Give me back my £5 (please)

Stolen by the Bank of Barnet

Mr Mustard and his co-Director both live inside the CPZ. Not trusting the council to send reminders they keep a note of when their permits are due for renewal and they both happen to be on 30 April. Mr Mustard also supplied his email address to the council in writing in February but has yet to receive a reminder by email for the 30 April renewal. Once EPR read this blog they will probably send one just for him.

Mr Mustard could not find his applicant number which is essential for a renewal. It does not appear in the letter which carries the permit (please fix that EPR). He phoned up and got his applicant number and tried to renew on-line which is the council's, and his, preferred method. It would not work. He was then transferred to telephone payments, went through the personal details, got his debit card out and was asked for £105. I don't think so said Mr Mustard. Oh yes said the parking money man as rates go up on 30 April and that is when your permit expires. If you pay on-line it is £100 said Mr Mustard and your system won't let him pay on-line. That was not the issue. The issue was that rates go up at 1am on the day of the renewal. The existence of a £5 discount was denied. Mr Mustard told the man there was an advertisement in last week's paper and he would go off and find it and send it to him. Here it is.

Mr Mustard's co-Director did manage to complete her renewal and here is the receipt (personal details are hidden). 

She has clearly paid £105 for a £100 permit and luckily she sits next to Mr Mustard. An email has now been sent to parking@gov.co.uk requesting a £5 refund.

If you have paid £105 for an on-line renewal then you need to send an email in asking for a £5 refund. If you paid by credit card you need a little extra back as well for the surcharge.

Barnet - the council that struggles to manage the simplest of tasks and thinks that it can run one of the largest local authority out-sourcing projects - One Barnet

A little birdie told Mr Mustard last week that EPR now double check everything in case Mr Mustard picks up an error. Best move to treble checking?

Update at 14.31  today. Under 2 hours after the post went live.

Proof of the power of blogging.

Well done to RR in the parking payment section who read the blog and took the initiative and emailed mrmustard@zoho.com to enquire as to the registration number of the affected vehicle. Hopefully the £5 will soon be back with his co-director (who had also emailed the council even before the blog posting and not had a direct reply).

There is also a posting today on the Barnet CPZ Action website here, which is worth a read. How to lose a day off of your annual permit.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard