Dart Charge Query. Do I have a case?

onearmbandit · 18 January 2023 at 6:35PM

Hi Everyone

I am registered with my Mums dart charge account and in early December I used the crossing. The next day i realised I had just changed my car & my new car wasn’t registered .

My mother called the next day (she is the account holder) to explain the situation and asked if the car could be registered now and would it be possible for the charge to be deducted from the credit on the account.

We were told that that no, this couldn’t be done and we’d have to wait and see IF we received a fine. This seemed unfair, it was less than 48 hours since the crossing and at our own realisation, contacted dart charge to explain the issue and to resolve it.

Anyway, no was no. And whilst the customer service person we spoke said we may not get a charge, it was obvious we would. This just seemed bad advice at the time to be honest. I was certain they would have been ok with it.

7 days ago we received a fine. When we went to pay it (and complain because this did seem a bit unfair) we were told the fine was now £105 because over 28 days had past.

Unfortunately we did not receive the penalty until 28 days had past - we can only assume this was due to the post strikes.

I’m still unhappy with how things were handled from the offset although I accept I obviously should have updated my details (I rarely use the the crossing as I live in the south west - I was just visiting family).

Does anyone think I have any chance of getting the fine reduced to £35 which it was if paid within 14 days. And, does anyone think I should have been allowed to pay the charge when I first contacted them less than 24 hours after the payment deadline had passed (48 hours after the actual crossing)?

Many thanks for any help.