Dart Charge - taking your money after 1 year

NonGeographicalMan

giraffe69 wrote: »

I cross the bridge/use the tunnel rarely. Last time I did it I paid online with no aggravation at all and got an emailed receipt. I appreciate it is different if you do it regularly but why set up an account if you are going to use it once a year? That doesn't mean it is right for them to take money (TfL don't, for example) but it does seem to be having a fight for no gain.

Sorry but anyone who forgets to pay the toll (which is all that people are doing and which it is hugely easy to do and I have nearly done more than once as they provide nowhere on the ground after the bridge with free wifi and/or payment terminals on the ground in the parking area to do so) should not be hit with massive extra penalties totally disproportionate to the real cost to the operator and/or the massive savings to the operator by doing away with all the wages of the toll booth staff (which must have been way more than their penalty enforcement team's wages that are in any case self funding from the swingeing penalties for non payment).

Firstly DVLA should be trying to capture email details for everyone who has a vehicle registered with them so the toll operator should then just email the accidental non payer asking for payment at the normal rate or only some nominal extra admin fee for computer resource (say £1 extra) and if they have to send a letter (due to no email address or email bouncing) then perhaps they should be allowed to charge another £1.50 for the postal, paper and envelope cost.

And let us not forget this is a main part of the UK motorway system on which there are no other tolls (apart from the optional M6 toll that I have never ever used and always avoided and the toll bridges in to Wales on the M4) so all the duty should be on the Highways Agency side to make it as easy to pay as before. And it isn't at all easy or failsafe for irregular users of the crossing and the penalties for forgetting (which is all it is - that is just forgetting and not trying to get out of paying) are totally unreasonable and disproportionate.

If they didn't want people to forget so they could penalise them they would provide a 5 digit text number to send a message to that kept on chasing you to pay the toll daily until you had done so. They would also give people up to 31 days to pay any toll and not just until the end of the day after the crossing the bridge.

The whole basis of the toll system in use is to scam people with massive extra charges hugely profitable to the thieving French Autoroute toll operator. And while the Dart crossing emails you to tell you that you have paid for some crossing credit they don't email to tell you when you have actually used that credit as a result of successfully making a paid crossing. Instead you the motorist have to go on to their fiddly website and use a reference number, which is not the quoted receipt number to confirm they did correctly identify your number plate and did take the payment. Instead they should be proactively emailing or texting the motorist to confirm that payment has been succesfully taken for any individual journey actually made.:mad::mad::mad:

giraffe69 is also incorrect about TfL not operating in the same way as they operate exactly like the Dart crossing people do with massive penalties for just forgetting to pay and huge bailiff costs etc just like the Dart charge people do. However as there aren't nearly as many one off people driving in to Central London and they couldn't have toll booths on every single entry road in to the Congestion Zone it isn't as unfair or unreasonable as the automated Dart Charge system is.

Ashghinn

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

There is a cost to running all those computers, software systems, and staff - so your £5 doesn't go straight to profit, as at least some of it will be used to cover the overheads of the business, which remain exactly the same (aside from maintenance due to usage) whether you choose to cross the bridge or not.

That's what I say when a customer pays me for work I end up not doing:
"Sorry love, but you can't have your money back. I know you didn't get the radiator, but the money you paid wasn't just for the radiator you know. It goes towards fuel for my van, other people's radiators and food for my tummy".

NonGeographicalMan

Ashghinn wrote: »

That's what I say when a customer pays me for work I end up not doing:

"Sorry love, but you can't have your money back. I know you didn't get the radiator, but the money you paid wasn't just for the radiator you know. It goes towards fuel for my van, other people's radiators and food for my tummy".

Can you give us the name of your business so that we can add it to the list of dodgy white van men that we can make sure to always avoid using........

Mercdriver

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Can you give us the name of your business so that we can add it to the list of dodgy white van men that we can make sure to always avoid using........

I rather suspect the sarcasm went right over your head...


WHHOOOOOSSSHHHH

Richard53

redux wrote: »

From the terms and conditions:

10.Inactive Accounts

If you do not use your Account for a period of more than 12 consecutive months then we will write to you to inform you of your non-use (the Non-use Letter) and if you do not recommence using the Account within 30 days of the date of the Non-use Letter, we may close your Account and cancel any Tag linked to your Account.

