Dart Charge question
Discussion
I used the Thurrock crossing on a Sunday and came back late so could not pay on that day,the next day being Monday i remembered about it late at night and tried to pay before 12 midnight (the cut off time) and twice the payment page crashed when processing (around 11 45 and 11 55 pm approx) then i tried it around 12 10 am (10 mins after cut off time) and it worked and payment was charged
a week later i got a letter saying i need to pay a penalty as I have not paid up and need to pay up now and then they can ignore the penalty
Since I paid up already I ignored the letter (i know its my fault) and didn't call them to inform I had done so
1 month later I was sent a letter telling me to pay up the fine of £105 and £ 2.50 admin fee if not they will go to court,as i didn't want my legal action i paid up and emailed them my explanation about the their payment page crashing with the screen shots of the original payment made (10 mins late from the cut off time) and asking them if they can refund the penalty I paid in good faith
A few weeks have gone by and still no reply......
I wonder if anyone else has similar issues
a week later i got a letter saying i need to pay a penalty as I have not paid up and need to pay up now and then they can ignore the penalty
Since I paid up already I ignored the letter (i know its my fault) and didn't call them to inform I had done so
1 month later I was sent a letter telling me to pay up the fine of £105 and £ 2.50 admin fee if not they will go to court,as i didn't want my legal action i paid up and emailed them my explanation about the their payment page crashing with the screen shots of the original payment made (10 mins late from the cut off time) and asking them if they can refund the penalty I paid in good faith
A few weeks have gone by and still no reply......
I wonder if anyone else has similar issues
I made a crossing a couple of years back after purchasing a car, then added it to my account once I got home. I missed the part that said their system doesn't work like that, and duly got a penalty notice in the mail a little while later. At that point, I had the opportunity to just pay the amount for the crossing, no fine. Since you've got a receipt for the payment you made, it'd be quite unreasonable for them to expect the fine to be paid. But I'm not sure where you stand now that you've paid it, or how easy it'll be to recoup that.
carboy2017 said:
I used the Thurrock crossing on a Sunday and came back late so could not pay on that day,the next day being Monday i remembered about it late at night and tried to pay before 12 midnight (the cut off time) and twice the payment page crashed when processing (around 11 45 and 11 55 pm approx) then i tried it around 12 10 am (10 mins after cut off time) and it worked and payment was charged
a week later i got a letter saying i need to pay a penalty as I have not paid up and need to pay up now and then they can ignore the penalty
Since I paid up already I ignored the letter (i know its my fault) and didn't call them to inform I had done so
1 month later I was sent a letter telling me to pay up the fine of £105 and £ 2.50 admin fee if not they will go to court,as i didn't want my legal action i paid up and emailed them my explanation about the their payment page crashing with the screen shots of the original payment made (10 mins late from the cut off time) and asking them if they can refund the penalty I paid in good faith
A few weeks have gone by and still no reply......
I wonder if anyone else has similar issues
Yes, but the difference was that I didn't ignore the letter. I called them to ask why the £2.50 I had paid late couldn't be used to satisfy their 'pay us £2.50 now and we won't enforce the penalty'.a week later i got a letter saying i need to pay a penalty as I have not paid up and need to pay up now and then they can ignore the penalty
Since I paid up already I ignored the letter (i know its my fault) and didn't call them to inform I had done so
1 month later I was sent a letter telling me to pay up the fine of £105 and £ 2.50 admin fee if not they will go to court,as i didn't want my legal action i paid up and emailed them my explanation about the their payment page crashing with the screen shots of the original payment made (10 mins late from the cut off time) and asking them if they can refund the penalty I paid in good faith
A few weeks have gone by and still no reply......
I wonder if anyone else has similar issues
The answer I received is 'it doesn't work like that, our systems don't allow for it'. Crazy as f
k! So I paid them a second £2.50 and my previous late payment was held as credit for a future single crossing.
