Father fined £589 after accidentally paying £12.50 Ulez charge for wrong day

https://www.yahoo.com/news/father-fined-589-accidentally-paying-150526217.html

Posted by Forward-Answer-4407

17 Comments

  1. Naive_Carpenter7321 on

    Their process is awful! I visited the outskirts of London from 200 miles away, passed a sign which said simply “ULEZ” with no information about whether I was allowed, not allowed, who I’d pay or how much I had to pay… just ULEZ on a busy, narrow, dual carriageway.

    When we returned home a few days later I googled it, found out I owed £13 and phoned them to pay; they refused as it was past 3 days.

    I had a fine in the post a couple of days later, in it the letter says I have some grounds to appeal if I genuinely wasn’t aware, and I thought I had a good case given I had actually tried to right my ridiculous wrong.

    It was naturally refused, and the fine was now double as it’s over 14 days. I was given the option to appeal independently with a threat that it would double again!… so I paid £180… I was bullied into paying 1000% the original fare despite committing no illegal activity and trying to rectify it independently.

    I’m all for green initiatives, but unless my £180 plants some trees in London, I’m skeptical it’s not just about cash.

  2. I mean if an appeal has grounds it is always granted. This rag has an anti ULEZ agenda.

  3. theabominablewonder on

    Hang on.

    Why does reddit say there’s -1 comment?

    Why did he say he paid for parking when ULEZ isn’t a parking charge?

    Why did he say he paid for the 31st June when such a date doesn’t exist? Did the system allow him to put in an invalid date?

  4. BoomBasticTeleBanana on

    I once paid as navigator said I went into zone. I did not, I skirted it.

    You can’t check if you have been in or not BUT they know if you have hence the fine.

    I tried to get the money back but instead they said I have to pay £10 processing fee etc etc. So not worth my while.

  5. random-villager- on

    On a side note, what does one’s parental status have to do with it?  I often wonder why it’s so significant it needs to be part of the headline. Would this be a non-news story if he had no children?

  6. emjayeff-ranklin on

    ULEZ is honestly pretty low on the reasons to avoid London as a whole, but still… it’s worth avoiding for that alone.

  7. I recently made the mistake of paying for the right day that I drove in (Saturday) and driving out Sunday but paying for Monday. When I got my charge notice I explained the situation and got told “don’t do it again” and my fine was cancelled.

    Basically, everyone gets one

  8. ThatSwagRandomGuy on

    This happened to me in Birmingham and I ended up taking it to the tribunal and won. I don’t Birmingham council had the staff to fight me in the case

  9. I paid for the wrong day and contested the fine and won – seems odd if they only apply that leniency at random…

  10. I’m so for ULEZ but it needs to be done properly. This just sounds so stupid.

    It should be simple to understand and simple to pay

  11. Odd-Wafer-4250 on

    Don’t you only have to pay ULEZ if you’re one of those tossers with a car that’s pouring out toxic fumes? Get a better car maybe?

  12. 50YrOldNoviceGymMan on

    do the biker gangs stealing mobile phones have to pay ULEZ charges or are motor bikes exempt ?

  13. What baffles me is why they can’t tell you
    How much charge to pay when you enter your details, if they know how much you owe and which areas you’ve entered.
    Learned this the hard way when I paid for one zone but apparently also went into another which I didn’t realise. It’s so confusing and difficult to navigate. Even trying to get to the payment page is ridiculous.
    I wonder if it’ll ever get amended…. Though they’re probably making too much money off
    It to even consider making it easier!

  14. I’m waiting for my 3 fines, I thought you had 7 days to pay like other places in the country.

    But apparently it’s only 3. So that’s 2 ULEZ and a congestion charge fine