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

John_G_Jones

brianposter wrote: »

As I understand things about 10% of the UK population do not have mobile phone coverage at home so why would they have a smartphone ?

Then they can pay in a newsagent.

John_G_Jones

steedoc wrote: »

Also, I noted when entering the zone that I was indeed now inside the zo
Even if this scheme had been in place a 100 years, it wouldn't matter, my argument is that people generally know about the charge, or they know when they see the signs, but the imposition of a 30hr payment window is arbitrarily short and is only obvious when you know.

Know, or bother to check.

Let’s be honest here, you’ve been a bit naive, didn’t bother to do what any normal person would, and ended up paying nearly £70 more than you could have, or about a day’s parking in London, for your trouble.

It’s a bit of a pain but the lesson is that you messed up, not that the world is badly organised.

You are coming across as someone who refuses to look both ways when crossing a one way street. It’s your choice but one day you will have to realise that the world is not designed around the lowest conceivable level of intelligence that a person can have and still get dressed, it’s based around someone relatively normal.

John_G_Jones

steedoc wrote: »

John G Jones, thanks for pointing out it is in fact 31 hours.

In my case I popped in 15 minutes before 6pm for a hospital appointment, and attempted to pay in good faith some 30 hours later and found I could not.

So why the dishonesty with the 24 hour claims?

steedoc

John_G_Jones wrote: »

Know, or bother to check.

Let’s be honest here, you’ve been a bit naive, didn’t bother to do what any normal person would, and ended up paying nearly £70 more than you could have, or about a day’s parking in London, for your trouble.

It’s a bit of a pain but the lesson is that you messed up, not that the world is badly organised.

You are coming across as someone who refuses to look both ways when crossing a one way street. It’s your choice but one day you will have to realise that the world is not designed around the lowest conceivable level of intelligence that a person can have and still get dressed, it’s based around someone relatively normal.

When you say "any normal person", what you mean is, any normal, anally retentive, peanut gallery, no-life, slave morality person.

A normal, reasonable person would assume that they can pay, using the latest technology(!) a short period after using the zone.

There is no conceivable reason for TFL to make this period 30 hrs, rather an 2 or 3 days, other than to catch people visiting the city out and reach into their pockets and steal their money.

steedoc

John_G_Jones wrote: »

So why the dishonesty with the 24 hour claims?

a simple arithmetic error, dear boy

steedoc

luckyduck83 wrote: »

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.

If I was taking a train, I would assume that I should make the payment before travelling. Based on the fact that for many hundreds of years, back to the golden era of steam, this has been the precedent.

However, upon entering a congestion zone which allows you to pay AFTER THE FACT, there is no obvious precedent, and therefore no reason to assume a window of 30hrs

steedoc

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.

Ha, thanks, in your attempt to strawman my argument, you have posted the image *which I am not allowed to as a new member*, which clearly shows to everyone that the most obvious TFL webpage has no mention about a 30hr payment window. Thanks!

steedoc

AdrianC wrote: »

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.

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...

Hmm, as I've been saying all along: yes, of course the small print is there, but you didn't say I should be checking the small print, you said I should have done basic research.... which I did.

I went to the page in question - saw nothing about a 30hr deadline - after reading the whole page - and carried on with planning my trip.

steedoc

AdrianC, "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?"

Yes, that is what a reasonable person would do when planning a trip to central London with many moving parts. Based on that fact that any reasonable person would assume that TFL was acting IN GOOD FAITH, and had a system which had a small amount of leeway to accept payment, rather than TRICKING people from the provinces out.

steedoc

treboeth wrote: »

Person goes onto internet forum and starts a thread.

Person gets responses.

Person spits dummy out at said responses.

you have no argument, and you have no legitimacy, and you have no business on the internet