PRS for Music Avis 

They are an absolute joke and should be reported to the Financial Ombudsman for the way they conduct their business.

We have received several demanding invoices for a music license that they claim we should have for playing licensed music within our shop premises.

I have called them on a couple of occasions and advised that we only play Royalty Free Music and nothing else, and have also invited them to visit our shop to see for themselves. We are still receiving threatening letters from them, the last one advising that they will escalate this to an external recovery agency......... is this how a supposedly professional company conducts their business.............. I think not. It is absolutely a criminal way to run a business, and the MD's should be brought to task over their companies practices.

Horrifying company. After they joined companies, they added a backdated charge to my annual invoice for a licence i didnt need. They wouldn't reply to any emails requesting they amend it. I paid the correct amount minus the made up charge. Then they passed the 'debt' that never existed to their collections company whom are extremely aggressive, incompetent and non negotiable. So I responded by spamming all of their email addresses and the debt collectors demanding an updated invoice. I got no reply from anyone.....but the calls and threats stopped. Now 5 weeks later, I still haven't had any reply nor any issue of the correct invoice. No doubt they will do the same at next years renewal.

Probably the most appalling company I’ve ever encountered.

We don’t play music at work, yet we’ve been hounded relentless by these bunch of clowns for a music licence on the basis that we considered installing a music system at work, but never did because of the cost associated with licences.

Even after repeated messages this didn’t stop them from invoicing us and chasing payment for something we don’t have.

We now in the process of taking legal action against them.

they invoiced me for 1 year ahead even though i gave them notice, they acknowledged the notice by email but never issues a credit for 1 year ahead. quickly the debt control company was on me. i said i needed a credit note as i gave them notice and i have that in the email. this has been ongoing now for 4 month, i email PRS every month and ask for a credit, no response, when i called them they put me on hold, after 40min they cut me off.
debt collector got copies of my emails but they still chae for debt which i dont owe. someone needs to step in! this has given me a lot of stress and i think this may be actually illegal to invoice for services that never been requested and then pass debts to debt collectors?!?!

Biggest con artist going.
Cancelled my licence with them bk in august in january inrecieved an invoice for the year i phoned up to see ehat had gone wrong just to be told my account hadn’t been closed but as i good will jesture they would take 50% off i refused to pay and seeked legal help and worked out thet i only owed them £45 phoned up yeaterday to make the payment if £45 as agreed. The looked at acc today and they hage taken £82 out of my account WITH OUT MY PERMUSSION. Rang my bank theres nothing i can do as the payment has gone through and they would need to cancel it form theire side. So i called back only to get a rude response saying that thats what i owed them so thats that. With so may bad reviews i don’t know how this company is still going. Over half hour wait on the phone and no one ever answered emails

Not sure they should get 1 star. Awful unprofessional company. Finished and paid my contract with them and decided the cost had gone up too much to justify - I decided not to take out another licence with them as the cost went up from £98 a year to over £450 for a tiny shop! (small business owner); they then moved the goal posts saying that I owed them another months payment as I hadn't informed them quick enough that I didn't want the licence (1 week).
BEST ADVICE STAY AWAY!!! There are some up and coming companies that look better so there are others out there

What an absolute shower of s**te this company is, we informed them via email that we no longer needed a licence as we were not playing music in the shop anymore. This decision was made as £800 per year for a radio on in the background seemed like an unnecessary expense in these lean times. two weeks later they had set a debt collecting agency on us for non payment, a week later a letter addressed to me personally, not the business arrived!
I am only the manager not the owner and now this could potentially threaten my credit rating, which like our business is excellent and unmarred after thirty plus years of trading, totally unacceptable!

Terrible company, none existent customer service, don't answer their phones or emails.

Like most reviews here I have to say PPL PRS LTD are the most incompetent organisation I have ever dealt with and that is saying something.
Received a much increased invoice this year and queried it via their web site. no reply. Got sent another invoice and queried that as well. No reply.
Got another invoice so decided to call them. 45 minutes on hold. Eventually got to speak to someone. They agreed the invoice was indeed wrong and reduced it by £150. They sent a new invoice and we paid it.
A week later we got a letter from a debt collection agency seeking payment...for the wrong amount of course. Called the debt collection company who must know PPL PRS very well as they just ok, no worries. There will be no action taken.
I then rang PPL PRS LTD again, 40 minute wait naturally, and eventually got to speak to that one person who works for them. He apologised but said that we had sent the payment to the wrong address...probably, even though it was the only address on the invoice. He would call me back later which he did. Quel surprise they had found the cheque and it would paid in the next day! The following day I received confirmation that we now had a nice new licence. Finally the torture was over for another year.
Sadly not. The following day I received an new invoice...for the wrong amount. I called them and was on hold for the usual 30 minutes and eventually got to speak to a young man whom I can only describe as a weapon.
He admitted he didn't have a clue why it was sent, why it was for the wrong amount but it was probably just a copy invoice which I must have asked for....I hadn't. It isn't a copy it's a brand new invoice with a different amount and different date to that paid last month.
His advice was to just ignore their bills in future, which is probably very good advice but I guess eventually they will take you to court.
I asked if they could please take me to court as this would be the only way I might find out what my correct bill should be.
Sadly there is nothing that you can do with PPL PRS LTD. They are a law unto themselves. They are under staffed and in a state of utter chaos. That is not their problem however...it's yours.

Out of the blue call, saying that our company requires a music license. We disputed this and asked for it to be cancelled. A few weeks later a debt collection notice is posted to us, not made out to the company, made out to me personally - eh? A total fabrication of malpractice, dubious business practices and the reviews to backup the claim.

What an awful way to conduct a business. I've got an invoice in dispute but still get a debt collection letter. Personally addressed to me not the business that I work for. No response to my emails and have hung on the phone for 25 mins plus...never actually managed to speak to anyone. But as previous reviews state-they have the monopoly so probably don't actually give a damn. So now I'll raise a formal complaint- 20 days before they'll respond though!

Invoice received and paid; licence issued, all well in advance of due date. One day after due date a threatening email was received claiming non-payment. Also claims they've tried to contact by letter &/or phone, none of which is true. What a pity they have a monopoly so no alternative otherwise they'd be out of business in an instant. Shysters.

They keep taking payments out of my account which i dont owe i have rang up a few times now and emailed them and keep getting promised callbacks and a refund its still ongoing and nothing is being sorted as a small struggling business i cannot afford this it needs to be sorted!

As an aspiring musician of later years and only just coming to the self-recorded musician medium in recent times, it is time for me now to step forward with my efforts. To that end there are a few things which need putting in place if one is reaching forth for global dominance, and as a musical DIY-er out of the UK, I'm covering myself with a 'PRS' membership.

To that end, from initial enquiry right through to payment and setting up each of the 24 songs for registration, this has been one of the most Well Thought Out website applications, and easily navigable domains I've yet encountered.

PRS essentially collect Royalties for you once a song is registered, and then pay royalties to members when their work is performed, broadcast, streamed, downloaded, reproduced, played in public or used in film and TV. My application has all been set up in under a week, although I Did have my songs also registered with another agency so some of the information was to hand, but their response times are Fantastic, to the point on Emails and well understood for the uninitiated like myself. It also builds up confidence that one is in the right hands regarding all of their hard labour, and that's gotta be worth it's weight in gold in a medium often surfing shark infested waters.

RECOMMENDATION TO DIY MUSICIANS AND FRIENDS:
Absolutely...

Sincerely Yours Mister Limpopo (for David Okangba, Penzance, Cornwall, England)