Eflow toll bridge problem.

AnotherYou

Basically my problem was that I did not receive an STN/UTN number.

I'm sure you understand the system but in case you aren't I'll explain my problem. I made my journey across the
M50 toll bridge and forgot to pay the toll when I arrived home, I remembered this a few days later and began to keep an eye
out for my notice.

No such E-mail ever came, without this I would have no way of paying the fine.

A few weeks later a second fine came, this was the fine for failure to pay the first. However I never received the first one
so I began to E-mail eflow. They basically ignored my e-mails, initially on the basis of data protection laws (I'm not the reg'd owner of the car). Then, after having the registered owner send e-flow my e-mails with a foreword from her giving me power to speak as a 3rd party. They basically ignored my case constantly, simply sending e-mails like this one.

"Dear Mr [XXXXX],
Thank you for contacting eFlow Customer Services.
We have reviewed the transactions for vehicle XXDXXXXX and can 
confirm that there is currently €95 outstanding. Please pay this as soon
as possible to avoid further fines. This can be paid by contacting us on 
the number below, or by using the notice number on the UTN letters you 
received to pay online or at any payzone outlet. If this is not paid within 
56 days from the issue date on the UTN letter an extra €98 per toll will be 
incurred, and the balance will be sent to our legal department for collection.
Please be advised that it is the drivers responsibility to pay for tolls
on time. However, although we did send the initial STR letter,
eFlow are not responsible for delayed or undelivered post.
If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Ian McGinley
eFlow Customer Services"


Needless to say, less than helpful. They completely ignored the point I was making and said, well, nothing in the reply. This went on for weeks.

So, I have a question about how firm you think my argument is here. I mean they're now threatening to take me to court on this matter, and I'm happy to go since I think it's my duty to fight these sorts of things instead of leaving this problem in place to come up in someone elses way, and indeed, on that note has anyone else had this problem with e-flow?
______________________________________________________




As I said above, eflow are yet to say anything regarding my contention. They just continuously say "we can confirm the balance of XXX remains" etc. They are not willing to say anything but that and that "eflow are not obliged to send the STN/UTN numbers" and so on. However, they do send them in any instance I've heard of, and without their sending them it'd be impossible to pay the toll. Given you wouldn't know they hadn't sent the first one until they sent the second one.

Am I insane here or does this stink to anyone else?

I mean, go to their site. When you click "pay a notice/penalty" you're asked for that number and a Reg number. Without both you can't pay.

And you can't pluck it out of thin air. Am I right?



Thanks for any help or comments you can manage lads,

-J

evolutionqy7

i suggest you ring them and scream at them worked for me :)they wanted to charge me around 50 quid for going thru the same checkpoint every half a minute...after some screaming at them trying to explain that its impossible to do that they finaly looked at the pictures of a car and realised that they clocked some other car into my account...****ing retards...what happened to the good auld toll :S their system is ****ed up...btw im with you 100% you shouldnt pay the fine cause you werent informed...if the owner of the vehicle didnt inform you.he should pay it at his own expense and least you can do is give him the 6 quid just to remind ya they dont respond to people unless their screaming...people behind the phones are idiots reading from a text book!

no point emailing them cause they will just keep sending you the same copy paste **** with xxx amount! just ring them

MojoMaker

Screaming will get you nowhere. The problem here is that you didn't take the time to find out how the system operates.

You do not wait until you receive a charge notice - the obligation is on you to call eFlow following the journey and pay the €3 over the phone. There are huge signs both sides of the M50 giving you the number and a reminder that YOU must call THEM before 8pm the following day. You do not need a UTN number if you simply call them and quote your reg. 30 seconds later you will have paid the charge using laser or credit card, couldn't be simpler.

If you genuinely forgot to call through and pay then you could have done this 3 or 4 days later without hassle. However attempting to sit this out claiming that YOU needed to be informed by THEM that there was a charge is a comprehension failure and does not excuse the debt.

They can be reasonable, especially if you make contact and explain you forgot to ring it in can you please pay the 3 quid now, however they do dig in when customers deign to be treated like royalty and insist eFlow do all the work.

