I have been struggling to get back £150 taken from my account by car hire company Easirent to pay for two crossings of London’s Dartford Bridge made by another driver.
I paid for both of my crossings on the Dart Charge website, but my payments were applied to someone else’s journey in the same hire car a week before I arrived in the UK. This meant my trips showed up as unpaid, and Dart Charge issued a penalty notice via Easirent. This, plus Easirent’s admin charges, cost me £150.
I have sent receipts for my payment plus the car rental agreement and my airline ticket to prove that I wasn’t in the UK on the dates in question, but Easirent claims it can do nothing unless Dart Charge cancels the penalty notices – and Dart Charge will not respond at all. SP, Brunei
Easirent tells me that fines for misapplied Dart Charge payments are becoming an increasingly frequent problem. “When a customer goes online to pay for a Dartford crossing, they can pay but cannot select a date of crossing for which they wish to use the payment,” a spokesperson says.
“This means that in the case of a rental vehicle, if a previous customer has used the same vehicle on the crossing without paying, that payment will be allocated to the earlier, unpaid crossing. So the customer who has paid in good faith now appears to be the person who has not paid, and we as registered keeper of the vehicle have to pay any outstanding charges.”
Easirent says it too has received no response from Dart Charge. Highways England, which administers the charge, appears to blame the car rental companies. “We will continue to work with the hire car industry to help them process Dart Charge transactions as efficiently as possible,” a spokesperson says, missing the point that it’s Dart Charge and not the car hire firms that applies the payments. When reminded of this, the agency assures me that it has now changed its system to reduce such mistakes. “The process for issuing a PCN now typically starts at midnight of the following day. Any subsequent payment by a different driver should not therefore be matched against any earlier unpaid crossing,” says the spokesperson. “We are also planning further changes for hire car customers when making payments to ensure they match with the correct journey.”
You have now been refunded the £150, but only because you invoked the media. Less persistent drivers may have been left to bear these costs.
If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number.
