I can't pay my penalty points

JohnBoy

Hi ho,

yes, john was caught speeding, (stone him, stone him)

so i got my notice in the post, caught on camera by a van.

wrote a cheque, filled in the form, photocopied my licence and stuck it in the post.

fair play, i broke the rules, i got caught, serves me right. never even been stopped for speeding before in five years and around 200k miles so it had to happen eventually.

anyway

I got a letter back, along with my cheque, my form and my photocopied drivers licence to tell me that the name on the department of the environment's national driver file does not match me, and that i should call 1890 304060 if i had any queries.

also in big bold print the letter points out that the offence is still open and that i risk a higher financial penalty or court summons if i do not act upon the letter immediately.

so i rang the number, after a while ringing back and farting around on the phone menu system, i eventually resorted to dialling 5 for all other enquiries. gave up on hold after 15 minutes on friday, oh wait, its good friday, the guards probably don't work it.

tried again this morning, now dialling 5 just takes me back to the main menu.

i reckon i'm just gonna keep taking menu options until i get to talk to a real person, but this is a piss take.

they surely could have told me in the letter what to do?

makes me wonder if i couldn't challenge it in court as technically the ticket wasn't issued to me, technically. i couldn't really be bothered to be honest, just want em to take the payment and get on with it, but they don't want my money.

i will however if it comes down to it and they have not sorted it on time refuse to pay the extra fine for not settling within 28 days.

ten days left on that so it shoudln't come to that.

JohnBoy

phone menu system is working again, but i'm on hold again

JohnBoy

thought we were onto a winner there, started ringing, rang about five times, then back to the music

JohnBoy

ooh general enquiries has answered, i'm now being put through to payments.

wahey

JohnBoy

kelly in payments is going to get back to me, she seems stumped

only took half an hour on hold. :rolleyes:

stereo_steve

You forgot the post saying what you had for breakfast

JohnBoy

umm not had breakfast yet so you'll have to wait and see

parsi

So what happened between 10:29 & 10:42 - a resounding silence here..

dahamsta

Arrested for harrassing both the Gardaí and Boards.ie, hopefully.

drdre

Ken Shabby wrote:

Arrested for harrassing both the Gardaí and Boards.ie, hopefully.

hehhehe and contact the office or go to police station.if it is worng detilas just donot pay.

you can check penalty points before you call into the police by callint the motor tax office.you might be lucky and get away with it.

dbnavan

John do you usually talk to yourself, or maybe you want to be a contestant on Big Brother, then everyone can see whats going on in your life(maybe you could set up a webcam), sort it out and let us know how u get on.

drdre

dbnavan wrote:

John do you usually talk to yourself, or maybe you want to be a contestant on Big Brother, then everyone can see whats going on in your life(maybe you could set up a webcam), sort it out and let us know how u get on.

yeah you are right he posted some stupid comments.

and also i donot think he can edit his original post instead or adding another 10 posts:D

JohnBoy

I think it was the hold music/menu system that just gotten inside my head and made me lose the run of myself for a bit there.

all is well in the world again (except for the obvious fact that i shall soon have 2 penalty points endorsed onto my licence)

apologies for any incovienience caused

parsi

drdre wrote:

hehhehe and contact the office or go to police station.if it is worng detilas just donot pay.

I think the whole point of his (many) messages is that he is _tyring_ to contact the Office. :rolleyes:

drdre

parsi wrote:

I think the whole point of his (many) messages is that he is _tyring_ to contact the Office. :rolleyes:

well theres something called email or fax.and also i found it hard to contact them.just type in a different section number and it will be quicker

parsi

Indeed.

There's also something called making a personal visit, something called pigeon post (not much used), telex (ditto) etc. But the OP was trying to use the number that he was instructed to use if he had a query. His letter didn't suggest a fax number, an email address or anything else (afawk).

Savman

dear diary...:D

_Kaiser_

Hardly any need for all the "funny" :rolleyes: comments lads. If anything this shows what a shambles of a system one has to go through to do this.

Rather than making smart remarks, I think it's something to learn from - you need to set aside a whole morning to pay your speeding fine (obviously an online payment option, the ability to match the info on a driving license to a database, or even to be informed about their own procedures, is too complicated for yet another of our govt bodies).

Cheers for the heads up John.

opus

I noticed a garda car driving around the corner in Cork today with the cop chatting away on his mobile while driving with one hand! It's good to see they are taking the new offences seriously

drdre

opus wrote:

I noticed a garda car driving around the corner in Cork today with the cop chatting away on his mobile while driving with one hand! It's good to see they are taking the new offences seriously

yeah its so annoying as i saw garda car speeding last week and also i see them on fones sometimes.why does nothing happen to them.:(

Turner

They are exempt from speeding and speaking on your phone while driving is not an offence.

Jumpy

Chief--- wrote:

They are exempt from speeding.

Partly correct. Only while lit.

JohnBoy

umm yeah, what parsi and kaiser said basically.

it's all a bit of a joke really, I probably could get legal advice and get this ticket thrown out, but it's hardly worth the effort. i just wanted to pay my fine like a good contrite motorist.

the fixed charge notice reccomends that you include a copy of your drivers licence with the payment. its obvious that they never even looked at it, as if they did they would clearly have seen that it's their records that were in error. just a pity it's such a hassle.

as to the people suggesting calling in? well I'm damm sure my local garda station would read the letter and then promptly tell me to ring the number at the bottom and **** off. as for calling in to the fixed charge office, well it's three hours away from me so thats hardly an option. I didn't want to get into a letter writing campaign either as there is now only 9 days remaining and the letter made it quite clear that if this wasn't sorted by the 28th they'd up their demands.

and yeah, the guards are supposed to obey the rules of the road, except when on emergency duty (ie lights on) but they are exempt from mobile phone regulations because the radio system is a ball of ****e, the government hasn't equipped them all with car-phones so they use their own personal phones while on duty, and for work purposes

pH

Partly correct. Only while lit.

On Duty Gardai are exempt from most driving laws (Lights lit has nothing to do with it) hence the speeding Ministers Mercs to get them home for the weekend and when they're late for a match.

The decision to prosecute the garda driver in Lucan is said to have come as a shock to other gardai in the city, especially Traffic Branch gardai and official drivers who are often required to drive above speed limits. It has brought to a head the controversy over the operation of the legal exemption which allows garda cars - including ministerial cars driven by gardai - to be exempt from the Road Traffic Act. This means that, on direction, gardai can exceed speed limits, go through traffic lights on red and drive across continuous white lines.
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=941239&issue_id=8937
(Requires Reg)

_Kaiser_

pH wrote:

The decision to prosecute the garda driver in Lucan is said to have come as a shock to other gardai in the city, especially Traffic Branch gardai and official drivers who are often required to drive above speed limits. It has brought to a head the controversy over the operation of the legal exemption which allows garda cars - including ministerial cars driven by gardai - to be exempt from the Road Traffic Act. This means that, on direction, gardai can exceed speed limits, go through traffic lights on red and drive across continuous white lines.
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=941239&issue_id=8937
(Requires Reg)

Which is how it should be. Unless they're on duty and it's a legitimate call (which doesn't include ferrying fat overpaid politicians home) then they should be subject to the same laws as the rest of us.

It's precisely because of this exemption that so many of them have a god complex, are incompetent/corrupt and forget who is ultimately paying their wages.

Turner

Gardai pay tax aswell, so technically they are paying each others wages too.