Cough it up and learn from this and for God's sake stop trying to prove a point, it's only getting worse.

evolutionqy7

MojoMaker wrote: »

Screaming will get you nowhere.

well it did for me...cause she wouldnt understand plain english while i was calm!

we pay their wages atleast they could have some understanding!

AnotherYou

MojoMaker wrote: »

Screaming will get you nowhere. The problem here is that you didn't take the time to find out how the system operates.

Easy now, I have been trying to "find out how the system operates" after the fact for a lot of time now. I don't think this is that simple.

MojoMaker wrote: »

You do not wait until you receive a charge notice - the obligation is on you to call eFlow following the journey and pay the €3 over the phone.

I know that, and failure to do so will result in a fine of 6 euros each way apparently.

However, my problem isn't with this. It's that as soon as I didn't pay my toll I was on the look out in the post for my fine letter that would have the STN number. Without which paying the toll would be impossible.

I think this may be what you didn't understand.

MojoMaker wrote: »

There are huge signs both sides of the M50 giving you the number and a reminder that YOU must call THEM before 8pm the following day. You do not need a UTN number if you simply call them and quote your reg. 30 seconds later you will have paid the charge using laser or credit card, couldn't be simpler.

Yep, and the fine for not doing so: 12 euro.

The fine for not paying THAT fine, about 100. However, I COULDN'T pay that fine.

MojoMaker wrote: »

If you genuinely forgot to call through and pay then you could have done this 3 or 4 days later without hassle. However attempting to sit this out claiming that YOU needed to be informed by THEM that there was a charge is a comprehension failure and does not excuse the debt.

First of all, no, you can't contact them 3-4 days after. Plus, it's important to say to you I was 100% intent on paying my fine. However, again, without the STN number, you can't.

And I wasn't aware I wouldn't be getting this STN number until the 2nd one arrived. For 100 euros. Does that sound fair to you?

MojoMaker wrote: »

They can be reasonable, especially if you make contact and explain you forgot to ring it in can you please pay the 3 quid now, however they do dig in when customers deign to be treated like royalty and insist eFlow do all the work.

Cough it up and learn from this and for God's sake stop trying to prove a point, it's only getting worse.

The fine by the way is now 300 euros. And I will be going to court before I pay this. However this isn't a matter of being stubborn, it's not even a matter of not being able to afford 300. Although no, couldn't afford 100, Let alone 300.

The reason I'm doing it is because the system in place means eflows failure to ensure their users ease of fine payment means they actually MAKE money. Which is unfair, and if nobody fights that it'll never change.

AnotherYou

By the way I've been on the phone to them many times since then. They say little to nothing.

AnotherYou

Well that was helpful.

GTE

So my Mam's car went in for service and I brought her into North Dublin and back one day.
We used her eFlow tag for the journey. It worked going northbound but it didnt on the way back. I got the notice that I didnt pay heading southbound.

If I call them up and explain this to them will they accept that?

Ill call them up myself later on when she is home in case I need her tag number, just wondering if anyone has experience with something like this.

AnotherYou

bbk wrote: »

So my Mam's car went in for service and I brought her into North Dublin and back one day.
We used her eFlow tag for the journey. It worked going northbound but it didnt on the way back. I got the notice that I didnt pay heading southbound.

If I call them up and explain this to them will they accept that?

Ill call them up myself later on when she is home in case I need her tag number, just wondering if anyone has experience with something like this.

Thread hijacking. Always fun.

testicle

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

well it did for me...cause she wouldnt understand plain english while i was calm!

we pay their wages atleast they could have some understanding!

No we don't.

AnotherYou

testicle wrote: »

No we don't.

People who cross the bridge sort of do. However I have no idea why on earth that's an arguement for anything.

testicle

AnotherYou wrote: »

People who cross the bridge sort of do.

No they don't.

