Dart Charge PCN

[HedgeyGedgey]

I'll make this short and sweet, planned a trip over the Dartford crossing with my father. The day before the crossing was made, I tried to set up an account, unfortunately Dart wouldn't accept the type of debit card I have. No bother, got dad to add my car to his pay as you go account and all was done.
Fast forward a few weeks and have a lovely PCN landed on the door mat. Strange as I had added the car to an account right? No answer on the phone as the call centre is closed due to covid, emailing is just going round in circles and I'm getting more and more frustrated with it as they won't cancel the PCN. I'm unsure what to do now as the 2 weeks have passed

[final_edition]

They were happy to take my money for 2 unpaid crossings during the height of lockdown.

Iirc the call centre is Leeds way.

[Cliftonite]

Have you checked that your father managed (successfully) to add your vehicle to his account, accurately and on time? And that there were adequate funds thereon?

[solo2]

Cliftonite said:

Have you checked that your father managed (successfully) to add your vehicle to his account, accurately and on time? And that there were adequate funds thereon?

surely the account would show a deduction if it was added successfully. Do you get an email to say a car is added to an account. If so I would be writing to them to query. although being me I would pay the PCN whilst it is still on the cheaper end, usually the first PCN gets you a very discounted rate??

[Paulduckworth]

I’ve found that if it’s a first offence for the vehicle, they only charge for the crossing and not any penalty.

We’ve got all of our cars on one account and have fallen foul a couple of times when changing vehicles or moving plates around. When you go online to pay the PCN, it just asks for the £5. I’ve always done this within a couple of days of getting the PCN.

Might be too late for you now.

There’s no email confirmation of adding a vehicle, it just appears in the list of vehicles.

Edited by Paulduckworth on Saturday 29th May 22:43

[mike80]

If you can get hold of them, for a first offence they normally end up just charging you the standard fee. Certainly did with me. I did try asking them when I got caught again, but no such luck!

No excuses, I normally go over in the works car, but on these occasions I took my own car, which I thought was on our work account. Turns out it wasn't...

[donkmeister]

Complete opposite, but if you forget you actually have an account set up to auto-pay, so go online to pay for a one-off you get charged twice and have to ask for a refund...

You'd think the system would notice two payments for the same vehicle on the same day and flag it up when the second payment is requested, but it doesn't.

[Ice_blue_tvr]

I added a car on the day of the crossing but after I had made the crossing.. Received a pcn and called them up.. They were actually OK about it and just charged me the standard fee and explained I needed to add the car before crossing.. Not the same scenario as op, but they were pretty good about it.

[Pica-Pica]

Of your car was added to your father’s account before the crossing, the crossing details would then show up on his account. Check that first. Anecdotally on here, most people who have failed to pay, get a ‘first offence’ reprieve and just get charged the standard crossing payment.

[Ussrcossack]

final_edition said:

They were happy to take my money for 2 unpaid crossings during the height of lockdown.

Iirc the call centre is Leeds way.

Harrogate

[HedgeyGedgey]

Yes the car was added before the crossing, I think because its an import it has smaller plates that maybe the ANPR didn't pick the plates up? Still nowhere any closer to dealing with them, no answer on the call lines at all just says to pay the PCN online

[Pica-Pica]

HedgeyGedgey said:

Yes the car was added before the crossing, I think because its an import it has smaller plates that maybe the ANPR didn't pick the plates up? Still nowhere any closer to dealing with them, no answer on the call lines at all just says to pay the PCN online

Smaller plates or smaller digits? The plate size will be OK.
But that’s another issue. If you registered it before and t,he car is legit (i.e. it matches what DVLA recognise) there should not be an issue, to me.
From Dart Charge site.

“If you have made crossings in a vehicle prior to adding it to your account, these must be paid for individually. Only crossings made after the VRM has been added will be settled to your account.”

[Fastpedeller]

Pica-Pica said:

HedgeyGedgey said:

Yes the car was added before the crossing, I think because its an import it has smaller plates that maybe the ANPR didn't pick the plates up? Still nowhere any closer to dealing with them, no answer on the call lines at all just says to pay the PCN online

Smaller plates or smaller digits? The plate size will be OK.
But that’s another issue. If you registered it before and t,he car is legit (i.e. it matches what DVLA recognise) there should not be an issue, to me.
From Dart Charge site.

“If you have made crossings in a vehicle prior to adding it to your account, these must be paid for individually. Only crossings made after the VRM has been added will be settled to your account.”

Surely the plates showed on ANPR for them to send the PCN?

[Square Leg]

Resurrection…

I used the crossing both ways (first time ever) on 3 April.
Paid on line when I got home the same day - email receipt received.
Today had a PCN through the post, and also on the Dart / Gov website it shows my two crossings as not having been paid and with the £35 charge payable.

Spoke to someone there by phone - they can’t see my payment and I’ll need to call back every 3-4 days to see if they’ve sorted it..

I’m inclined to ignore them now, but even though I have the payment receipt am I opening myself up to a whole world of pain?