PCN advice please (Dartford Crossing)

[danjama]

Hi all, this is a tricky one but hopefully I can get some sound advice from the PH massive.

I have just opened a PCN for crossing the dartford crossing on 09/02 without paying the charge. Now two points:

1. This was more than 3 months ago now, can this even be valid?
2. The vehicle I had at the time was actually registered on my Dart Charge account, so for some reason or another they have not taken the charge from my DC balance.

It seems like they want to charge me a PCN for their fk up? What should I do here? Just write back stating the vehicle was registered to my DC AC but they didn't take the money?

Not sure if it's relevant but the vehicle was sold on the 10/03.

Any advice appreciated.

[Roo]

Just tell them it was on your account.

[mgtony]

Originally the charge was going to have to be paid by the following day, but as this must have been causing most people to forget so they have extended the period to pay.
There doesn't seem to be an official time limit published anywhere on their website. Someone I know had forgotten to pay it a remembered a couple of weeks later, so phoned them up to ask if she could still pay it and without even giving the date of when she crossed was told they are being lenient and to pay it on-line. Crossed twice the same day so could have been 2 penalties!Point being, perhaps they are allowing 3 months before issuing PCN's. A reminder letter would be nice though!
Does the Dart system still operate with the credit that's left on it or are you supposed to register again?

[Autopilot]

Phone the number on the PCN and tell them what has happened. I had a PCN....and it was my fault, but they let me pay for the crossing and the fine was binned. They were more than reasonable. As your problem is seemingly down to them and a new system, I'm sure they'll sort it.

[shep1001]

Uses ANPR these days, are you sure they have the number plate recorded correctly and there was credit on the account? If you have used the crossing successfully before/after the alleged date of the offence which will be recorded on your Tag account log then use this as evidence to tell them its their problem if they are being awkward about it.

[SVTRick]

Seems a bit of an issue this system.
Why the charging system could not just be scrapped.
Was working next to the south portal yesterday and the queue was back over a mile at 15:30hrs

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-29...

http://www.brentwoodgazette.co.uk/Dartford-Crossin...

Looks like jonny overseas will get away with it.

[Monkeylegend]

danjama said:

2. The vehicle I had at the time was actually registered on my Dart Charge account, so for some reason or another they have not taken the charge from my DC balance.

Maybe need to check you had sufficient funds to pay. Was/is it set up with automatic top up once it drops below £10? If not and it had dropped below they might consider you have insufficient funds to pay. They like to keep £10 of our money for the privilege of having an account.

[Mutley]

When they introduced the new toll system, anyone with a Dart Charge account was instructed to migrate to the new system, and ensure their car(s) were listed on the new account, as the old Dart Charge accounts were being closed

OP did you do this?

[Corbeliere]

Remember that it's a French company running this.
After living in France I am of the firm opinion that if you want something making difficult, get the French to organise it.

[S11Steve]

The Dart Charge has been a shambles from the start. I work in Fleet Management and have over 160 charges in query with them, mainly because when you pay for a crossing online, it does not ask for a crossing date.

Example - A customer rents a van over a weekend, makes a to and from crossing but doesn't pay. On the Tuesday, another customer rents the same van, makes the same crossing but does pay for both trips.
3 weeks later we get the PCN for non payment relating to the Tuesday crossing. Tuesday customer shows us a receipt for payment, so we put it into query. This only came to light as one of the vehicles in question had a tracker fitted, so we could see that it made the same journey a few days previous with the previous hirer. Dart/Sanef did not inform us of this, and would not discuss it as they had considered it had been paid.

Another example is when a vehicle is added to an online account, if there are any outstanding charges against that registration then they will be applied to said account, regardless of who was previously responsible for the vehicle at the time of the event.

And if you try to speak to anyone on the 0300 helpline number they seem to work from scripts, and are unable to help with any "enforcement issues".

[danjama]

Thanks for the replies everybody.

I didn't have a DC AC before the online system, so created one to get the cheaper crossings as it came in to force.

I cross the bridge regularly as my GF lives in Dartford, so I 100% had credit all through February.

Anyway, to conclude the thread, I received another 4 PCN's from them today for the same car in the same period.

I logged in and scrutinised my crossing history and they missed all of my February crossings. At this point my piss is boiling.

