Argos TV - Licence - Big Brother

[Wesley]

I witnessed a heated arguement the other day between a lady wishing to buy an LCD TV and an Argos employee.

Apparently, Argos are required by law to take the name and address of anybody purchasing a TV or any TV related peripherals and pass these on to the licencing authorities. The lady in question was having none of this and contested the issue even after the store manager was called. She claimed that, on principle, it was wrong that she had to supply her personal details and if she wanted to buy a lawnmower, these would not be required.

In the end she stormed out without making a purchase and Argos lost the sale of a 500 TV.

I can't help feeling she had a point :-)

[Clive George]

Maybe, but Argos were right - they have to do that, like every other TV seller in this country. She should take it up with her MP if she feels this is wrong.

I believe the traditional answer for somebody in her situation is to give a false name/address. I do wonder if she's now gone online and bought one to be delivered to her home...

[AC]

Really? You really did not know this already?

TV peripherals? You sure they said that? HDMI lead? DVD player? Never been asked for personal details for either of those. That sounds like bollocks to me. I don't believe a store manager would say that. Mind you, its been a while, maybe things have changed and Im out of date.

So what? I think many laws are wrong in principle. Doesn't mean I can make other people break them for me.

No, because there is no lawnmower licence.

And Argos avoided being fined for not doing their legal duty.

Well, she didn't. She is an idiot. Or, let's be kind, ignorant of the law.

What point do you think she had? Should have have been able to coerce the Argos manager in to breaking the law?

[Brian Gaff]

It has however been the law for many many years.

Brian

[John Rumm]

There are some shops that over implement the requirement... perhaps not the the extent of requiring details for the purchase of an HDMI lead, but I was certainly asked to provide details once when purchasing a DVD player in Tesco. A DVD player with no capability to receive TV!

[harry]

Heh, the problem is that if she does that, the guarantee would be invalid? How could she have a TV delivered without giving her address?

[alan]

WH Smiths at Edinburgh Airport want to scan your boarding pass before they will sell you a packet of overpriced sweets. Result, the queue at the tills took 10x longer as people opened bags etc. to find their passes. I questioned why - and was informed that the staff had been told to do it.

I also witnessed at the airport security someone turning up with a M&S small carrier bag with what looked like a 3 pack of mini trifles and a 3 pack of mini cheesecakes. The security personnel spent a few minutes checking the ingredients and then confiscated the trifles.

[Jim K]

Go back to bed Harry.

Jim K

[charles]

It's not just Argos, it's any TV retailer. The principle was to minimise licence fee evasion.

[polygonum]

The other technique is to use the address of someone who has a licence. Most of us probably know someone with a licence...

[John Williamson]

She might have had a point, but Argos were correct. Any retailer supplying TV receivers or related equipment, such as a set top box or video recorder, as in the case that caused me a small amount of grief with my tenant when Dixons got my address wrong, a USB dongle, must inform the appropriate authority of the name and address given by the customer. There are quite severe penalties for not doing so. Unless she bought a set second hand from a private seller, she would have to supply her details before taking delivery. Some retailers are less obtrusive about this than others, but they all have to do it.

The reason is so that The Powers That Be can collect their pound of flesh for permitting you to receive TV broadcasts. There is no pound of flesh to be collected for mowing your lawn, so they don't care how many lawnmowers are sold.

[ARW]

You can buy a fishing rod without a licence....

[polygonum]

There are places you can fish without a licence - even within the UK. E.g. your own pond.

You can buy a car without a licence.

[ARW]

And you could be buying the TV as a gift or just to watch DVDs.

[Geoff Pearson]

That is not a statutory licence.

[polygonum]

Indeed - but as a gift it would make sense to declare the recipient's name and address.

How you use it (i.e. whether or not connected such that it can receive a signal) is indeed a way of avoiding the requirement to pay for a licence, but a TV inherently has the receiving capability and that is what puts it into the notifiable items class.

[Brian Gaff]

Those are different issues. the tv one dates back to at least the 1970s and has been put in place to make sure they can feel the collar of non licence payers.

I can remember all the arguments about flats and lodgers and garden sheds, caravans and stuff like that at the time.

Of course truly portable tv was very rare in those days.

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes, there have been arguments over video devices that have no screens of course. I, for example do get a discount through blindness but if I had no screens at all capable of allowing a third party to see the picture, there are still disagreements over whether the thing is payable or not.

Brian

[The Medway Handyman]

Or a car.

[The Medway Handyman]

I often wondered if those TV detector vans actually worked? Or were they pure front to scare people?