TV Licence renewal:An post have unilateraly changed the address (which is now wrong)

I got my tv licence reminder yesterday, licence is out at the end of the month. Anyways for reasons known only to an post they have decided to change my address details from what I had supplied to them when I took out the licence last year. Firstly they have changed the spelling of the townsland I live in and secondly added in an extra line for a nearby town. Now if you were sending me a letter you would never address it the way they did.

Why would anpost take it upon it self to change my details? Was because I had the gall to use the correct spelling or I had the gall to ignore their system of record keeping.

I asked when renewing for them to change it and they refused.

Just my 2 cents and letting off some steam.

Re: TV Licence renewal

Just a point - if your address is incorrect in any way and you do not get a licence, then if it goes all the way to the Courts, the summons will not stand.

I know someone who was taken to Court for no licence but their address was incorrect and the case thrown out.

They should not be doing this as it is leaving themselves wide open.

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Strange thing is that I supplied the correct details when taking out the licence. You would think that a renewal would be based on the exact same details.

Technically the address is accurate just you wouldn't address a letter normally in that manner. The funny thing is that the previous owners of the house had reminder letters in that exact same form of address. They had not renewed their licence which was obvious from the amount of letters when we moved in last year.

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They probably had the "odd" address keyed in for the other people on their database and then when you got a licence, they just changed the name details, hence the renewal issued that way.

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I was thinking exactly the same thing, they just updated their database with the change of name.

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bond-007 said:

Technically the address is accurate just you wouldn't address a letter normally in that manner..

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An Post's will send licence reminders to the "technically" correct address, the licence legally would apply to that address. It could be a defence in court if the address on the reminder was not the technically "legal" address

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I thought that An Post are the final arbiter of the correct address for each dwelling? - could it be that they are correct and you are not, despite what common usage may suggest?

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I have asked at the local Post Office and they said that it was not correct. Actually they said that addressing a letter in such a manner would delay it considerably as it would go the incorrect town first and then have to be corrected and come back. I just checked my OS map and I am right in the spelling of the townland.

Apparently they make up the addresses based off the inspectors runs and not actual addresses. Not what begs the question is that they altered the record generated when I purchased a new licence, I never used any letters sent to the old owners.

I would love to find a way to change it back just to annoy them.

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There used be a little procedure some people used when renewing their license. They'd let it lapse, then when they got the reminders to pay it a few weeks later they'd go to the post office and buy a new license with a slightly different version of the address and perhaps use the other spouses name.

Why bother? Because it allowed them to not have a license for maybe a month each year - roughly a 10% discount. By the time the inspector arrived at the door the new one with the slightly different address could be waved in his face.

What may be going on here is An Post are now forcing their version of the address (correct or not) on the license to prevent this from happening.

If it still goes on I'm in no way supporting the practice and find it reprehensible, without this money RTE might be unable to fund 1960s style news colour pieces of Colm Murray struggling with chopsticks in China.

Re: TV Licence renewal

ashambles said:

If it still goes on I'm in no way supporting the practice and find it reprehensible, without this money RTE might be unable to fund 1960s style news colour pieces of Colm Murray struggling with chopsticks in China.

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I shall sleep better knowing that RTÉ have the money to send Colm Murray to China. I have already renewed the licence some 3 weeks early. I would be tossing and turning at night if I knew that Bryan Dobson might not be able buy a new suit because I was selfish enough not to pay my licence.

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An Post have (or certainly had) an address verification service commercially available to allow call centres etc to check addresses when taking orders. It used to be possible to get a trial account on this service, so it might be worth checking your address on this service.

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Thanks for that. I registered on that service. I checked out the address and it comes back exactly the way I thought it would. Seems that An Post are wrong. Quelle Surprise.