So I called them when I got home. The guy said the car wasn't on my account (It bloody was as you've taken payments for it up to Jan 31st and after Feb 28th). He also said I had another 4 PCN's in the post. HOWEVER he cancelled the PCN's as I agreed to pay the crossing charges, which is fine and fair as I did cross the bridge on those dates. (Fair in the sense of the law, not the bloody scam they're running.)

And yes I agree it is a shambles. Utter cretins.

[robinessex]

I used the crossing earlier in the year over a period of a week, plus a few trips to Gatwick. I religously paid on line each evening. When I checked on line a week later to ensuer everything ting was correct, it was s shambles. Payments had been allocated to the wrong trip, others showed no payment. The payments had left my bank account. It took a phone call to ensure all was OK. And, a friend of a friend of a friend was/is in a postion to know this. The fee was jacked up by 50p to £2.50 to pay for all those who eventually get away without paying!! So there.

[Monkeylegend]

robinessex said:

I used the crossing earlier in the year over a period of a week, plus a few trips to Gatwick. I religously paid on line each evening. When I checked on line a week later to ensuer everything ting was correct, it was s shambles. Payments had been allocated to the wrong trip, others showed no payment. The payments had left my bank account. It took a phone call to ensure all was OK. And, a friend of a friend of a friend was/is in a postion to know this. The fee was jacked up by 50p to £2.50 to pay for all those who eventually get away without paying!! So there.

But if you open an account it has gone down to £1.67, so there

[twister]

Monkeylegend said:

Maybe need to check you had sufficient funds to pay. Was/is it set up with automatic top up once it drops below £10? If not and it had dropped below they might consider you have insufficient funds to pay. They like to keep £10 of our money for the privilege of having an account.

No, if you're running your account on manual top up and it's sat below £10, they'll still happily deduct crossing charges from the remaining balance until there's insufficient credit.

[Monkeylegend]

twister said:

Monkeylegend said:

Maybe need to check you had sufficient funds to pay. Was/is it set up with automatic top up once it drops below £10? If not and it had dropped below they might consider you have insufficient funds to pay. They like to keep £10 of our money for the privilege of having an account.

No, if you're running your account on manual top up and it's sat below £10, they'll still happily deduct crossing charges from the remaining balance until there's insufficient credit.

Mines on auto top up so as soon as it drops below £10 it tops up to £20. I would forget to do a manual top up.

[hunton69]

We went over beginning of March and went to pay via phone the following day. They had no record of us crossing number plate recognition has failed to register our vehicle and told me ring back in a couple of days as they would have to manually check the system. Wife rings back still can't find our reg in system and tells the wife to treat it as a freebie.
10 days ago we get a penalty charge.
Luckily we logged our tel calls and there now checking the recording. Still waiting for the outcome.
The system is a joke I can't understand why you can't tex the payment as you go over. Running an account is not worth it as I only use the road once a year.

[calibrax]

hunton69 said:

The system is a joke I can't understand why you can't tex the payment as you go over. Running an account is not worth it as I only use the road once a year.

You can't text it because that would encourage people to text while driving. And it takes a couple of minutes to open an account and stick a tenner in it, which will cover you for three years of return trips and avoid any future hassle... so how is it "not worth it"?

[mattpurdon]

This system seems like an utter shambles.

I've crossed it a good 6 times in the last couple of months, but because the Landy is on black and whites, it's never registered as crossing.

Take that, you bds.

[Sir Bagalot]

Good luck with dealing with customer services.

Back in Feb I paid online for two crossings. Website crashed on me three times. On checking my bank account it charged me twice. It's taken over three months to get the extra payment back from them. In the end it became a matter of principle! fking useless. Truly fking useless

[mgtony]

Sir Bagalot said:

Good luck with dealing with customer services.

Back in Feb I paid online for two crossings. Website crashed on me three times. On checking my bank account it charged me twice. It's taken over three months to get the extra payment back from them. In the end it became a matter of principle! fking useless. Truly fking useless

This was mentioned on the radio this morning. Loads of people being charged twice.

As for them not being able to find someones reg or the camera not recognising your plate, simply register an account and if it picks your car up it debits your account, and if it doesn't it a freeby crossing.