However, knowing that I might well use it within the next 12 months I cba to make a song and dance about it.
Having paid the penalty I doubt that you'll get it refunded. It's like a LA PCN. Payment is treated as acceptance of guilt.
Instead of caving in to their threat you could have used due process - https://www.trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk/the-appe...
Whether you would have got anywhere with it though I have no idea.
When I put a private plate on one of my vehicles, I thought that I'd updated everything with reference to that, I had forgotten about Dart Charge, we went off on holiday which involved crossing the river, I still have the old Dart tag in the windscreen which still beeps each time I go through & didn't give it a thought. By the time we got home there were a couple of letters, one asking for the missed payment & another saying I'd missed the chance to settle early. I called them & explained about the new plate, adding that as they are linked to the DVLA database I assumed that it would automatically update their records. They politely explained that unfortunately it doesn't, they updated them & told me to appeal explaining what had happened. I did that & got a standard "do not do this again" reply, I'd asked about the payment for the return journey which was now late too but they were able to deduct that from my account.
Matt Clay said:
I made a crossing a couple of years back after purchasing a car, then added it to my account once I got home. I missed the part that said their system doesn't work like that, and duly got a penalty notice in the mail a little while later. At that point, I had the opportunity to just pay the amount for the crossing, no fine. Since you've got a receipt for the payment you made, it'd be quite unreasonable for them to expect the fine to be paid. But I'm not sure where you stand now that you've paid it, or how easy it'll be to recoup that.
Similar story hereI registered my car on the website the day after crossing. Presumably for the same reason, that you can't register after, I just left it. About 3 months later I got an email saying I owed them money at which point I panicked, but logging in to the account I saw I was just in debt for 2 quid for the crossing.
They're pretty lenient TBF
They have improved their processes a lot over the last couple of years, but when it first started the system was an utter shambles.
I had hundreds of issues where a hire vehicle made a crossing on a Saturday for example but didn't pay the charge. That same vehicle would be rehired on the Monday or Tuesday to another customer who would pay the charge to cross.
A few weeks (or months) later, we would get a penalty charge for the second crossing - the payment would have been allocated to the first missed crossing and therefore they assumed the second crossing was unpaid. The second hirer could prove that they had the vehicle on certain dates, and also had a payment receipt from the date of the disputed crossing.
After lots of meetings in Leeds with them I had about £15k worth of penalty charges wiped clean.
And then there is the issue of a hired vehicle being added to an auto-pay account, and Dart then billed that autopay account for all outstanding penalties.... That was another £20k worth of credits needed.
I had hundreds of issues where a hire vehicle made a crossing on a Saturday for example but didn't pay the charge. That same vehicle would be rehired on the Monday or Tuesday to another customer who would pay the charge to cross.
A few weeks (or months) later, we would get a penalty charge for the second crossing - the payment would have been allocated to the first missed crossing and therefore they assumed the second crossing was unpaid. The second hirer could prove that they had the vehicle on certain dates, and also had a payment receipt from the date of the disputed crossing.
After lots of meetings in Leeds with them I had about £15k worth of penalty charges wiped clean.
And then there is the issue of a hired vehicle being added to an auto-pay account, and Dart then billed that autopay account for all outstanding penalties.... That was another £20k worth of credits needed.
Just search all the tolls you are likely to meet up with, register your car, and keep the minimum in there with auto top up. I have the Dartford Crossing and the Mersey Gateway. The M6 Toll has booth anyway.
oP, if you tried to pay and the system was down, and you have proof and have told them that, that is it. Make a phone call or ignore it. If you have explained in writing/e-mail, just leave it. Don’t fret over these issues.
oP, if you tried to pay and the system was down, and you have proof and have told them that, that is it. Make a phone call or ignore it. If you have explained in writing/e-mail, just leave it. Don’t fret over these issues.
