Dart Charge Racket.

MrBaileySir

Hi All,

This is my first newbie post so please bear with me..

I have a dispute ongoing with the Dart Charge for the QE2 Bridge crossing. I crossed the bridge back in July 2017 and attempted to make a payment online that evening. On the webpage when trying to submit the payment it appeared to go through but then crashed with an ‘Internal Server Error’ message displayed on screen. I wasn’t sure if the payment had gone through so tried again when I had a better data signal but got the same result. I left it for the day and then didn’t have the ability to get online and check my balance on my account as I was out onsite with a client.

Three days later when I was back in my office I tried to make a payment again and this time it was processed correctly. At the same time I set up a direct debit to top up automatically for any future journeys and to avoid having to remember to pay it. I contacted Dart charge via the webpage help and asked if they had received my original payment and whether there was anything further to pay. I also informed them that their webpage had crashed and asked for advice. I was expecting to be stung with a £30 fine as the payment hadn’t technically gone through and would have begrudgingly paid it.. However, I was told that all was okay and nothing was due via email response. I had also moved house and updated the DVLA with the new address a few weeks later. I have not received any correspondence on the matter until yesterday. (the new owner of my property also states nothing was received for me there but who knows.. I’d moved out with a 3 month redirect)

I received a letter yesterday from a debt recovery agency stating I owe £190.50 for the above Dart charge. I have immediately paid this ‘debt’ as I don’t want any bailiffs turning up and increasing the ‘debt’ even further. I have also never been in any debit before in my life and don’t want to start with this shower. I have called Dart Charge today and been speaking with several disinterested and largely ineffective people who can’t seem to understand what has happened or offer any solution or have any ideas at all really. So, under my own investigations have now registered an appeal on the webpage and filled in an online form. I have be informed that I have 56 days to wait for a decision.

I suppose my questions are:

- Is it unreasonable to expect Dart Charge to check that a vehicle had moved address via the DVLA. Technically it was registered at my old address at the time of the crossing but was registered at my new address shortly after.
- Is it unreasonable to expect them to check that they don’t already have the vehicle in the database with my correct address and contact details? I have made many subsequent auto payments.
- Is there an ombudsman that I can log a complaint with when the 56 days are up and I get the inevitable upholding of the fine?
- Is it worth pursuing them through the small claims court?

Overall, this is very poor service from them and appears to be a racket..

Many thanks,

waamo

With Dart charge issues posters that have contacted them on Twitter report a good success rate of having problems solved.

It doesn't take long to sign up and may be the most pragmatic way of a pain fee solution.

Coupon-mad

Yes I've seen it reported on pepipoo forum, that a polite complaint can work.

kaggi

I did not know about the charge as I am a tourist until a few weeks later when I received a charge. I disputed it and enclosed a cheque just for the toll (not the additional fine) and they seemed to accept that.