ShadowHearth

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

i suggest you ring them and scream at them worked for me :)they wanted to charge me around 50 quid for going thru the same checkpoint every half a minute...after some screaming at them trying to explain that its impossible to do that they finaly looked at the pictures of a car and realised that they clocked some other car into my account...****ing retards...what happened to the good auld toll :S their system is ****ed up...btw im with you 100% you shouldnt pay the fine cause you werent informed...if the owner of the vehicle didnt inform you.he should pay it at his own expense and least you can do is give him the 6 quid just to remind ya they dont respond to people unless their screaming...people behind the phones are idiots reading from a text book!

no point emailing them cause they will just keep sending you the same copy paste **** with xxx amount! just ring them

i actually loled! Just shows how people cant use theyr comman sence.

thing that happened to me: Friend was taking my misses to airport to dublin so i payed toll on website. after some time he gets a letter with fine.

I called back and asked: WTF? heres the refference number, so he just turned on " dummy" mode and was explaining me that he needs to push an investigation, and only in few days they will check on. he refused to check on that refference number, and even declared that its imposible to check on. I just lost it, he even threatened me, that this call was recorded! i loughted!

So my friend called himself, some woman picked up, she checked his surname, as it was foreign, and she started talking in his languadge! :P

She took refference number, and checked it in less then few seconds and said: " oh, in reg instead of OY, you wrote 0Y, ill sort it out, ignore letters"

it depends who you get to talk to...

Dartz

It's these threads that make me wonder... if I invented a device that could fold down and shield your registration plate from the toll cameras mud being splashed up on the road, would it sell well?

A little button on the steering wheel which you push and it slides in to cover the plate.

ShadowHearth

Dartz wrote: »

It's these threads that make me wonder... if I invented a device that could fold down and shield your registration plate from the toll cameras mud being splashed up on the road, would it sell well?

A little button on the steering wheel which you push and it slides in to cover the plate.

lol i remember someone droping the link for those! those were dirt cheap, you just press the button and your number plate is covered by a black plate

jimmycrackcorm

AnotherYou wrote: »

However, my problem isn't with this. It's that as soon as I didn't pay my toll I was on the look out in the post for my fine letter that would have the STN number. Without which paying the toll would be impossible.

I think this may be what you didn't understand.

I think you mean paying online is impossible. Phoning them up though and quoting the reg is possible so it was your choice to ignore the simpler option.

dr.fuzzenstein

Just buy a car with Polish Reg and go over and back and over and back and over and back and over and back and over and back and over and back....
Till you got your 300 quids worth. Remember to put on a Halloween mask, Keith Richards should do nicely.
I fully intend to do so one day, so when you read "Keith Richards clocks up 3000 Euros worth of unpaid tolls in Polish car" in the papers you know what happened.
The system assumes a certain amount of fraud and calculates that into the price.
Therefore if you're honest and pay every cent, you're being fleeced.
Do it the Irish way, don't openly protest, just find a way over, under or around and really fcuk the hell out of it.
I used to have a Ford Focus van and the bastards charged me for commercial vehicle though in my opinion it was a car, I just drove up to the change bucket, threw my 1.80 in and was on my merry way, never a problem, sadly can't do that anymore, it's gone the way of stealing cable from your neighbour by putting a Y piece into his line. But now you can download, even better.

LostinBlanch

Dartz wrote: »

It's these threads that make me wonder... if I invented a device that could fold down and shield your registration plate from the toll cameras mud being splashed up on the road, would it sell well?

A little button on the steering wheel which you push and it slides in to cover the plate.

Well this is for sale.

And it's got revolving licence plates, remember? :cool:

GTE

AnotherYou wrote: »

Thread hijacking. Always fun.

The thread was long dead mate, if anything you got more attention out of it.

Its sorted anyway, they are surprisingly easy going when it comes to this sort of thing. I was expecting to fight for it a bit.

AnotherYou

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I think you mean paying online is impossible. Phoning them up though and quoting the reg is possible so it was your choice to ignore the simpler option.

Have you ever rang e-flow on your lunchbreak? You better resign yourself to not eating for that hour.

sentient_6

You come back 6 months later to make that point?

AnotherYou

sentient_6 wrote: »

You come back 6 months later to make that point?

I really don't understand this expiration date on threads. Surely the only benefit of the written word is it can be exchanged over months or minutes....

I know it's frowned upon, dunno why though.