All rental vehicles - Car hire company toll fee scams

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Mon 21 Dec 2015 22:11
All rental vehicles - Car hire company toll fee scams - Bobbage

Having reted a car at Stanted 5 Oct 2015 I crossed the Dartford bridge at 1800 unaware of the new toll procedure. The rental company has emailed me to-day advisng they have taken £105 from my UK bank a/c to pay the charge.

I have spoken with Dart Charge to day who advise me that the rental company paid the sum of £2:50, to Dart Charge in settlement and have charged me £102:50 for their trouble.

They did not advise me they had received the demand for payment of £2:50 which I would willingly have paid.

The following is the text of the email : What can I do now????

We are notifying you that we have received a Dartford toll bridge fine while you were responsible for a rental car hired from Greenmotion Stansted. We have paid the fine already and recharged you £105 per fine as stated in our terms and conditions of rental. These charges were signed for on signing our deposit authorisation form on arrival to our office. The credit card used on hire will be used for this charge and your statement will show a deduction from Greenmotion.

At this stage there is nothing you have to do but we request you respond to this email as seen and read.

These type of fines are charged to us without negotiation from the relevant authorities and we are unable to enter discussion with you or them about the fine itself. Unfortunately due to surveillance cameras it is rare any efforts with the fine issuer results in it being cancelled. We do sympathise with you but can only follow procedure, please note some charges may or may not included additional fees to cover any extra charges we may incur therefore the rate being paid to us is higher.

We do know that Dartford toll charges are charged if you do not pay by midnight the next day, additionally a payment must be made every time the bridge is crossed.

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Tue 22 Dec 2015 08:45
All rental vehicles - Car hire company toll fee scams - Bromptonaut

Not sure I understand this.

There is tons of signage on both approaches to the Dartford Crossing announcing the toll and how to pay on line. After expiry of that time the Crossing Authority applies to DVLA for keepership details and apply a fine (andunlike private parking charges this one has legal force).

Unless Greenmotion have an account with the Crossing, as I do for both my cars, then that would be process and Greenmotion will have paid up considerably more than £2.50.

The OP had opportunity to follow process and pay by following midnight. If he didn't the T&C's apply and he's author of own misfortune.

There is an issue with hire cars where hirers have paid the charge correctly but the hire vehicle is recorded as having not paid during an earlier hire. In those circumstances each charge paid will be applied to the earliest outstanding account so folks can pay and then find themselves pursued as their fee was applied to prrevious hire.

If Greenmotion have an account so as to avoid that scenario there will be an admin overhead associated with it. Why should costs of that fall on all customrs?

Edited by Bromptonaut on 22/12/2015 at 08:54

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Tue 22 Dec 2015 09:04
All rental vehicles - Car hire company toll fee scams - RobJP

I have to agree with bromptonaut on this.

The signage is clear, methods of payment are clear.

Might I suggest to the OP that, in future, they pay a little more attention to the world around them, and arrange to pay their toll fees.

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Tue 22 Dec 2015 09:39
All rental vehicles - Car hire company toll fee scams - RT

The toll is only £2.50 if you pay the same day - if you pay within 14 days it's £35, within 28 days it's £70 and over 28 days it's £105.

Since it seems the hire company hasn't added a handling charge on, I should just pay up and learn the lesson - we've all had to do something similar at one time!

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Tue 22 Dec 2015 11:16
All rental vehicles - Car hire company toll fee scams - Brit_in_Germany

Could it be a money making scam though? If the hire care company has a registered account which is automatically debited by £2.50 if the hirer does not pay and then they charge the late payment fee to the hirer it would be a nice earner for them.

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Tue 22 Dec 2015 11:29
All rental vehicles - Car hire company toll fee scams - RobJP

But once again, the hirer knows - or should know - that THEY will be responsible for any tolls, parking fees, fines, etc. while the car is on hire.

It is simple base negligence to fail to pay such a toll. To then blame the hire company is just attempting to abrogate their own responsibilities. Whether the hire company has an account or not is irrelevant.

Finally, I really can't imagine a hire company bothering with such an account for all their cars. They turnover cars quite rapidly, and with constant changes to their 'registered' cars with the toll co. and with checking exactly when a car went through - and then billing the hirer accordingly - the admin would probably be horrendous.

The OP needs to take responsibility for their (in-)action, I'm afraid to say.

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Tue 22 Dec 2015 12:06
All rental vehicles - Car hire company toll fee scams - Falkirk Bairn

Some of the people I used to work with ignored Parking Fines.

One colleague would collect say 4 or more £12.00 fines per month (25 years ago) - he would ignore them. The Leasing Company paid the £12 & added a £25 admin charge. The next month our employer would deduct the £100 /£150+ every month!

We were all on a salary & our pay would only vary by the odd £1 or so every month. He would open his payslip and then go on a rant for 10 minutes or so - bright, with a responsible job BUT no common sense.

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Tue 22 Dec 2015 14:05
All rental vehicles - Car hire company toll fee scams - Bromptonaut

If the hire care company has a registered account which is automatically debited by £2.50 if the hirer does not pay and then they charge the late payment fee to the hirer it would be a nice earner for them.

As the RobJP intimates, supported by GB's experience of pick up drop off, the turnover of vehicles in day hire companies is huge. Maintaining an account with the crossing company for that fleet would have a significant cost.

That overhead, and a reasonable margin on top, should fall solely on 'offenders' rather than all customers or the companies bottom line.

Edited by Bromptonaut on 22/12/2015 at 14:09

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Tue 22 Dec 2015 12:56
All rental vehicles - Car hire company toll fee scams - gordonbennet

The toll is only £2.50 if you pay the same day - if you pay within 14 days it's £35, within 28 days it's £70 and over 28 days it's £105.

Since it seems the hire company hasn't added a handling charge on, I should just pay up and learn the lesson - we've all had to do something similar at one time!

Reckon you're on the money RT, two months later its caught up with the hirer hence the higher (ho ho) charge.

Admin for a busy airport rental site must be horrendous, i used to deliver and collect transporter loads of rentals out of airports, till you been inside at Hertz, Avis, National, Enterprise at Heathrow/Gatwick and seen it in motion you have no idea how manic things can be, a constant flow of hire cars and people of all nationalisties milling about, they really do not have time to hold a hirers hand for them to remind them to pay their dues every minute, they have no idea where the hirer is going, if they reminded people about Dart or other charges they'd be accused of being patronising or offensive, can't win.

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Wed 23 Dec 2015 19:13
All rental vehicles - Car hire company toll fee scams - oldroverboy.

I drive over the crossing and have set up an account, costs less, but if i have friends who will use it i can add and delete them from the account.

No sympathy here though.

Signs are in place and visible.

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