Another Dart Charge PCN..
Discussion
Hi
I have a Dart Charge account, used the crossing on 31/12/15 - recieved a letter on 10/1/16 stating that as it was my 1st offence, pay up and that will be that - I read this as, top up your account so that you are in credit and cover the 2 crossings that i did, my account was 8p overdrawn. I topped up my account immediately on the 10/01/16 & threw the letter away thinking that was the the end and then didnt hear anything else until 11/05/16 stating that I hadnt paid the fine and I now owe £107.50 each crossing...
I've since been told that on the 1st letter, rather than top my account up I should have called a number to pay etc etc but I should have recieved a further 2 PCN notifications 1 for £35 & 1 for £70 before it got to £105 (£2.50 per crossing each way).
I've contested this and the guy on the phone says that he can see that I tried to do the right thing but what I did wasnt the right thing to do.. I thought that as I had an account I just needed to keep this in credit & was so shocked I'd been sent a penalty that I topped up immediately and didnt read the small print and thought everything was hunky dory & that I wouldnt do it again!
Where do I stand with this now? Obviously I dont want to pay £215 for a £3.34 crossing and my account has always been kept well other than this 8p over sight.
Appealed it and because my appeal came in 28 days after the original PCN date (1st correspondence after original PCN was 5 months later) I either go to court or pay it is how I see it - Im sure they will say that they sent other reminders & im sure people always say that they didnt recieve them but I wouldnt want to leave it this late to now face this.
I have a Dart Charge account, used the crossing on 31/12/15 - recieved a letter on 10/1/16 stating that as it was my 1st offence, pay up and that will be that - I read this as, top up your account so that you are in credit and cover the 2 crossings that i did, my account was 8p overdrawn. I topped up my account immediately on the 10/01/16 & threw the letter away thinking that was the the end and then didnt hear anything else until 11/05/16 stating that I hadnt paid the fine and I now owe £107.50 each crossing...
I've since been told that on the 1st letter, rather than top my account up I should have called a number to pay etc etc but I should have recieved a further 2 PCN notifications 1 for £35 & 1 for £70 before it got to £105 (£2.50 per crossing each way).
I've contested this and the guy on the phone says that he can see that I tried to do the right thing but what I did wasnt the right thing to do.. I thought that as I had an account I just needed to keep this in credit & was so shocked I'd been sent a penalty that I topped up immediately and didnt read the small print and thought everything was hunky dory & that I wouldnt do it again!
Where do I stand with this now? Obviously I dont want to pay £215 for a £3.34 crossing and my account has always been kept well other than this 8p over sight.
Appealed it and because my appeal came in 28 days after the original PCN date (1st correspondence after original PCN was 5 months later) I either go to court or pay it is how I see it - Im sure they will say that they sent other reminders & im sure people always say that they didnt recieve them but I wouldnt want to leave it this late to now face this.
Edited by Sea Demon on Thursday 23 June 15:03
I heard on the radio that the crossing was causing chaos on the M25 so I turned off at the M20 and went through Blackwall tunnel. There was traffic but it was moving. I got to my destination at a little past my normal time. Fair enough, I have no idea just how long I would have been stuck at the tunnel approach but I prefer that route.
It is an option, although it depends on your destination to an extent.
It is an option, although it depends on your destination to an extent.
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