SALLY SORTS IT: Hit with Ulez prices from my personalised plates

Can you assist resolve my six-month battle with Transport for London (TfL)? I bought my 2021 Hyundai Hybrid on May 20 final 12 months and subsequently changed the usual quantity plate with my personalised one.

To my shock, I obtained an Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) penalty cost discover on June 9, regardless of the car being compliant with Ulez requirements. Two extra prices adopted. I challenged these and, in the meantime, obtained extra penalties.

In July, TfL acknowledged that my car is compliant and cancelled a number of tickets.But one was not cancelled and, in December, my automobile was subsequently clamped.

As a well being skilled, I would like entry to my car to take care of sufferers. I needed to pay almost £600 to get my automobile unclamped.

R. S., London.

Sally Hamilton replies: Having a personalised quantity plate could make a driver’s car stand out from the group of different motors on the street. 

But I’m certain that’s not what you anticipated when your motor attracted the repeated consideration of TfL’s Ulez penalty cost collectors.

When I contacted TfL, it emerged that whereas your automobile could also be Ulez-compliant, it took TfL’s knowledge handlers a while to grasp it.

TfL says it receives periodic updates from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) on compliant autos and their quantity plates — however solely each 4 weeks.

Non-compliant autos are most definitely to incorporate petrol automobiles relationship from earlier than 2005 or diesels from earlier than September 2015.

Drivers who swap personal quantity plates from one motor to a different can simply fall by way of the online, with their new car not included within the newest spherical of updates. 

This can result in their automobile being registered as non-compliant and, due to this fact, liable to incurring a £180 penalty (£90 if paid inside 14 days) in the event that they don’t pay the £12.50 cost for every day that they journey by way of the Ulez zone.

At the time your penalty cost notices had been issued, TfL had not obtained the up to date info from the DVLA, so its data confirmed your quantity plate as belonging to your earlier, non-compliant automobile.

A TfL spokesman instructed me: ‘We are working on ways to increase the frequency of the updates.

‘Should any customer find this has happened to them, we urge them to contact us as soon as possible with the appropriate documentation so we can ensure their vehicle is registered as meeting the standards.’

It additionally recommends that drivers who swap quantity plates ought to use its car checker at tfl.gov.uk to see if their particulars are right.

Drivers who’re required to show their automobile’s credentials normally want a replica of the car’s V5C logbook and a certificates or letter from the motor producer confirming it’s Ulez-compliant. 

TfL tells me fewer than 0.5 per cent of the a whole lot of 1000’s of penalty prices issued since 2019 have been contested on the grounds of a quantity plate change.

Although you made a profitable illustration to TfL quickly after the primary penalty discover, the method had not been accomplished by the point you obtained an additional penalty — which was the one which ended up with the clamping agency.

On this column’s intervention, I’m happy to say your £600 was reimbursed. A TfL spokesman says: ‘We are sorry that your reader has incorrectly received a Ulez penalty charge. 

We have cancelled the fines incurred and have contacted her to apologise for the distress this has caused.’

Charged £1,000 for sim card I’ve by no means used

About a 12 months in the past, I used to be rearranging my residence workplace and, whereas pulling my desk away from the wall, an envelope dropped out from behind it. It contained a SIM card for a cell phone.

I do recall that in 2013 I thought-about altering supplier to Utility Warehouse however, in the long run, stayed with EE. 

I appeared again at my financial institution statements and, to my horror, realised I’ve been charged greater than £1,000 for the Utility Warehouse plan for ten years, regardless that I’ve by no means used it.

The SIM remains to be in its authentic packaging. I’m at an deadlock with Utility Warehouse. 

Over the previous 12 months, I’ve been left hanging on the cellphone till minimize off. I’ve additionally written to buyer relations, with out response, and to the corporate secretary after which all of the agency’s administrators, however am all the time ignored.

A. S., Nantwich, Cheshire.

Sally Hamilton replies: While it was a transparent oversight that you simply didn’t discover common funds being taken out of your checking account for a cell contract you have got by no means used, I felt Utility Warehouse was inexcusably remiss in ignoring your request to have a look at your grievance for an entire 12 months.

My analysis tells me it isn’t normally potential to activate a bodily SIM card with out it being positioned right into a cellphone. 

While extra fashionable telephones are eSim-enabled (they’ve expertise inside them which permits digital SIMs to be put in that don’t require a bodily card), these nonetheless have to be activated by the shopper. 

Also, they’re not often used within the UK and definitely weren’t round in 2013.

On my request, Utility Warehouse investigated your case and, whereas it didn’t present an evidence of how the account had been switched on and what it had charged for, I’m happy to say it has now refunded you the complete £1,100 taken out of your account over the ten-year interval.

Charged double for hen cease 

I ended on the Kentucky Fried Chicken at Knutsford North Services on the M6 once we had been coming back from Scotland to Devon on January 2. 

I positioned an order on the self-service screens for £26.57. Shortly afterwards, it was introduced there could be a ready time of half-hour.

We had been in a rush to get residence so I, and a number of other different prospects, requested for a refund. The server processed two refunds to prospects forward of me, then did mine. 

Once residence, I observed that I had been charged twice for the order I by no means obtained. 

When I referred to as KFC’s so-called ‘care squad’, they instructed me they can’t refund me and urged I to go to the department in individual — a 500-mile spherical journey.

J. T., Barnstaple, Devon.

Sally Hamilton replies: You talked about that the under-pressure KFC server appeared frazzled by the massive variety of prospects, which in all probability led her to mistakenly cost you once more fairly than making a refund. Easy to do in nerve-racking circumstances however, apparently, not really easy so that you can get the error resolved.

I requested KFC to analyze. The care squad was placed on the case and, I’m completely happy to report, it swiftly refunded the £53.14 owed.

• Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or electronic mail [email protected] — embrace cellphone quantity, tackle and a word addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to speak to Sally Hamilton. Please don’t ship authentic paperwork as we can’t take accountability for them. No obligation will be accepted by the Daily Mail for solutions given.