QDR Solicitors £50 admin charge - advice required

therealbadders

Hi, wondering if someone can advise. I've received a letter from QDR regarding unpaid fuel. TLDR: I am at fault, genuine mistake however there is a £50 admin charge which seems absolutely ridiculous. From some research I have done it seems most people have an £18 admin charge which is still cheeky I think but I would prefer. Has anyone else received a £50 admin charge or has any advice on how to dispute this. I have spoken with QDR and they gave a generic answer to what the charge is for ie. paperwork, having to contact DVLA, processing payment. I am told it will increase to £65 admin fee if not paid within 14 days (FYI letter is dated 12/12 and I received the letter 20/12 I only have a few days and its nearly Christmas).

Below is summary of what happened:

I went to Sainsburys used pay at the pump and the initial pump I went to would not dispense fuel. I went inside to ask if there was an issue to which the staff weren't aware and one came out to check and tried the pump herself which still wouldn't work when pressing the lever. I was told they'd have to reset it and I'd have to go to a different pump. I drove out and back round to another pump. 
(When I first received the letter I initially thought that this was a mistake from the initial faulty pump I went to)
However now looking back at my transactions I can only see the £100 hold payment and refund (I assume from the initial faulty pump) and nothing from the 2nd pump I was able to dispense fuel from. I ALWAYS choose pay at the pump so wondered if there was an issue there however now recalling back I vaguely remember pay at the pump option wasn't working and due to habit I did not go inside to pay (as I had assumed I'd used pay at the pump as always and remember glancing at the Sainsburys transactions notification). I then had a 2.5hour drive ahead of me so it wasn't something I was able to check in detail at the time. An unfortunate case as if the first pump worked fine I wouldn't be in this situation. 

Mildly_Miffed

I don't know where this £18 figure was plucked from, but you aren't going to get it down from £50...

They have incurred costs in paying DVLA for your address from your registration, as well as their admin time. It is also there precisely as a disincentive for doing what you did.

You are bang to rights. You filled your car, you did not pay for your fuel. The rest is excuses.

Pay now before it increases.

BlueonBlue

I wouldnt take any notice of the above personal opinion at all  ...wait for regular posters from the private parking  forum to comment.
They will have extensive experience of these situations and certainly the tryhard invoicing clowns that are QDR.

Grey_Critic

They can charge as much as they want. You drove off without paying and there is no excuse. Be thankful they did not decide to prosecute. If they had not come after you would you voluntarily would you have gone back and said sorry I made a mistake OR would you say if they let me more fool them.

DeathByFluffy

On what grounds are you disputing the charge? 
You know you didn't pay, you also know people don't work for free and the DVLA also charge for handing out vehicle keeper details. 

I think £50 is a much better option than criminal prosecution for theft of fuel. 

flaneurs_lobster

Depends how much you want to argue on a point of principle. Seems a simple choice:

1. Pay the £50 (plus the cost of the fuel).

2. Pay the cost of the fuel and wait for the escalating demands for costs, culminating in a court summons where you (or your solicitor) can argue your case. Might win (and get costs) or you might not and get all their costs awarded against you (considerably more than £50).

Herzlos

The cost increasing after a deadline is odd, because it implies it's not based on their actual costs. But it could be they'll frame it as the cost of additional chasing. 

You could try and go back to the petrol station you failed to pay at and see if they can take payment from you. If they do then job done, and a couple of posters on here have managed that recently, then that should be the matter closed.  I don't know if QDR could persue you further for their costs, but it's low risk.

In terms of actual costs, it'll have cost them less than £5 to get your details from the DVLA, and a few £ a letter. So you could always offer them £18 towards their costs and see if they accept it. They probably won't though. 

LightFlare

There are 2 aspects.

moral and legal

Legally, they can’t “come after you” as they don’t know who to go after. The only info they have is the cars registered keeper 

*this may be harder to defend if you have already revealed who the person was

What may happen of course is that you get a marker on your vehicle which may make it difficult to use some filling stations.

There been threads before on here on how to deal with this

 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6607380/qdr-solicitors-non-payment-of-fuel-advice-required#latest

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6640215/qdr-sainsbury-s-unpaid-fuel-threatening-letter#latest

therealbadders

Grey_Critic said:

They can charge as much as they want. You drove off without paying and there is no excuse. Be thankful they did not decide to prosecute. If they had not come after you would you voluntarily would you have gone back and said sorry I made a mistake OR would you say if they let me more fool them.

If I knew I hadn't paid. Yes I would go back and say I've made a mistake - I'm not a thief. I've been to the same petrol station twice since the incident and paid as per pay at the pump as usual. 

therealbadders

Mildly_Miffed said:

I don't know where this £18 figure was plucked from, but you aren't going to get it down from £50...

They have incurred costs in paying DVLA for your address from your registration, as well as their admin time. It is also there precisely as a disincentive for doing what you did.

You are bang to rights. You filled your car, you did not pay for your fuel. The rest is excuses.

Pay now before it increases.

£18 has been plucked from multiple forums of people posting their experience with QDR. This thread is just one example: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6607380/qdr-solicitors-non-payment-of-fuel-advice-required/p1

therealbadders

BlueonBlue said:

I wouldnt take any notice of the above personal opinion at all  ...wait for regular posters on this forum to comment.
They will have more experience of these situations and certainly the tryhard invoicing clowns that are QDR.

Thanks, I'll wait out till tomorrow for anymore insight from anyone