Yes i sent them the payment proof done 10 mins after the cut off but didnt take the payment page crashing which I should have done
I had to pay the fine as they have sent a letter saying they will be taking it to court and i didnt want my credit score to get messed up
but subsequently sent an email with explanation for the delay
Pica-Pica said:
oP, if you tried to pay and the system was down, and you have proof and have told them that, that is it. Make a phone call or ignore it. If you have explained in writing/e-mail, just leave it. Don’t fret over these issues.
carboy2017 said:
I had to pay the fine as they have sent a letter saying they will be taking it to court and i didnt want my credit score to get messed up
No, you didn't have to. You could have used the process I mentioned earlier. You received at threat and chose to cave.Your credit score wouldn't have been messed up either unless you totally buried your head in the sand.
A lot of people don't understand how the system works - https://www.trustonline.org.uk/understand-judgment...
I’ve encountered the same issue. Forgot to pay for a crossing, suddenly had a moment of realisation a few days later and paid up. Had a letter a month later saying I owed £2.50 and needed to pay it - looked at the date, dated after the time I had remembered to pay up, so assumed all was well. Then got a fine of somewhere over £100 a month or so later.
Contested it and ended up speaking to someone on the phone who clarified that they operate on two separate systems. Any money paid prior to the reminder letter cannot be “seen” by the system once the letter is sent. So I was in the ridiculous situation of owing them £2.50 for my crossing whilst my account was £2.50 in credit, and they issued me the fine.
I wrote a good bit of gumpf about paying in good faith as soon as I had realised my mistake and pointing out their lack of good faith in issuing me a penalty for owing them £2.50 whilst my account was in credit by the same amount, and they cancelled the ticket as it was a first time offence.
Crazy!
Contested it and ended up speaking to someone on the phone who clarified that they operate on two separate systems. Any money paid prior to the reminder letter cannot be “seen” by the system once the letter is sent. So I was in the ridiculous situation of owing them £2.50 for my crossing whilst my account was £2.50 in credit, and they issued me the fine.
I wrote a good bit of gumpf about paying in good faith as soon as I had realised my mistake and pointing out their lack of good faith in issuing me a penalty for owing them £2.50 whilst my account was in credit by the same amount, and they cancelled the ticket as it was a first time offence.
Crazy!
Pica-Pica said:
Just search all the tolls you are likely to meet up with, register your car, and keep the minimum in there with auto top up. I have the Dartford Crossing and the Mersey Gateway. The M6 Toll has booth anyway.
oP, if you tried to pay and the system was down, and you have proof and have told them that, that is it. Make a phone call or ignore it. If you have explained in writing/e-mail, just leave it. Don’t fret over these issues.
A ridiculas sittuation. I would need accounts foroP, if you tried to pay and the system was down, and you have proof and have told them that, that is it. Make a phone call or ignore it. If you have explained in writing/e-mail, just leave it. Don’t fret over these issues.
Dartford Crossing
Seven Crossing
Tamar Bridge
Humber Bridge
Mersey Tunnel
Widnes Bridge
Tyne Tunnel...
A bit of joined up thinking would be very useful...
surveyor said:
Pica-Pica said:
Just search all the tolls you are likely to meet up with, register your car, and keep the minimum in there with auto top up. I have the Dartford Crossing and the Mersey Gateway. The M6 Toll has booth anyway.
oP, if you tried to pay and the system was down, and you have proof and have told them that, that is it. Make a phone call or ignore it. If you have explained in writing/e-mail, just leave it. Don’t fret over these issues.
A ridiculas sittuation. I would need accounts foroP, if you tried to pay and the system was down, and you have proof and have told them that, that is it. Make a phone call or ignore it. If you have explained in writing/e-mail, just leave it. Don’t fret over these issues.
Dartford Crossing
Seven Crossing
Tamar Bridge
Humber Bridge
Mersey Tunnel
Widnes Bridge
Tyne Tunnel...
A bit of joined up thinking would be very useful...
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