Petrol Drive Off Notice - Incorrect payment taken

Coupon-mad

I think it sounds questionable. I think you and the other person should make a complaint to Trading Standards together and to your local Councillors AND raise it with your MPs.

Maybe get it in the local paper. I would try to speak to a local journalist.  More people might contact you/come forward.

blackstaticmoon

You are not alone.i went to a Shell garage on a friday after work and put £50 of petrol in for the following weeks commute. I went inside the store to pay and told the cashier my bay number and paid by scanning credit card as always.i got a recipt and kept it in my glove compartment with the rest of my recipts. Thinking no more of it i went home for the weekend. 3 weeks later i get a letter from Vars saying i owe them £65 for driving off and not paying for my feul?? The letter was a Drive Off letter and if i didnt pay up within 14 days i would owe £95. I went to look for my recipt and saw that they had only taken £15 instead of £50 so i owe shell £35 and Vars have added their admin fee of £30 making total of £65. I was sick as a dog and rang garage but they told me it was out of their hands and contact Vars by email.Which i did telling them the garage cashier had made a mistake and they told me it was up to the customer to spot the mistake by checking the recipt ,which i couldnt do without my glasses. So its a case of pay up or else. This has caused me stress so i begrudgingly paid up,i didnt mind paying the £35 shortfall but was really cheesed off with paying the £30 admin fee as this wasnt my fault. How many other innocent customers are going to fall foul of this blatent racket by Shell and Vars.i want to complain but dont know who to contact.

Bazarius

This is an example of VARS attempting to create a “contract” with the driver with minuscule sized sign on the pumps . The £100 is an unrecoverable penalty to turn a blind eye to prosecution. If this was me I’d pay the original amount owed and tell them where to go for the rest of it .  It doesn’t cost £100 to write a letter . 

The_Slithy_Tove

Dux77 said:

They categorically said they couldn't take payment as that has been transferred to VARS and nothing to do with them any longer.

Not quite sure what they mean by "transferred". As we've seen with PPCs, they can't just "sell" the debt to someone else. PPCs have the obstacle that the KADOE agreement they have with the DVLA don't allow it. I who obtained the keeper details (garage or VARS) and under what conditions?

But also, an alleged debt cannot be sold to another company without both buyer and seller of that "debt" informing the debtor (you) of that. Clearly they have not done so.

I would contend that the alleged debt still rests with the garage, who appear to be operating some kind of scam. I doubt they or VARS would want to escalate this to court, as it's unlikely they would be able to produce the whole paper chain of authority, contract and costs to justify that claim.

Send a cheque (if you still have a cheque book) for the £30.01 "in full and final settlement" to the garage. See if they cash it.

gemgoss

Hello,
This has happened to my husband also.
He was accused of leaving a forecourt not paying %15.28 in fuel. We have a receipt etc that proves he actually bought fuel to the price of £20 and paid it off. 
We have had a letter from VARS. spoke to the garage who said we will contact VARS and sort this its clearly a computer error. 
Months later got another letter from VARS. As you cant speak to VARS only email and they take ages to reply we again went to the fore court. the manager assured us it was all being sorted and not to worry. 
Today we have received a Bailiff letter. it says VARS have gone to county court and got a CCJ against my husband and we now owe £344.07.
Spoke to the Bailiffs as never received court paper work nor nothing. they have said you have to speak to our clients. you cant. 
I have again emailed sending all evidence including the receipt. I'm absolutely  devastated. A CCJ and he has done nothing wrong how can this happen. what can we do? 

Nellymoser

@gemgoss that's shocking you will get help and advice but best to start your own thread with copy your story. Use red circle + or create new.

Coupon-mad

gemgoss said:

Hello,
This has happened to my husband also.
He was accused of leaving a forecourt not paying %15.28 in fuel. We have a receipt etc that proves he actually bought fuel to the price of £20 and paid it off. 
We have had a letter from VARS. spoke to the garage who said we will contact VARS and sort this its clearly a computer error. 
Months later got another letter from VARS. As you cant speak to VARS only email and they take ages to reply we again went to the fore court. the manager assured us it was all being sorted and not to worry. 
Today we have received a Bailiff letter. it says VARS have gone to county court and got a CCJ against my husband and we now owe £344.07.
Spoke to the Bailiffs as never received court paper work nor nothing. they have said you have to speak to our clients. you cant. 
I have again emailed sending all evidence including the receipt. I'm absolutely  devastated. A CCJ and he has done nothing wrong how can this happen. what can we do? 

