Congestion Charge 24hr window - please help break this down for me!

Aylesbury_Duck

steedoc wrote: »

Question for you Aylesbury - why did you click that button? I suggest the only reason you click that button (after reading rest of the page) was to find the odd rule to catch me out.

No reasonable person would click that button after reading all the information on that page unless they were about to pay. I was not in a position to pay prior because I was not sure I would have to enter.

So my point stands, there is no good reason to assume I would have to click that button, or that I would have 24 hours to pay, after doing due diligence and reading the information on that TFL website.

I disagree. It was the first thing that caught my eye (I've never used the site before). After the first page telling me I would have to pay, the obvious button to click is the "payments" button. Why would anyone read about the obligation to pay, shrug their shoulders and come back to it at their leisure to find out how and when to pay?

I've no need to catch you out, you've been caught out already. Not by me, by your own lack of research. You can rail against the system, deadlines and TfL all you like but I think what they ask for and the timeline they ask for it is perfectly reasonable.

cajef

Living in the sticks I very rarely drive into central London but on the odd occasion when I do I always check on the internet before going in case I may have to go into the congestion charge area.

First hit that comes up when you put Congestion Charge Payment in are full details of charges, time limits and how to pay.

[Deleted User]

Person goes onto internet forum and starts a thread.

Person gets responses.

Person spits dummy out at said responses.

AdrianC

steedoc wrote: »

I did 'a little research'. I heard there was a congestion charge for going to the centre of London, so I went to the TFL website page to check how much it would be ( goto tfl website: modes/driving/congestion-charge]) (can't post the url as new member). After reading this page I saw it would be £11.50 and that I would be able to pay the charge by clicking the button.

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge

Indeed it doesn't say on that anything about what timescale you have to pay. So you simply assumed it was some conveniently long period? Rather than check any further?

Just the one single most obvious next click would have told you.
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge/paying-the-congestion-charge

THERE IS NO MENTION ABOUT THE ARBITRARILY SHORT TIME WINDOW OF 30 HRS on that website page.

You keep saying 30hrs - but 30hrs is the ABSOLUTE bare minimum possible. If you enter the zone right on 5.59pm, and pay at 1 minute past midnight 30hrs later, that's your 30hrs.

You posted here at 7pm on Monday. The only way it could have been 30hrs is if you'd entered at 6pm on the previous Thursday and tried to pay at midnight on Saturday morning at the absolute earliest - so you'd been fuming about it for three whole days by the time you posted.

Also, I noted when entering the zone that I was indeed now inside the zone just before 6pm and I would have to pay, which indeed I tried to do very shortly after my trip.

Odd definition of "very shortly after".

a 30hr payment window is arbitrarily short

So how long should the minimum be, iyho? Two working days after the visit? Three? A week? A fortnight? A month? A year?

brianposter

And over and over again it is people who live in the area and already know how it works who tell us that it is simple.

I have spent about 15 minutes on my computer investigating how to pay but still do not know how to do so. It seems that a box which ought to appear on my screen simply does not appear.
It is something not particularly relevant to this argument but the simplicity clearly arises only when you already know how to work the system.

AdrianC

brianposter wrote: »

And over and over again it is people who live in the area

Actually, I live about four hours from That London. I'm trying to remember when I last drove in the CC Zone during charging hours. I'm not 100% sure if I ever have, but if I have, then it was at least 10 years ago.

I have spent about 15 minutes on my computer investigating how to pay but still do not know how to do so. It seems that a box which ought to appear on my screen simply does not appear.

If you go to the TFL page you pointed us to, do you have a panel of links under the left under a big white-on-black "CONGESTION CHARGE" header?
Second of those is "Congestion Charge Payments". Click on that - https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge/paying-the-congestion-charge

Right at the top of that page, it says...

TfL wrote:

The daily charge is £11.50 if you pay in advance or on the same day, or £14 if paid the following charging day.
If you don't pay by midnight on the charging day after you drove in the zone, you'll get a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN).

Aylesbury_Duck

brianposter wrote: »

And over and over again it is people who live in the area and already know how it works who tell us that it is simple.

I live in rural East Kent. I've never driven into the centre of London and have never visited the TfL site until OP asked me to do so. Who are these "people who live in the area...who tell us that it is simple" you are talking about?

brianposter wrote: »

I have spent about 15 minutes on my computer investigating how to pay but still do not know how to do so. It seems that a box which ought to appear on my screen simply does not appear.
It is something not particularly relevant to this argument but the simplicity clearly arises only when you already know how to work the system.

I found what I would need inside 30 seconds on my first visit to the site.

shaun_from_Africa

brianposter wrote: »

I have spent about 15 minutes on my computer investigating how to pay but still do not know how to do so. It seems that a box which ought to appear on my screen simply does not appear.

In which case, it's a problem with your computer or computer settings, neither of which are the fault of TFL as everything needed is clearly shown on my computer.

brianposter

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

In which case, it's a problem with your computer or computer settings, neither of which are the fault of TFL as everything needed is clearly shown on my computer.

Er,no. It is a problem that happens on several different computers in various places.
It seems to be something to do with using the internet over a radio link, combined with a website that has over-sophisticated programing. I come across 3 or 4 websites that cannot control accurately what appears on the screen - and from this afternoons attempt TFL appears to be one of those.
99% of websites run perfectly.


The fact that the website runs without problems on your machine merely proves that the basic outline of the webpage runs correctly.
The fact that the website would not run on my machine shows that the website is not as good as some of you seem to believe.
However all this is irrelevant to the OPs original argument.

luckyduck83

My local train station only accepts paying via an app/phone and they give you just 30mins to pay.

I'd say 24hrs is quite generous.

And as someone who often drives in central London, the CC is fantastic. Driving in central used to be a nightmare. It's still awful, but at least you're moving.