Trying to reclaim Congestion Charge (London)

Marishka

(Rather long, sorry!)
Does anyone else have any tips on this?
I've been trying to get money back since November but they are not as keen on giving it back as they are on taking it!
I was involved in a car accident at the beginning of October and had a courtesy car for all of that month. On the first day I called the Congestion Charge people to find out what the procedure is because I'd already paid for the year on my own vehicle, at the resident's discount rate. I was told that you have to pay the £8 charge every day, but just tell them you have a hire vehicle, they send you a form and you send it back when you are done with the hire vehicle. I phoned several times to pay the charge as the garage couldn't give me a clear finish date for the repairs. Each time I explained that it was a courtesy vehicle, gave that registration and my own, explained there had been a crash and that I would want to reclaim the money at some date as I'd already paid up for the year on my own vehicle which was off the road, in a garage for repairs. Overkill, you may feel, but I know (or thought I knew) the Congestion Charge well!
So, when I call up for the final time, I go through the whole story again and she says, "I don't think you can reclaim as you haven't nominated the vehicle" "What???". Well after quite some time while I explained that I had given every bit of information possible, at every opportunity possible, and this is the first i have heard of this expression and, if it doesn't mean what I've done, what on earth does it mean, and she says it means I should nominate the vehicle, i gave up on that conversation and asked her to do whatever nominating the vehicle means so at least it's now been done for the last two days!
I sent in my form and an accompanying letter, then sent in a letter from the hire company, that they requested then waited. In the middle of Jan I telephoned to see what was happening and was told they'd written to me the day before Christmas because the hire company hadn't put the registrations (of the two courtesy vehicles I had) on the letter. I asked for a copy of that letter and set about asking the hire company for another letter. All daft, in my opinion as the CC hadn't asked for the registrations to be on the letter originally and they have the registrations on their system anyway as I paid the charges and they sent me monthly statements.
I then got a letter from the CC referring to my refund request of 24th Jan as if the previous 2.5 months hadn't happened and no copy of the December letter. I wrote back, pointing this out, enclosing the new letter from the hire company and listing the various types of data they have to support my claim - a large number of telephone calls, starting on the 3rd October (they've been listened to once already so I know they are there!)
- several letters and a form from me
- their own records of my payments, which include dates, the registrations and the types of the cars

My latest receipt is the best yet - thank you for my email (it was on paper) but they can find no record of my hire cars being registered on the system til the two payments of 29th and 30th November (it was 30th and 31st October) and they are going to refund those two payments (£16 - hooray!) but they can't refund anything else. They understand this may not be the answer I hoped for (Oh, really?) but I can write to the Head of Operations.

I can't escape the impression they are hoping that if they befuddle the issue enough I'd just give up and go away!
What galls me particularly is that none of the people writing to me ever sign the letters, there's no job title or department, just the standard 0845 number, the minicom number and the web address - all of which are geared to tell you have you can give them money, but hold no other information.

Of course I am going to write the Head of Operations, whoever that is, but does anyone have any experience of how to wade through this swamp of obfuscation and idiocy?????

(I mean, it's only £156 to them, but it's my £156 to me!!!)

Marishka

Ok, so now I have one letter saying that they won't allow most of my claim but will repay two days I never paid in the first place (although one day is £8 and they've sent a cheque for £14) and another letter saying they are refunding me £134 but for something called the pre-registration period. I'm guessing this means the time before the vehicle was "nominated", whatever that means, and so this means that they still owe me £8 for one day and the £2 for the above 2 days but I think I shall call this a resounding success and cut my losses (assuming the money actually arrives with the credit card company!). So far this has cost me 5 letters, about 25 telephone calls and a huge amount of grief.
If anyone ever finds a simple way of dealing with this organisation, please let me know!

Bernie

You just have to be a bigger pain in their backside than they are to you. Once they realise you are not going to leave them alone, they'll cough up! Hope you're adding your own costs... if they bleat, say you would hate to have to take the issue to the Small Claims Court to recover your money, costs, time that you've incurred trying to correct their confusion... and if you have to - do it. Go get 'em!...