Set the CCJ aside. The claim form sounds like it went to your old address.  Fairly easy to set aside once you get your head around it and this is explained in the 2nd post of the NEWBIES thread.

Please start a new thread only AFTER reading the 2nd post of the NEWBIES thread (thankyou).  That is where to start reading.

Show us the Defendant's planned Witness Statement to accompany the N244 application in your new thread.  Not here.

MaxHarris23

Hi, newbie member here. Saw this and wanted to add my input.

We also have fallen foul of VARS technology and their working agreement with the petrol stations. Esso, this time.

Circs:
Wifey went into the ESSO Oswestry station shop around midday on 27th July 2024 to get some shopping and pay for fuel while I filled up with diesel. She paid, once I'd given her the thumbs up. We then received a "Drive off Notice NO PAYMENT" letter from VARS (dated 31st August 2024) on Tuesday, 3rd September 2024, saying that we had to pay them £61.15 (including "fees") to cover £31.15 of fuel we did not pay for.

Beyond the above, we initially had no idea what we were being accused of, because we had Amex statement entries which showed we'd paid £41.29 for the fuel .We assumed someone had done a drive off without paying prior to us, and we were taking the blame for it??? 

I wrote to VARS immediately telling them we'd paid and that we were confused as to why we'd received the notice.

I got not reply for 2 days, so yesterday phoned and spoke with a supervisor at the Esso Oswestry station. After "investigation" she phone back and said my wife told them pump 7 (£41.15) instead of our pump 10 (~£71). We therefore paid too little. We owe them £31.15.

I'd be amazed if my wife really said the wrong pump number. I'm assuming she said the right pump number, and the pump attendant mis-typed - though I've no proof either way!! Most certainly, my wife made the mistake of just paying for goods and fuel (not knowing how much I'd dispensed) and not checking the receipt for the pump number. Lesson learned  for future.

I said to the supervisor that they should surely have to prove that my wife said the wrong pump, by checking their video (which of course, has no sound apparently). She refused to do this. 

I made it clear that, regardless of whether we were in the wrong or not, we would very happily pay the outstanding £31.15 - but that we were not prepared to pay the VARS fine (sorry, "admin fee").

Shen said yesterday that her manager would look into it further, and we've heard no more from them.

We actually got an email reply from VARS - I guess we're the lucky ones! They said the following:


--------------------------------

"Good afternoon Max,

Thank you for contacting VARS Technology. 

While we appreciate that a partial payment for fuel was made, this transaction does not cover the amount of fuel that was dispensed, as the incorrect pump was paid for. We can advise that while you fuelled at pump 10, the pump that was paid for was pump 7, which was for a lower value of fuel.

The driver does have a responsibility to ensure that correct payment is made for all fuel and goods dispensed. 

The forecourt have therefore raised a claim for the amount outstanding in relation to what was dispensed into this vehicle. The fuel recovery fee may not be removed or reduced. 

Payment can be made via our portal using your registration and reference number. 

Kind Regards, 

Tara McBride

VARS Technology"

--------------------------------

I've spoken with Citizens Advice, who've said we should appeal and suggested ways of doing so. I'm not convinced tbh. This is obviously a well rehearsed racket, and I'd be surprised if they don't have a proforma response to my follow up for appeal.

Only posting this here therefore to raise awareness. I've no doubt we'll end up being forced to pay up with further threats of "admin fees" being added followed by threats of CCJs etc 

Grizebeck

No you don't just cough up

Zumba2025

Similar story here.  'Customer Not at Fault/Drive off' notice received.  Bit of a surprise but I was in the middle of a house move that day, so it's plausible that I was distracted and my card didn't go through and I didn't notice.  Annoyed because notice got caught up in the redirection, so by the time I received it, they had already doubled the price. Was wary and irritated but paid up as instructed. £60 down the drain.  Took screen shot of page saying I had paid and checked it went through on bank statement, which it had done.  Irritated but assumed end of story.

Have now received a further request for payment - this time for over £90.  No acknowledgement of payment at all.  I have sent an email to VARS but not reply.

This is a criminal scam, surely?  I will write to customer services of Euro Garages, saying that I will avoid their garages in future but, given what other posters have said, shouldn't think this will have any impact.  

I'm wondering what will have most impact in terms of making the scam public.