dartford crossing online payment. paid or not?

eskimo26

I just used this to 'make a one off payment' but the receipt says 'payment type: credit' their was no way to link it to our journey but I did put in the car reg and it came up with a description of the car so perhaps they link it that way?

I'm just wondering if it's paid or if i have to somehow use the 'credit' now?

Also it crashed first time i tried to pay and they only give you until 12pm the following night to pay.

Another nice confusing system must make a pretty little earner in fines since they went cashless. :rotfl:

thx for the help.

tripled

I got confused by the website too, so I rang them up (a day late) and paid by phone. One would assume they would pay off any recent journeys but it's not obvious. There's probably something buried on the site somewhere that explains it.

Edit: Well I've taken another look at the site and apparently you can see what you've paid for by entering the "FJ Number" off the receipt and your car registration. I've done that and the payment is showing up but with no crossings against it.

The receipt shows a payment type of "Credit" which is the same as on the website, so it would seem that *should* cover recent crossings - unless mine didn't get processed properly.

Also according to some news outlets, apparently on your first offence they are sending warning letters with the fine waived if you pay up pronto.

eskimo26

tripled wrote: »

Edit: Well I've taken another look at the site and apparently you can see what you've paid for by entering the "FJ Number" off the receipt and your car registration. I've done that and the payment is showing up but with no crossings against it.

It says
Payment date 25/02/2015

Payment amount £5.00

"You have made crossings against the payment as follows: No transaction."

No mention of yesterdays date when we crossed, again utterly confusing nonsense.

benjus

Yes, it's all linked up based on the car's registration. It may take a day or two for the crossings to flow through the system but if you've paid for the correct number of crossings with the correct registration number you'll be fine. I used it for the first time on Sunday and just checked it now, and the crossings are showing against the payment.

PeacefulWaters

The requirement to pay for the crossing is dreadfully signposted.

I would think a fair old proportion don't realise it's a toll and get stung for £140.

eskimo26

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

The requirement to pay for the crossing is dreadfully signposted.

I would think a fair old proportion don't realise it's a toll and get stung for £140.

It's all part of the fine culture, every time something gets streamlined this way they whack a huge fine on it. I would agree the journey back going over the bridge was not clear at all especially since it's called the dartford tunnel not the dartford tunnel and bridge.

Browntoa

sign up for Dartsave, free to register , they pay it and then email you to ask you to pay it and give 5 days to do so

Tiexen

Browntoa wrote: »

sign up for Dartsave, free to register , they pay it and then email you to ask you to pay it and give 5 days to do so

Or you could sign up for the proper Dart Charge and only pay £1.67 instead of £2.50

PeacefulWaters

eskimo26 wrote: »

It's all part of the fine culture, every time something gets streamlined this way they whack a huge fine on it. I would agree the journey back going over the bridge was not clear at all especially since it's called the dartford tunnel not the dartford tunnel and bridge.

I don't particularly object to the non-payment charge. If it's absolutely clear there's a charge in the first place.

Boothless charging makes sense to me to keep traffic flowing in an area that's been a bottleneck for years.

But the "C" logo means nothing to somebody from outside the area. The clearest sign says:

"Dart Charge Find Us Online" - it doesn't explain what "Dart Charge" is. Some might think there's a darts tournament in the area.

Another sign just says "Dartford Crossing" has the "C" logo and the times the charge applies. That is simply not explicit enough.

nom_de_plume

I used the crossing for the first time yesterday since the change. I was amazed at the lack of signage and the only one I noticed was a string of red C's over the road near to the old pay booth location on the bridge crossing and then a brief message on the hard shoulder shortly after..

A big word of caution regarding the original post however.....
I used the crossing yesterday in a hire car and paid for both crossing online. I checked where the payments were allocated this morning - it takes up to 24 hours to show - and they were allocated to crossings made on the 7th February, presumably by a previous hirer who forgot to pay (or missed the next to useless signage).

I've rang and hopefully got it sorted this morning but did advise the agent I would be charging to reply to any penalty notices subsequently issued.

What a shambles!