Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Dart Charge

I got a nice surprise in the mail today.

It was a dunning letter from a company called Euro Parking Collection plc relating to a Dartford Crossing made by a certain Morgan Plus 4 on the 24th May. A nice fine of £70 plus the charge of £2.50 all written in Italian, complete with photos, and a conversion to €88.43 to pay.
Arriving more than 4 months after the event my first reaction was "oh bugger I must have forgotten to pay it" , but Alis reminded me that I had paid it the same day and, in fact, had problems with the web payment that made me quite nervous and involved several attempts to make the payment. I the remembered that I had left the acknowledgement of payment page open until I received the email receipt.

From that point it was child's play to find the receipt, save it as a PDF and then fill in the on-line form and send it to EPCplc.

The point is that this should a) not have been necessary, and b) if they thought I had not paid I should have been advised in a much more timely manner.
Then again perhaps this was an attempt to boost government funds with a hidden Brexit charge on EU registered vehicles

The moral of the story is that if you pay any UK Government charges on-line make sure that you keep the receipt or you may be in for a nasty surprise

A similar thing happened to me a few months ago Peter, but being in the UK it didn't take 4 months. My initial reaction was the same "bugger, I thought I'd paid it", when I investigated I found that I had paid it on the same day as using the crossing but it was over a Bank Holiday weekend so the payment didn't go into their account until after midnight the following day. I sent them proof of when I'd paid it and they very graciously (ahem!) replied saying that the penalty had been cancelled. No apology of course.

I have an account with them and i regularly get charged for cars that have sat in storage for months

Unknown to us when we booked the weekend after this was not only a bank holiday weekend but also half term (or somesuch). Saturday morning at 10 o'clock we joined a queue which took us 4 hours to do 4 miles to miss the ferry at Dover. We had actually allowed for a delay of 2 hours but we had not counted on the results of overloaded computer systems at the border control. P&O did not even comment. They just put us on the next available ferry with the usual special treatment for a Morgan which saw us as one of the first off at the other end

PS. We loved Canterbury

I love the fact that you think that they would spend the time and computer energy telling you that you owe them money. They put big signs up and use that to account for "you have been warned". All of which leads to "we told you so, now pay up to the maximum" default process they live for.

They even added a 24 and 48 hour capability to show they are loving people. Sorry did I say that sarcastically out loud.

If you are coming out to London in that area you get a choice of south or north. The south route is a twisty pain that takes ages, the north is a main dual carriageway but you have to cross the bridge and pay the toll (if you remember). Which I also forgot to.

As you say. If the energy put into collecting the fine was put into working with the motorist it would be a nicer world.

There seems to be a pretty regular problem with paying for parking yet falling foul to idiosyncrasies in the systems. Pistonheads, Peppipoo are regular advisors.
It appears that dubious “ fines” is a decent money earner. Technically a private parking company cannot fine you but they can impose penalty charges. There’s a lot of suspicion that their systems are designed to be confusing/ inefficient/bullying, relying on people paying up without question. Apparently some demands surface after up to 5 years after the date.
The industry needs a damn good shake up with tighter control rather than Association of Parking Companies code of practice they set out themselves.
Add in the varying methods of payment. Cash only, card only, App only, account.

I have sent a copy of the receipt for the payment of the charge made on the same day that we crossed the Dart to both the collection agency and the Authority via their web site in the complaints section. As a complaint I stated the the charge had been paid and that there was no justification for commencing a recovery action; receipt attached.
I have not yet received a reply from the collection agency but I did receive a reply from "ENFORCEMENT.CUSTOMER.SERVICE@PAY-DARTFORD-CROSSING-FINE.SERVICE.GOV.UK" which, in part, is as follows:

This clearly shows that they did not even read my message or look at the receipt but that they simply sent me a "cut and paste" standard reply. It was not a complaint about an unpaid crossing but a complaint that I had paid the crossing and that they had incorrectly raised a recovery action.

The other issue I find really annoying is that whoever replied is not a friend, relative, or even an acquaintance therefore for them I should not be "Dear Peter" but "Dear Mr Bradley". I am absolutely certain that they would not write to Rishi Sunak as "Dear Rishi" or the mayor of London as "Dear Sadiq" so why should I have any less respect. This idea that we should all be addressed by our first name by everyone from police to call centres may be modern and "friendly" but I am perhaps a bit old-fashioned and I find it, in many cases, insulting.

I completely agree. Manners maketh the man.

Absolutely.

How many times do you speak on the phone to public employees who do not appear to possess a surname.

Frustrating and hopeless.

It reminds me of an issue my mum had two months ago. She got a bill in the post for driving on a toll in Sydney with an Etag not linked to a valid bank account. The bill was only about $15 but the fact is it was not her.

Years ago Australia had this idea to have a different letter range for each state, NSW was AAA-000 to FZZ-999, VIC GAA-000 to MZZ-999, ACT being YAA-000 to YZZ-999 and Government cars being Z. After a while both NSW and VIC starting using whatever they want and now we have all the Y's used in both NSW and VIC.

So a car in NSW with the same plate must have accidently selected ACT from the drop down list when buying the Etag, or not selected anything and ACT is the default as it is at the top.

The letter she got had no phone number but if you wanted to dispute send a stat-dec to this address. She did that and got another bill. I found the phone number with a google search. Pointing out the facts that

• The Etag was not bought in her name and they should have records of who bought it to chase up.
• She has not driven outside her suburb for years as she only drives to the shops or doctor.
• Her car has a full service history and has not done enough KM's to reach Sydney since the last service.
• There is another car in Sydney with NSW plates that match.
• Why do you request a Stat-Dec if you don't read it.

She then got a letter saying we believe we made a mistake.