Train Penalty Fare - Straight to Court

BrownTrout

Yep try rail forum site, Birmingham is a penalty fare area, you should have just paid it when they issued it you ....

crispyjay1987

Jono111 said:

Why did you not go back to the bin and retrieve the ticket you threw there seconds before

On the train itself lol. I was stood at the door waiting for it to open as you do. I thought 'while I'm here' may as well get rid of all this rubbish. I had a penguin and a few other things if they want to verify what I had that day.RobM99 said:

Did you pay for your ticket by card? If so it'd appear on a bank statement.

Cash, had a fiver on me... I thought that too...
Getting in touch with the MP is a good shout. The Transport Watchdog said it was out of their remit and the ombudsman passed me over to them so they're clearly not  interested in helping. 
At this point I dont even care about paying the initial fine of £20. I didn't have my ticket at the station, I think that's fair enough and Im quite happy to hold my hands up to it. It's an unfortunate event but chalk it up to experience.
The issue is now that they claim to have chased me for it twice and they most definitely haven't. Also, the appeals process is supposed to trigger a letter with the response, which I also didn't receive. So I guess I should say I didn't receive 3 letters.... Which has resulted in £330 and a court appearance.

crispyjay1987

BrownTrout said:

Yep try rail forum site, Birmingham is a penalty fare area, you should have just paid it when they issued it you ....

You don't get the option to pay there and then. I can't remember him offering to me anyway. He was a pretty down to earth guy so when I told his what happened he suggested the appeals process.

nosferatu1001

Did you plead guilty? £180 court costs is normal if it went to a hearing
Did you confirm it had been paid? Presuming you paid the £100....

crispyjay1987

nosferatu1001 said:

Did you plead guilty? £180 court costs is normal if it went to a hearing
Did you confirm it had been paid? Presuming you paid the £100....

I did under the understanding I'd be paying £100ish. Rightly or wrongly that's what I read I'd be paying. The fact that It had been bumped up to over £300 is outrageous. 
My issue really is with the claim they had sent letters out to me which has resulted in this charge. They absolutely haven't. They had my phone number when they took my initial appeal. You would think if they could get a letter to me they would give me a call to say something like, 'If you continue to ignore the letters it will result in a court charge.' But nothing. And they've basically said that's my problem

nosferatu1001

No, it isnt outrageous. Its usual for a mag claim.
Usually the £100 would be an offer you had to actively take up, alongside conditions such as paying there and then
Im guessng you didnt do pay? I asked two questions. 
Nor did you pay the initial £20 fine, else we wouldnt be here. 
You cannot prove they failed to send. You can state you never received them. Thats it. 
Theyre not obliged to call you. Tough on that. 
Focus on getting some facts. Righteous Indignation gets you nowhere useful. 

crispyjay1987

nosferatu1001 said:

No, it isnt outrageous. Its usual for a mag claim.
Usually the £100 would be an offer you had to actively take up, alongside conditions such as paying there and then
Im guessng you didnt do pay? I asked two questions. 
Nor did you pay the initial £20 fine, else we wouldnt be here. 
You cannot prove they failed to send. You can state you never received them. Thats it. 
Theyre not obliged to call you. Tough on that. 
Focus on getting some facts. Righteous Indignation gets you nowhere useful. 

I would say it is. I appealed for the initial fine. Didn't know what to expect to be honest. With hindsight, I should have just paid the initial fine. With further hindsight, I would have kept the ticket in the first instance. I'm not disputing that. I told them already I was happy to pay the fine as it was an understandable fine. For all they knew I didn't have a ticket full stop. That's fine. No dispute.

I thought I'd chance an appeal and nothing came of it. Literally. Either way.

My dispute comes when they claim they have been sending letters. No they haven't. I've asked them to resend the letters they sent so I can see them. But no department will claim responsibility nor will they forward the issue to the departments/company that handles the 'fine collection' side of things. The response so far has been, 'This isn't our remit'. From 3 departments so far.

I'm not pursuing this for my own self righteousness. This has been the most stressful few weeks ever and there seems to be no one fighting the corner of the customer. I may as well have sent the complaint to Blockbuster Video for all the difference it's made so far

crispyjay1987

I should also clarify this has come in 3 stages-

1) £20 was the initial fine that I appealed in January. 
2) £150 (£100 if I pleaded guilty) came from the magistrates 6 months later
3) £330 is the latest magistrates fine after pleading guilty.

No communication between January-June

Barny1979

Why didn't you pay the original fine? As it appeared you had very little grounds to appeal on?

crispyjay1987

Barny1979 said:

Why didn't you pay the original fine? As it appeared you had very little grounds to appeal on?

I explained what had happened to the guy giving the fine and he told me to appeal it. He said it's 50/50 but it was worth doing.