Looking for some advice/experience please....
I am the registered keeper of a van that is used by several people. A couple of years back, a Dart Charge Notice winged its way to me and it turned out that in a series of journeys back and forth, topping up so many at a time, one of these journeys matched with a fee being paid after midnight. It was a simple error and Dart Charge accepted that all the crossings had been paid for.
So the van went south again, and due to phone issues another driver had no ability to get online until what transpired was after midnight again, but they did pay the crossing fee. Fast forward a couple of months and a Charge comes to me. I appealed it. They've rejected it.
a) What is my next step? Can I appeal to anyone else higher up? How please?
b) Is is really legal to say yep we see that a payment has been made, but as it was after midnight that will be held in credit for next time (despite no plans for a journey that far south in the next few years) and you need to pay another £3 crossing fee PLUS a £70 late payment fee?
This just seems utter lunacy that drivers are expected to be online while making mammoth journeys and are not able to pay when they get home, and that payment is being refused and demands are being made to pay again! Not everyone lives in the vicinity of the Dartford Crossing or knows how it works. Elderly people (and others) do not always have a smart phone/computer/internet and need to get help from another including using a public library I guess, all before midnight the next day? And how can £70 be justified, especially when they have admitted they have the initial payment being held as a credit!?!?!?!