deliver the item Exress delivery. They did email me back when I stated that I refuse to be liable for delivery charges or admin charges as I cancelled 2 days before they sent it out. They said they had upgraded the machine from an ex-showroom model to a brand new one but they'd try and cancel the delivery and get back to me shortly. I have no doubt they said that to try and get me to accept the delivery and from what I've read on other reviews/forum posts that would be a big mistake! I refused the delivery and now they won't engage with me at all. All of my 'Support Forum' posts have been closed without response. I've opened a dispute with the credit card company but I'm not sure it falls within their remit - I didn't take delivery, they did try to deliver, the item wasn't damaged, they didn't charge my card fraudulently ... So where do I stand? It's been 12 days since I placed and cancelled the order. 7 days since I refused delivery and 3 days since they received the item back at their premises. (I have tracking proof). Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you!!

BBC News - Hundreds of thousands register to vote as deadline looms Registration needed by 23.59pm tonight. People have until 23:59 BST on Tuesday 7 June to register to be able to vote in the UK's EU referendum. The Electoral Commission said 1.65 million people had applied for a vote since a campaign began last month - but millions more have yet to sign up. Registering online should take about five minutes. People may need their National Insurance number, or passport number if a UK citizen living abroad. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36462425 Just in case.Check things out.In or out your vote counts. https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3580768/KATIE-HOPKINS-jobs-come-colour-want-long-s-not-white.html What price jobs to the most suitably experienced and qualified or even most promising, whatever their race, colour or creed?

The relief and grief of a child being diagnosed with autism I missed this last night, did anyone see it ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-35820081 Why I wonder are there so many diagnoses of Autism or is this something that has largely gone unnoticed until more recently ? One family has 3 children, all diagnosed with this !

'The culture secretary has vowed to end the iPlayer "loophole" soon, so those watching catch-up TV do not get "a free ride"....John Whittingdale said the licence fee would be extended so it no longer just applied to live television viewers.' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35708623

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/dame_janet_smith Before even reading the report, I think the cost summary says a lot about the BBC Review costs Costs from the Dame Janet Smith Review and GoodCorporation Review of BBC child protection and whistleblowing policies can be found below. Breakdown of costs: Reed Smith (fees and disbursements): £5.4m Dame Janet Smith and Dame Linda Dobbs: £724,000 BBC Costs: £405,000 Witness Legal Costs: £6,000 Total costs: £6.5m* BBC Trust costs (external legal support): £78,614.62 (excl VAT)**

Well there you are again – Vodafone is at it. Same old story same old villain same old problem same old rubbish – same old gesture of goodwill. A woman who apparently cancelled her Vodafone contract in about 2011 and has been billed all that time. She eventually stops the direct debit and of course suddenly Vodafone leap into action and get the debt collectors onto her case. Will Vodafone begin a court case and have the whole thing ahead before a court of law in front of an independent judge? No, of course not. Vodafone merely prefer to instruct debt collectors to harass people and to browbeat people and to blight their credit files to a point where those people just eventually give up and pay up in order to get a quiet life. Vodafone again. This time, because the BBC got involved Vodafone agreed to write off the debt – as a gesture of goodwill. This lady was on the verge of giving up and thought that she might have to pay. By the way, although Vodafone have been taking her money for years, it was only for the last two months during which the direct debit had been stopped that they were seeking payment. She simply objected to that and also objected to the fact that they hadn't registered her cancellation and that they had trashed her credit file. She wasn't even trying to get her money refunded all the way back. She had effectively written off because she felt she didn't have a hope – that's how desperate Vodafone customers can eventually become. Apparently we have a customer services rep on this forum somewhere called Lee – I'm not too sure where he is but maybe he would like to comment on this Lee?

You cannot post any critique of the Beeb on a Beeb website. They don't like it up 'em. But where to go from their egregious past blunderings? £6 mill for Wuss , competitive bidding for sports games etc IMHO scrap the licence fee and replace it with a per capita levy taken from the central tax revenues. A fixed percentage by parliament act. Done deal. BBC to scrap ch 3 and amalgamate 4 with 2. Keep regional stations supporting local culture and language. Beeb to get back to its core principles as a public broadcaster. Remove the yardstick (enforced by Thatcher) requiring the Beeb to compete for audience figures. Let it instead be judged on excellence Beeb not required to offer and compete for public sport programs (the commercial stations are well able to satisfy this demand) Beeb to be supervised by an apolitical council of "wise persons" chosen by public consent (renegotiated every 3 years. Absolutely no political appointments. Beeb to stand back from political grandstanding and staging confrontational debates (most clearly against their charter All persons employed by or under contract to the Beeb must submit to a CRB check. All contacts with 3rd party name of individuals, groups, organisations to be logged and recorded in a daily register A register of outside interest of BBC employees must be maintained Thats right, a new clean screen for the BBC - something we can trust:mad2:

Did anyone see this programme last night ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06nzl76/hughs-war-on-waste-episode-1 It was really good and I was shocked to see the unnecessary waste not just by households but by Supermarkets and Fast Food Chains. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has a blog where he encourages us to help force Supermarkets to reduce the waste. https://wastenotuk.com/ He interviewed a Parsnip farmer and was astonished to see how many of these were rejected because they were "cosmetically challenged" . Apparently the Farmer had a contract with Morrisons and they set the standards for the parsnips. The Farm was barely covering its costs - Morrisons refused to speak to the programme. They later ended their contract with the Farmer because they spoke out on TV. Hugh took the "cosmetically challenged" parsnips and set up a stall outside a Morrison's Store - where he asked the opinion of Morrison Shoppers as to whether they would buy/use the parsnips - they all said they would. He later went to an amazing recycling Centre where a few recycling sceptics were given a tour to see how stuff was recycled and then the end waste used to make bicycles, clothes, furniture. Next week he is going to look at the amount of perfectly useable clothes that are being thrown away. A very interesting programme.

