A couple who were holidaying in the UK, and used a hire car to travel from Edinburgh to Whitby in North Yorkshire, have been slapped with a fine for not paying at a tunnel toll. Clive, 76 and Sadie Johnson, 69 live in South Africa but are originally from England.
The pensioners travelled through Tyne Tunnel during their three-week trip, They passed through the tunnel in a motor they hired from Europcar on September 20.
Clive and Sandie claim they tried to pay the £1.90 fee online but when they confirmed they were in a hire care they say there was no option to progress or pay. Sandie said she also tried to call Tyne Tunnel but she was unable to get answers from the automated system, Chronicle Live reports.
The couple, who are originally from the UK but have been living in South Africa for more than 40 years, said they asked Europcar at Heathrow Airport in London about the Tyne Tunnel toll fee when they returned the hire car. Clive and Sandie say they asked whether it would be automatically debited from their credit card, as their details were already held by them, however staff said they'd never heard of the Tyne Tunnel and claimed to have no idea.
Last month, Clive and Sandie had £71.90 charged to their credit card. Clive said that he was told by Europcar that this was made up of the £1.90 toll charge and a £30 fine for not paying for the Tyne Tunnel.
The remaining £40 was taken by Europcar as an administration fee for handling the unpaid fee. They contacted Tyne Tunnel 2 (TT2), which operates the Tyne Tunnel, on October 27 to appeal the decision.
He received an email back from the company in which they said they were unable to identify any technical difficulties with their payment options that would have impacted on the ability to pay within the required timeframe.
Sandie, who works as a life skills educator, said: "We are furious. We are pensioners and we can't afford this. Just because we had a holiday in the UK doesn't mean we are wealthy, we stayed with friends and family.
"We're not going to starve but it's the principle. We want our money back, we want it refunded as soon as possible. It's disgusting, the whole thing is disgusting."
Clive, who is originally from Twickenham, London, and Sandie, who is from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, both moved to South Africa in the 1970s. The pair, who live in Blairgowrie, a suburb of Johannesburg, visited the UK between September 10 and September 29.
They said they were following a satnav which suggested that the quickest route from Edinburgh to Whitby would be to take the A19 via the Tyne Tunnel. Clive and Sandie said they both tried a number of times on their phones to pay the £1.90 toll fee via the online payment system but after they answered "yes" to the question "Is this a hire car?" there was no option to go further or to pay.
Sandie added: "There's big signs saying you have to pay £1.90 or would could be fined up to £100. Of course that scared us, I was very keen to pay the £1.90.
"Before I phoned, I got on to the online payment option. It said 'Is this a hire care?' so I said 'yes' and I could not go any further to get to the point of payment. I got through to a voice of some description. I think it was some type of artificial intelligence robot thing, it wasn't fit for purpose. It wasn't an understandable answer to my question."
The couple claim Tyne Tunnels 2, which operates the Tyne Tunnel, is making it "impossible" for anyone with a hire car to pay the £1.90 charge and there should be an easier way to pay. Clive, who worked as a junior administration manager, said: "We got to the tunnel and expected to pay by cash or card but there was nothing available for that. There's no way you can turn back so we went through the tunnel and expected to pay at the other end but there was nothing.
"It's not just people from overseas who are affected it's anybody that hires a car. You have got people from Britain and people from England that don't have their own car.
"I would like as many people as possible warned to take an alternative route to their destination if at all possible until such time as Tyne Tunnel clean up their act." A spokesperson for TT2 said: "Mr and Mrs Johnson did not pay their toll within the payment window so, correctly, the owners of the vehicle – Europcar – were automatically issued with unpaid toll charge notices (UTCNs).
"We are sorry to hear that Mr and Mrs Johnson feel frustrated about their experience. In response to customer feedback, we recently made – and thoroughly tested - a number of improvements to our website to make it easier for rental car drivers to understand how to pay for passage.
"It is unclear why Mr and Mrs Johnson experienced difficulty in paying. There weren’t any issues with our systems during their payment window and all the usual methods of payment were available – including paying by telephone or cash or card at one of the thousands of PayPoints located in shops throughout the UK.
"We are unable to find any record of the customer contacting our Customer Experience team within the payment window. Payment options are detailed on signs around the tunnels and are very clear on our website. This complaint is currently being investigated by the owners of the tunnels – the North East Combined Authority - and Mr and Mrs Johnson will hear the outcome of that in due course."
A spokesperson for Europcar said: "Europcar has investigated the charges made to Mr and Mrs Johnson for the unpaid Tyne Tunnel toll. As stated in the company’s terms and conditions, the customer is responsible for all fines that arise during the rental period.
"In the event Europcar is contacted by an ‘issuing body’ with a fine notification, the company will either make payment (to avoid it increasing in value) or transfer liability in order that the issuing body can directly contact the customer with details of the fine and information on how they can pay or appeal. For each fine notification a £40.00 administration fee is charged to cover the company’s costs for handling unpaid fines. This is stated in the terms and conditions.
