Road Tax refund?
Discussion
As I'm sure you are all well aware I'm having issues with the DVLA at the moment and a friend of mine suggested I report the DVLA to the "Trading Standards Office" and demand a full refund of all the "Road Fund Licence" I have paid retroactive from when I was sixteen (this was at about half past ten in a pub). Road Tax pays for the DVLA and the DVLA are failing continuously to provide the service that is expected/promised by their own charter. If you pay for a service and it is not provided or inadequately provided you are under the sale of goods act entitled to a full refund from that company an/or organisation. So as the DVLA (in my case) have failed to provide the quality of service I the customer expected when I paid my Road Tax; legally I should be entitled to a refund.
The DVLA have the audacity to refer to the general public as "customers" (read the t+c's on your V5C) then they should be accountable for the same laws any company in the UK has to follow, shouldn't they?
Also if the DVLA is refering to the general public as "customers" and is the only company dealing with continuous registration aren't they breaching the "Monopolies Act"?
This is just a bit of sillines but I would love to have a go at getting a full Road Tax refund as it would be well over £5000 by now.
The DVLA have the audacity to refer to the general public as "customers" (read the t+c's on your V5C) then they should be accountable for the same laws any company in the UK has to follow, shouldn't they?
Also if the DVLA is refering to the general public as "customers" and is the only company dealing with continuous registration aren't they breaching the "Monopolies Act"?
This is just a bit of sillines but I would love to have a go at getting a full Road Tax refund as it would be well over £5000 by now.
Liquid Knight said:
skodamanpat said:
it may cost you a fortune and you will lose
That's why I'd set the Trading Standards to it. Government funded agency with infinite budget ... Consumer Direct = central government scheme, who cherry pick from problems reported (only a minority of cases go forward); central government now subject to spending review (pressure to slash spending *will* be imposed imminently).
14-7 said:
Liquid Knight said:
If a high court judge can describe the DVLA as "woefully inadequate" and "unfit for purpose" then I think we have a good case.
Exactly what 'service' are you talking about sueing them for?saaby93 said:
HD Adam said:
Do you mean Vehicle Excise Duty?
It hasn't been "Road Tax" since 1937.
VED is raised on cars etc but the money goes into central funds, from which roads, the DVLA and all the other s
te is paid for.
It says vehicle tax on the back of a tax disc hereIt hasn't been "Road Tax" since 1937.
VED is raised on cars etc but the money goes into central funds, from which roads, the DVLA and all the other s
te is paid for.It's a tax raised on vehicles.
That tax is not ring fenced for spending on vehicles or roads or anything else. It goes into the pot.
Much like taxes on cigarettes or alcohol doesn't go directly to the NHS to pay for treating any problems arising from using them.
If you want a real piss boiler, have a look online and see how much of the "Green" taxes take is actually spent on the environment.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I’m writing to you with an enquiry concerning the DVLA. I appreciate and understand that the DVLA is not a business or company but a government authority. Despite this; the DVLA refers to members of the public as “customers”. From the point of view of being refered to as a “customer” by the DVLA does this afford me the same consumer rights as if I were dealing with a company or business?
This enquiry has been motivated by the way the DVLA has treated me as a “customer” and in respect to an incident that has left me allegedly owing the DVLA monies despite the fact I have followed their own guidelines to the letter. I have paid for the DVLA’s services in advance when I paid my “Road Fund Licence”. The DVLA have failed to deliver the service expected and I am far from happy with their lack of “customer” support and demanding more monies from me without actually performing their initial obligations to me the “customer” in the first place.
If I were to pay a company or business in advance for a service and they failed to deliver or delivered an inadequate or substandard service I would be entitled to a refund of the monies at least in part I paid in advance. So shouldn’t this be the case when dealing with any authority or organisation that refers to the public as “customers”?
In this instance I owned a vehicle for a period of time and maintained it within the requirements both of the DVLA and the Law. I paid my “Road Fund Licence” and when the car was no longer fit for use I notified the DVLA that the vehicle had been scrapped. A little over a year later the DVLA issued me with a fine for failing to declare a scrapped vehicle as off the road (SORN). Either the Post Service had failed to deliver the letter or DVLA had failed to file my vehicle details correctly and were now demanding more money for their mistake. I presented the DVLA with a photocopy of the original documentation for the vehicle with the date the car was scrapped written on it. The DVLA then stated that because they had not received it in the post or had failed to process the document correctly it was my fault for not following up.
I responded with the Interpretations Act 1978, Sec 7 which states “Where an Act authorises or requires any document to be served by post (whether the expression "serve" or the expression " give " or " send " or any other expression is used) then, unless the contrary intention appears, the service is deemed to be effected by properly addressing, pre-paying and posting a letter containing the document and, unless the contrary is proved, to have been effected at the time at which the letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post.”
The DVLA completely ignored this and are now demanding more money from me and threatening me with a referral to a collection agency without any suggestion of a court order. Not only do I consider this poor customer service but I also question the legality of the DVLA using such tactics to intimidate their “customers” into paying a fine for their own mistakes.
The DVLA has been described by a high court judge as “Woefully inadequate” and “Unfit for purpose”. I have pre-paid the DVLA for a service they have failed to provide and then gone on to demand more money from me and threaten me with collection agencies if I fail to pay. So I respectfully request the Trading Standard Office look into the DVLA and their practices and like any disgruntled “customer” I would like you to look into the possibility of being refunded for services the DVLA have to and continue to fail to provide.
Yours Sincerely
Me
I know it won't work if I send it to the Trading Standards office. If it doesn't I can always send it to the daily mail.
Liquid Knight said:
Tax would mean the Trading Standard Office wouldn't look twice at it, by refering it by it's proper name "Road Fund Licence" it help make the DVLA sound like the several million Pounds a year profit making business it is.
It's called tax disc all over the reminder form and vehicle tax on the back of the discNowhere is it called road fund licence
Do you want to complain about apples or bananas?
Liquid Knight said:
... I appreciate and understand that the DVLA is not a business or company but a government authority.
DVLA is a government agency ... that's what the 'A' stands for.You don't help yourself by making elementary errors.
With respect, raising your on-going issue with DVLA in this context looks like a whine. I strongly suspect that I won't advantage you at all, and might mean that all your correspondence is consigned to the 'Crank' file and that you are similarly labelled. To make it worse, use green ink and block capitals.
Streaky
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