It is difficult to believe that the BBC, which once was held in great respect as a truthful recorder of world events, is now a biased corrupt service dedicated to the manipulation of public opinion. Yet the official reporting of the migrant crisis is so obviously a biased form of emotional blackmail that one simply cannot avoid this conclusion. The BBC constantly shows us close-ups of migrant women and children, yet every time the camera moves back it becomes obvious that about 85% of each and every group consists of young males, who appear surprisingly well fed and well clothed considering their claim as refugees. Indeed we are occasionally shown huge crowds which are entirely male. And these males are prepared to resort to whatever force they have available, as the stone throwers and fence wreckers demonstrate at the Hungarian border. One migrant grabbed a woman, presumably his wife but who knows, and threw her on the railway track to prevent the movement of a train. Ate such people likely to benefit any community into which they move when they have already demonstrated their contempt for any rule of law which does not match their plans? Yet our media continues to demand that we should feel a moral duty to “welcome” these people, who are almost always referred to by the media as Syrian families fleeing from Assad, when it has now been acknowledged that the vast majority are from quite different parts of Africa.

BBC breakfast had a segment about cold callers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33059305 Make sure that you report every unwanted cold call here https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

The BBC will make the unemployed and low-paid workers compete against each other for a cash prize in a controversial Hunger Games-type show to find ““Britain’s Hardest Grafter”. The BBC plan to screen a "Hunger Games" style game show will make unemployed people and low-paid workers compete in a series of challenges and tasks in competition for a cash prize. Only the UK’s lowest-paid workers and the unemployed will be invited to compete. At the end of each episode, those who have produced the least will be eliminated and by the end of the process, just one worker will remain. The winner will receive in the region of £15,000 which is estimated to be a year’s living wage, outside of London. This is the next rung down the ladder in the disturbing trend of voyeuristic "poverty porn" made popular in programmes like 'Benefits Street'. Unemployment and poverty are serious social issues and should not be the subject of a cheap game show format, designed to exploit some of the most impoverished in our society for the purposes of dubious "entertainment". Not even the cheapest and tackiest of the cable or satellite channels have stooped to this level. We believe a higher standard should be expected from the BBC, a national broadcaster that is funded by public subscription in the form of the license fee. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/bbc-to-pit-lowpaid-against-each-other-in-hunger-gamesstyle-show-to-find-britains-hardest-grafter-10279386.html And if you're disgusted by that: The BBC: Stop the BBC's "Hunger Games" Style Show - Sign the Petition! 384 signatures are still needed! https://www.change.org/p/the-bbc-stop-the-bbc-s-hunger-games-style-show The BBC states that its mission is... "To enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain." Now that mission apparently includes the exploitation of the poor and vulnerable members of our society as fodder for a game show. The signatories of this petition strongly object to this degrading and exploitative format and demand that the BBC abandon its plans to broadcast this programme. This poverty porn is getting out of control imo.

4th December 2014 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5HlJ1z5lDtYHqVRTRqxx4XL/npower-billing-chaos

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30087031

BBC apprentice started again last night and I have stopped watching. I find myself shouting at the TV, due to the rubbish they are saying. These are not normal people. They have been selected for having irritating personalities, capable of having an argument in an empty room. And I think the programme makers stitch the people up, by making them try to navigate a very busy London, with each team having access to only two cars. They always split each team up, so they have four sub teams to film. Then they often make sure that the companies they do business with are as spread out as possible. The TV company often select the businesses the teams can deal with, as the TV company need to make sure it is a suitable business to deal with and they are happy to be filmed. So it is all a bit of a made up programme and not really what it presents itself to be. Rant over. Not watching again.

Was watching this channel five show 2 weeks ago - in full view of the camera the HCEO normally on the show a decent enough guy with a nasty job forced entry into a residential home, assaulting the debtor after putting foot in door. Has the new act now given HCEO's the right to make a forced entry trying to smash past the debtor/resident over a civil debt? I thought HCEO's could only force entry into commercial property? They also appear to now be issuing bankruptcy stat demands like confetti in an attempt to secure their fees despite the fact this could be working against their clients interest as if the debtor has no assets, in trying to secure their fees the HCEO's if they go ahead have lost the creditor/claimant any chance of recovering a debt that is now "gone" with no assets towards the bankruptcy... I thought using bankruptcy stat demands as a debt collection tool to try and frighten a payment was against the rules and got some debt collection bottom feeders into trouble?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29047911 Very worrying !!

. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04gtzrj More here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04gyrm4/broadcasts/2014/09

Viewers who avoid the licence fee by only watching catch-up shows on iPlayer could have to pay up, the BBC’s director general warned yesterday. Lord Hall’s comments come amid growing concerns that younger viewers are using free catch-up services to dodge the £145.50 annual charge. He insisted that the licence fee has ‘plenty of life yet’ but admitted it could be changed. Currently, a loophole means viewers who only watch catch-up shows instead of on TV as they are broadcast do not have to pay the licence fee. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2731277/Now-BBC-threatens-make-iPlayer-users-pay-licence-fee-Director-General-admits-charge-modernised-apply-programmes-catch-service.html#ixzz3BPWSiM4D

Returns on May 14th. The team look at a major car manufacturer's claims regarding the safety testing of its vehicles. Plus, the high street sports retailer not playing fair with their pricing policy, and the chemical ingredient in household paint that is being linked to an allergy epidemic.

Showing Thursday April 10th at 9:00 PM http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b040rdf3

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