That doesn't seem to specify what happens to any balance on the account.

They might have been taking a leaf out of Gordon Brown's book. I recall that when he was Chancellor he had a plan to close all bank and savings accounts that had been inactive for more than x months/years, and take all the money directly into the Government's pocket.


There seems to be a principle working here: if you have it, but don't seem to want it, it's MINE. If I lend you a spanner and don't ask for it back for 12 months, it's still my spanner.

[Deleted User]

Richard53 wrote: »

They might have been taking a leaf out of Gordon Brown's book. I recall that when he was Chancellor he had a plan to close all bank and savings accounts that had been inactive for more than x months/years, and take all the money directly into the Government's pocket.

Sounds like something the Daily Mail would lie about.

AdrianC

Richard53 wrote: »

They might have been taking a leaf out of Gordon Brown's book. I recall that when he was Chancellor he had a plan to close all bank and savings accounts that had been inactive for more than x months/years, and take all the money directly into the Government's pocket.

No, not quite...

The reality:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-dormant-accounts-scheme

Legislation was passed - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/31/contents - that moved money from 15-yr dormant accounts from banks who participate voluntarily to a central fund, which distributed it to charitable "good causes" - primarily mental health, homelessness and financial exclusion.

If you can demonstrate an account was yours, the money is straight back to you.

So far, nearly £700m has been distributed, with another billion expected over the next decade.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42557319

Richard53

AdrianC wrote: »

No, not quite...

The reality:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-dormant-accounts-scheme

Legislation was passed - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/31/contents - that moved money from 15-yr dormant accounts from banks who participate voluntarily to a central fund, which distributed it to charitable "good causes" - primarily mental health, homelessness and financial exclusion.

If you can demonstrate an account was yours, the money is straight back to you.

So far, nearly £700m has been distributed, with another billion expected over the next decade.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42557319

Yes, that's the one.


I suppose the BBC is slightly more reliable than the Daily Mail.


It still reeks of 'it was lying around and no one seemed to want it, so I took it'. Don't try that defence if you are ever in court on a theft charge.

RoyAW

Received the email saying my account would become inactive, I had a balance on the account and didn't want to top up or drive to the bridge to activate it so called them.
The helpful agent explained the strange process they have.
They cant refund from an inactive account as my one was, to be able to access it I needed to add money or travel over the bridge. having explained I didn't want to add money if I wasn't guaranteed to be able to get a refund. After being told once reactivated I would be able to get a refund I went ahead and topped up £1 over the phone (£10 min online). Once this was done my account was immediately active, I then had a choice to take a part refund or close the account with a full refund. I chose to take a refund to leave £10 on my account as I do travel rarely and didn't want to forget to pay and be fined.
The outcome was all good I got my account back to £10 and active for a further year and at any point, I would be able to get a full refund if I wanted.
Bizarre process but enabled me to get my surplus money back, having topped up for a couple of years to keep the account open.

NonGeographicalMan

RoyAW wrote: »

They cant refund from an inactive account as my one was, to be able to access it I needed to add money or travel over the bridge. having explained I didn't want to add money if I wasn't guaranteed to be able to get a refund. After being told once reactivated I would be able to get a refund I went ahead and topped up £1 over the phone (£10 min online). Once this was done my account was immediately active, I then had a choice to take a part refund or close the account with a full refund.

I chose to take a refund to leave £10 on my account as I do travel rarely and didn't want to forget to pay and be fined.

If you only cross the bridge a couple of times a year its far easier to register free with https://www.dartsave.co.uk. There is no money to deposit, no deactivation of your account at one year old and you only pay for the crossings you make after the event when they email you to say they have paid on your behalf.

The French autoroute owning company's policies of deactivating the account at one year old and not letting you buy a discount bundle to cover a journey you have already made along with outrageous fines for just sending you a letter to ask you to pay (because you not surprisingly forgot about a toll you couldn't pay on the ground at the time you were using the crossing) are all aimed at exploiting the motorist without any conscience or morals as to their behaviour by this bunch of money making scumbags.:eek::mad::mad::mad: