NCT Question

flaps2008

Hi All,

I have a question regarding my nct....My NCT is up on my car on 26th of June....I rang the NCT helpline and they sent me a form saying that my NCT was booked in for the 17th of September...My question is, will i get a fine or worse, points, for having no nct on the car up until the 17th of september if i get stoppeed by the guards???

Any help is appreciated

Thanks

kildare.17hmr

September????? what part of the country you in? thats way to long to wait for a test i booked 3 cars in thismorning and got all 3 in for next week!

flaps2008

Down in Cork, mallow to be specific....I thought was kinda long too but thats the one they sent me

Wudyaquit

As long as you've the letter saying you're booked in for September, that's all you need. It's not your fault the NCT centre is overbooked.

kildare.17hmr

ring them and say you need a date straight away and if they cant give you 1 tell them you want to be put on the cancilations list for your local test center.

kildare.17hmr

Wudyaquit wrote: »

As long as you've the letter saying you're booked in for September, that's all you need. It's not your fault the NCT centre is overbooked.

Not happening anymore im afraid, plenty of penalty points being handed out now for same reason, just depends on the guards mood when he stops you! we were told all this last year and its up to you to book your test as early as possible, you can do it 12 weeks in advance or 24 weeks for a 1st time test so its not like your not givin enough time

Discodog

I would advise anyone caught like that to refuse the points & go to Court. The NCT charter states that you should be able to get an NCT within 28 days of booking & it is free if you don't. The OP has made every reasonable effort to comply with the law. It is not for the OP to guess the booking time & it is unreasonable to expect anyone to know that there is a back log.

The law of Ireland is not & never should be dependant on the mood of a Guard.

kildare.17hmr

Discodog wrote: »

I would advise anyone caught like that to refuse the points & go to Court. The NCT charter states that you should be able to get an NCT within 28 days of booking & it is free if you don't. The OP has made every reasonable effort to comply with the law. It is not for the OP to guess the booking time & it is unreasonable to expect anyone to know that there is a back log.

The law of Ireland is not & never should be dependant on the mood of a Guard.

Id advise you to give that charter a read again there. what it actually means is if you ring up today and they cannot give you a date for your test and say call back tomorrow which you do and again are told sorry we still cannot give you a date call back tomorrow and so on and so on for 28 days then you get a free test. not if you ring up today and they give you a test date more than 28 days away

Anan1

Discodog wrote: »

I would advise anyone caught like that to refuse the points & go to Court. The NCT charter states that you should be able to get an NCT within 28 days of booking & it is free if you don't. The OP has made every reasonable effort to comply with the law. It is not for the OP to guess the booking time & it is unreasonable to expect anyone to know that there is a back log.

Cancellations are readily available, it's quite possible for the OP to have the car tested within the week.

kildare.17hmr

Anan1 wrote: »

Cancellations are readily available, it's quite possible for the OP to have the car tested within the week.

+1
like i said i got 3 booked today for next fri in naas. very busy centre

flaps2008

Just got another booking via the internet....for 10th of july but in killarney ...not complaining as long as I get the bleeding thing done soon enough....should be ok now like

Thanks for all the help

Discodog

From the charter:

"We aim to:

7. Ensure that the average leadtime for an appointment at an individual test centre is less than three weeks with a free test if it is greater than four weeks."

Lead Time is defined as the "time between the initiation & completion of a process"

The initiation is you saying that you need an NCT. You do not have to make repeated calls. It is up to the NCT service to offer you the nearest time/date. If they offer a closer date & you refuse it then they would be entitled to refuse a refund.

NCT centres vary on how they handle this. I was given a free NCT with no quibble & yet my neighbour had to argue like hell at the same NCT centre. Anyone who feels that the NCT are not complying with their charter should complain to the Minister.

Full charter details here:
www.ncts.ie/pdf/nctbrochure.pdf

By the way you are entitled to a free test if you have to wait more than one hour beyond your allocated time.

Demonon

The gardai are normally quite understanding about this, a garda actually said to me at a checkpoint (about 2 weeks ago) before I even opened my mouth to explain the expired NCT disc - "It's ok we know about the backlog in the NCT centres" and waved me on.

Discodog

Anan1 wrote: »

Cancellations are readily available, it's quite possible for the OP to have the car tested within the week.

It is not for the consumer to know the internal procedures used by the NCT. If they have a cancellation date then it is up to them to advise the consumer.
Making someone repeatedly phone in for a date would not be compliant with the charter.

A Judge makes a decision based on what is reasonable. If you followed the published NCT procedure & phoned for a booking but were given a late date then you have done all that you can be reasonable expected to do. After all the NCT know when your old cert expires.

JabbaTheHut

Got the car tested yesterday after waiting for 2 months. I knew the car was out for those two months, and I suppose technically, I shouldn't have driven it, and therefore would be liable for points. I wasn't going to another test center however as I live 2 miles from my nearest one.

I presume if you're driving a vehicle on the road without the proper certification, either tax, insurance or NCT, you can be prosecuted.

Btw, because I waited for two months, I got it tested for free. And it passed first time too.

Yawns

Should it go to court what happens if you use the excuse:

"Well I rang the first time and was happy with the test date being 5 months away"

Only for the judge to ask if you rang in the mean time to get a cancellation and you reply no you did not. Seeign as you didn't bother with a cancellation a Judge can still give you the points and a fine.

The onos is on the Driver to ensure it is nct valid, taxed to date and insured. If that means ringing everyday to get a closer date then so be it imo. If you try hard enough for a test date you will get one. I've never waited more than 2 weeks for a test date and only once was it past the due date to be tested and that was only by 1 day.

Personally I believe a guard should only let you go without a valid NCT if and only if you have one booked within 2 months of it's due date. Anything over 2 months is far too long. If you have to go to a further test center so be it.

steps_3314

flaps2008 wrote: »

Down in Cork, mallow to be specific....I thought was kinda long too but thats the one they sent me

Is there an NCT cneter in Mallow or are you referring to Blareny.

Coz i rang last week and they put me on a priority lsit for 2 cars.

Does that mean i cud be waiting till September....ffs....Hope not

Yawns

JabbaTheHut wrote: »

Got the car tested yesterday after waiting for 2 months. I knew the car was out for those two months, and I suppose technically, I shouldn't have driven it, and therefore would be liable for points. I wasn't going to another test center however as I live 2 miles from my nearest one.

I presume if you're driving a vehicle on the road without the proper certification, either tax, insurance or NCT, you can be prosecuted.

Btw, because I waited for two months, I got it tested for free. And it passed first time too.

Glad it passed and least you were prepared to accept any fines or points for driving without the nct done. As for 2 miles, I live 23.5k/m away from my nearest test centre and I would willingly travel much much further if I got a quicker date somewhere else.

Yawns

steps_3314 wrote: »

Is there an NCT cneter in Mallow or are you referring to Blareny.

Coz i rang last week and they put me on a priority lsit for 2 cars.

Does that mean i cud be waiting till September....ffs....Hope not

Ring and check the website. Do this over the next few days and you should get date n/p

kildare.17hmr

Discodog wrote: »

From the charter:

"We aim to:

7. Ensure that the average leadtime for an appointment at an individual test centre is less than three weeks with a free test if it is greater than four weeks."

Lead Time is defined as the "time between the initiation & completion of a process"

The initiation is you saying that you need an NCT. You do not have to make repeated calls. It is up to the NCT service to offer you the nearest time/date. If they offer a closer date & you refuse it then they would be entitled to refuse a refund.

NCT centres vary on how they handle this. I was given a free NCT with no quibble & yet my neighbour had to argue like hell at the same NCT centre. Anyone who feels that the NCT are not complying with their charter should complain to the Minister.

Full charter details here:
www.ncts.ie/pdf/nctbrochure.pdf

By the way you are entitled to a free test if you have to wait more than one hour beyond your allocated time.

Thats exactly what i ment i was trying to explain it better as all you said was basicly if you ring up today and they give you a date which is more than 4 weeks from now its free, which is not right.

Discodog wrote: »

It is not for the consumer to know the internal procedures used by the NCT. If they have a cancellation date then it is up to them to advise the consumer.
Making someone repeatedly phone in for a date would not be compliant with the charter.

A Judge makes a decision based on what is reasonable. If you followed the published NCT procedure & phoned for a booking but were given a late date then you have done all that you can be reasonable expected to do. After all the NCT know when your old cert expires.

it is up to you not the NCT to make sure your car is tested on time, if you dont ask to go onto the cancilations list they wont put you on it! there is a reason you can book your test 3 months before its due and it also explains this on the website

Yawns wrote: »

Should it go to court what happens if you use the excuse:

"Well I rang the first time and was happy with the test date being 5 months away"

Only for the judge to ask if you rang in the mean time to get a cancellation and you reply no you did not. Seeign as you didn't bother with a cancellation a Judge can still give you the points and a fine.

The onos is on the Driver to ensure it is nct valid, taxed to date and insured. If that means ringing everyday to get a closer date then so be it imo. If you try hard enough for a test date you will get one. I've never waited more than 2 weeks for a test date and only once was it past the due date to be tested and that was only by 1 day.

Personally I believe a guard should only let you go without a valid NCT if and only if you have one booked within 2 months of it's due date. Anything over 2 months is far too long. If you have to go to a further test center so be it.

I agree, iv often rang every day twice a day to get sales cars done asap to get them out to customers and would do same with my own car if needed

slimjimmc

Wudyaquit wrote: »

As long as you've the letter saying you're booked in for September, that's all you need. It's not your fault the NCT centre is overbooked.

True, but unless the OP recently aquired the car it may be his fault for leaving it to the last minute. You can do the test 3 months early (6 mths if car's first test), which means he could have made arrangements 4,5 or even 6 months ago. Perhaps that's why a few Gardaí are going by the book and giving little or no leniency.

flaps2008 wrote: »

Just got another booking via the internet....for 10th of july but in killarney ...not complaining as long as I get the bleeding thing done soon enough....should be ok now like

Thanks for all the help

Keep checking the web daily, you might get a slot that suits you better.

Discodog

Yawns wrote: »

Should it go to court what happens if you use the excuse:

"Well I rang the first time and was happy with the test date being 5 months away"

Only for the judge to ask if you rang in the mean time to get a cancellation and you reply no you did not. Seeign as you didn't bother with a cancellation a Judge can still give you the points and a fine.

The onos is on the Driver to ensure it is nct valid, taxed to date and insured. If that means ringing everyday to get a closer date then so be it imo. If you try hard enough for a test date you will get one. I've never waited more than 2 weeks for a test date and only once was it past the due date to be tested and that was only by 1 day.

Personally I believe a guard should only let you go without a valid NCT if and only if you have one booked within 2 months of it's due date. Anything over 2 months is far too long. If you have to go to a further test center so be it.

The NCT company have won a contract by agreeing to provide a service. If when you book they were to give you a date 5 months away you have every reason to assume that, as they know your current expiry date, that they have given you the earliest appointment.

If asked by a Judge "did you ring for a cancellation" you could argue "no I didn't because the NCT did not tell me to do so"

The motorist has responsibilities but so does the company that run the NCT. My neighbour has a classic. His car failed the NCT & a retest. He rebooked for what needs to be a new full test. Having not received a conformation he phoned & was told that he had been booked for another retest even though he is way past the time allowed.

The NCT operator would of had all of his details on screen. I would of expected that the system would not allow a retest to be booked after the allowed 28 days. Now he has no idea what will happen when he turns up & whether he will get a retest or a full test.

JabbaTheHut

Personally I believe a guard should only let you go without a valid NCT if and only if you have one booked within 2 months of it's due date. Anything over 2 months is far too long. If you have to go to a further test center so be it.

I wouldn't. To be brutlly honest, it's got to do with the amount of times that I get stopped by the Guards being is so rare, be it checkpoints or whatever, I weighed it up and deceided that for the 5,000 miles I drive in the car a year, was going to stay local.

kildare.17hmr

you could argue the point all day that part of the blame should fall with the NCT but at the end of the day your car is your responsibility, no1 elses. On matt cooper a week or so ago there was a guy on(i think it was Conor Faughnan from the AA) and he had stats from the nct stating there was thousands of 06 cars overdue ncts some by 6 months now because drivers are waiting to get a letter from the NCT which they dont send out! you must make your own appointment, in the time givin which is plenty of time even if there is a long waiting list. people i meet in work everyday are supprised when i tell them this!

I think maybe an advertising campagain on tv and radio would sort this problem out and let people know where they stand with regards NCTs because alot of people are unsure

Discodog

This link has some sensible advice including confirming that a Guard cannot issue points - only the Court can:

http://www.aaireland.ie/publicaffairs/press-centre/nct_may09.aspx

If the NCT used to issue reminders but has now stopped it is up to them to tell the public. There is this assumption that everyone should know obscure aspects of law without being properly told. For example many tax forms still show that an NCT is needed. It is reasonable for a person to read that & assume that they cannot tax their car without an NCT.

The NCT have an obligation to tell people when they qualify for a free test & not to wait until they are asked.

ANPR will result in far more people being stopped as it is so easy for the Guards. We need motoring law that is workable. For example you are allowed 28 days to rectify a fault before a retest. One main dealer I know is on a 5 week booking delay !.

Yawns

Discodog wrote: »

This link has some sensible advice including confirming that a Guard cannot issue points - only the Court can:

"Legally possible, perhaps, but very unlikely"

Quoted from your link. Legally a guard can give you the points. You can appeal to a judge but a guard can give you points for it. Please do not tell people they deffo cannot get points from a guard for driving without a valid NCT. Just because the guards are usually leniant does not mean that they all are, you have to decide if it's worth the risk of driving around with no NCT yourself.

kildare.17hmr

Discodog wrote: »

This link has some sensible advice including confirming that a Guard cannot issue points - only the Court can:

http://www.aaireland.ie/publicaffairs/press-centre/nct_may09.aspx

If the NCT used to issue reminders but has now stopped it is up to them to tell the public. There is this assumption that everyone should know obscure aspects of law without being properly told. For example many tax forms still show that an NCT is needed. It is reasonable for a person to read that & assume that they cannot tax their car without an NCT.

The NCT have an obligation to tell people when they qualify for a free test & not to wait until they are asked.

ANPR will result in far more people being stopped as it is so easy for the Guards. We need motoring law that is workable. For example you are allowed 28 days to rectify a fault before a retest. One main dealer I know is on a 5 week booking delay !.

I agree there should be more information readely available so people know where they stand but the onus is still on the owner of the car, you keep saying its resonable to asume this or that but is it not resonable to expect people to ask questions instead of just asuming things are done a certain way?

I would just like add anyone going to a main dealer with a car more than 4 years old is crazy! you will be charged full main dealer workshop rates and may have an apprentace doing the work! i would recomend that as soon as your car is out of its main dealer warranty seek out a reputable SIMI registered indipendent garage and have your work done to the same standard for a fraction of the cost, my garage has 2 fully qualified technitions and we charge €40 incl VAT an hour labour while the 6 main dealers within 10 miles of hear charge at least double this and have alot of apprentace mechanics doing the work!(nothing against an apprentace mechanic just using it as a price comparison)

Yawns wrote: »

"Legally possible, perhaps, but very unlikely"

Quoted from your link. Legally a guard can give you the points. You can appeal to a judge but a guard can give you points for it. Please do not tell people they deffo cannot get points from a guard for driving without a valid NCT. Just because the guards are usually leniant does not mean that they all are, you have to decide if it's worth the risk of driving around with no NCT yourself.

I agree, and in my earlier post i did not mean the law should be dependent on the mood of a guard but we all know that sometimes it is! a guard could stop me today for not having an NCT and let me off with a warning if he is in a good mood, could go home tonight have a fight with the wife and be in bad humour tomorrow when he stopps you for no NCT and give you points! not saying its right for him to do this but we all know it happens!:mad:

Yawns

I know what you mean. But if the law was followed by the book every guard would give you the fine and it would be a guard not doing his job correctly if he let it go. Tis actually thanks to the good common sense of the guards that do let you thru a checkpoint.

kildare.17hmr

Yawns wrote: »

I know what you mean. But if the law was followed by the book every guard would give you the fine and it would be a guard not doing his job correctly if he let it go. Tis actually thanks to the good common sense of the guards that do let you thru a checkpoint.

I agree with everything you said there but the truth is as i said in my last post, when it come to situations like this it can all depend on the mood of mr garda:D

Yawns

Agreed

Discodog

Yawns wrote: »

"Legally possible, perhaps, but very unlikely"

Quoted from your link. Legally a guard can give you the points. You can appeal to a judge but a guard can give you points for it. Please do not tell people they deffo cannot get points from a guard for driving without a valid NCT. Just because the guards are usually leniant does not mean that they all are, you have to decide if it's worth the risk of driving around with no NCT yourself.

To quote from the AA:

"This is not the same as the penalty points that are issued automatically for speeding. If you drive past a speed camera today you will receive a penalty points notice in the post. You will NOT be issued with penalty points on the spot or in the post because you do not have your NCT. This can ONLY happen when you are charged, taken to court and successfully convicted. At the moment, you can be fined up to €1,500 and from 1st May you can also be given up to 5 penalty points."

The caps are theirs & the meaning seems pretty clear to me.

Yawns

And how are you charged and summoned to court? When you get stopped at a checkpoint by a guard.

Discodog

The Guard can stop you & charge you however he/she cannot give you penalty points, only the Court can do that. You have the opportunity to go to Court & argue your case.

The inference is being made that a Guard can issue points which he/she cannot.

Discodog

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

but at the end of the day your car is your responsibility, no1 elses.

Not always. If a speed limit is reduced say from 60 to 40 but the signs are not changed. By driving at 60 you are clearly guilty however no Judge would convict you because you acted on the information that was given by the relevant authority.

In this case the NCT company are responsible for making you aware of all their procedures. Any changes in the NCT or any motoring law can easily be distributed as they have records of every driver. Rather than saying that an NCT can be booked 3 months in advance it would be better to say that it must be booked one month ahead of the expiry date.

The NCT know your expiry date so it is beholden on them to offer you the closest appointment to ensure that you remain legal. It is also beholden on them to tell you when you are entitled to a free test & not rely on you to prompt them. They have saved a fortune as many people did not realise that they could get a free test & did not ask.

It should be a serious matter if a government appointed company take money from the public to which they are not entitled.

CiniO

Discodog wrote: »

They have saved a fortune as many people did not realise that they could get a free test & did not ask.

Who is entitled to a free test?

Yawns

Discodog there's a little disc in your window. If you can't read that and see when your nct has expired a letter is not going to be of much help. If it's a first NCT, you should also be aware of it as you will have the log book and it will tell you when it is first registered in Ireland. Why should the nct have to write to everyone informing them and costing money to do so when all a car owner has to do is look at his window or in his log book????

CiniO

Yawns wrote: »

Discodog there's a little disc in your window. If you can't read that and see when your nct has expired a letter is not going to be of much help. If it's a first NCT, you should also be aware of it as you will have the log book and it will tell you when it is first registered in Ireland. Why should the nct have to write to everyone informing them and costing money to do so when all a car owner has to do is look at his window or in his log book????

That's all true.
It's not hard for the owner to know when NCT is due.

Problem arises with imported cars.
It seems that when you register car in Ireland you have to do NCT.
There are 2 points.
1. After registration in Ireland it's not legal to drive without NCT.
2. It is not possible to do NCT or even book it, before car is registered in Ireland.

Considering both points, there is no legal way to do it.
They are making you to break the law and drive a car without valid NCT for some period of time (even a month or more).

Discodog

Yawns wrote: »

Discodog there's a little disc in your window. If you can't read that and see when your nct has expired a letter is not going to be of much help. If it's a first NCT, you should also be aware of it as you will have the log book and it will tell you when it is first registered in Ireland. Why should the nct have to write to everyone informing them and costing money to do so when all a car owner has to do is look at his window or in his log book????

I agree to some of your points however we were discussing whether the NCT should have responsibility to give you an earliest appointment to enable you to drive legally. By allowing the NCT farce to happen it denigrates the importance of the NCT.

My argument for a reminder is that the notice period could be varied by the NCT to reflect the waiting time. So if there is a long delay the NCT could send out a booking reminder well in advance. It is not for the average motorist, who lives a busy life & does not read motoring forums to know the current booking delays in their area.

Also the NCT is a profit making commercial venture. If it's inefficiencies cause delays then it should be responsible for notifying the public, in advance to avoid the need for people to drive illegally.

We are used to reminders. We get them from the ESB etc because we are customers. We pay a huge price to own a car & as customers of the government we are entitled to good customer service.

Yawns

CiniO wrote: »

That's all true.
It's not hard for the owner to know when NCT is due.

Problem arises with imported cars.
It seems that when you register car in Ireland you have to do NCT.
There are 2 points.
1. After registration in Ireland it's not legal to drive without NCT.
2. It is not possible to do NCT or even book it, before car is registered in Ireland.

Considering both points, there is no legal way to do it.
They are making you to break the law and drive a car without valid NCT for some period of time (even a month or more).

No technically you can have the car brought to the NCT center on the back of a truck etc so there are ways. However I did say earlie I feel their should be a 2 month 'Grace Period' kind of thing. If you have you car without NCT after 2 months you should be deemed taking the mick and be punished. Like with tax. If you're 2 months out of date they can sieze the car.

A 2 month after period gives the average driver 5 months to have the car tested. 3 months prior and 2 months after. That would be very fair imo. A first test would have even longer. As it is now it can be very muddlesome.

As for a reminder letter. I think it is a waste of money and time for a reminder letter. Unless it serves some purpose like the motor tax reminder which gives you a unique online pin then they should stop all letters. They should do a TV ad to announce it so noone has an excuse. You get an Insurance reminder because it's a new price, contract etc.

You get an esb reminder because you have used the service already and owe them money. You do not have the car tested then owe money, you pay in advance for the service to be carried out. NCT letters cost money and it's 1 of the silliest things to waste money on. Why send thousand of letters out to households with a car when the driver simply has to look at the window? It's not rocket science. I'll never fathom why people need to be reminded. Do they need to be reminded to eat, sleep, drink, go toilet etc? They are adults be it young, middle aged or old.

CiniO

Yawns wrote: »

No technically you can have the car brought to the NCT center on the back of a truck etc so there are ways.

Ok thats true.
I always can bring my car to NCT centre on a towing truck.
But this would mean completly unnecessary costs for me.
Also it would mean, that I can't use my freshly bought car, for a couple of weeks, just because I have to wait for my booking with NCT.
This is not acceptable.

However I did say earlie I feel their should be a 2 month 'Grace Period' kind of thing. If you have you car without NCT after 2 months you should be deemed taking the mick and be punished. Like with tax. If you're 2 months out of date they can sieze the car.

To be honest, I don't think thats necessary.
3 months period for doing your test is enough.
There's no need for any grace period.

Only problem I was displaying, is that they expect people to do NCT straight on after importing car, but they don't provide any facility to do NCT straight on, instead you have to wait for few weeks. That's against common sense.

Yawns

The extra 2 months would be a grace period whilst the nct crowd gets their act together and can start handling the load at a reasonable wait. As it stands some people get away with driving cars without nct for over 12 months because some guards let them pass thru etc.

Osk

Yawns wrote: »

Discodog there's a little disc in your window. If you can't read that and see when your nct has expired a letter is not going to be of much help. .............. Why should the nct have to write to everyone informing them and costing money to do so when all a car owner has to do is look at his window or in his log book????

I bought my car 2nd hand in Sept 2008 and was aware it was due for its NCT which I got in November 2008. I didn't expect to redo NCT until November 2010 - I never realised it goes on the date of registration i.e. February 2010 :eek:The disc is on my windscreen but I never look at it...I only noticed it in April of this year and made my appointment immediately...first available date was tomorrow - June 29th.

I don't agree that onus should not be on NCT to contact car owners - it doesn't need to cost money - e-mail/text reminders etc are all possibilities. Postage on a letter is 50-odd cent - the fee has gone up to €50 so postage on a letter is not an unreasonable expectation.

I don't have time or inclination to ring every day for a cancellation and have never been stopped in the interim...there seems to be no recession in NCT business! I'll try for a free test as well so watch this space.

Yawns

E-mails and text service will cost money to set up too. Then people will have excuses oh I don't use that e-mail address or phone anymore etc.

It doesn't cost much to send a letter you say? It doesn't cost much effort to read the disc on the window. Sure you have to put the disc into the window holder yourself. So when you are removing it from the main page to place it, you don't even glance at it?

Do you know when your tax and insurance is due or are you wholly reliant on letters for those too?

Yawns

You have no time or inclination to ring or chec kthe window. You're just too lazy. Doesn't take long for a phone call or to check their website. You're lucky a guard hasn't stopped you. I hope you remember in future because when the backlog gets cleared eventually you will have no reason for driving without NCT and the guards will have to pull you for it.

kildare.17hmr

Osk wrote: »

I don't agree that onus should not be on NCT to contact car owners - it doesn't need to cost money - e-mail/text reminders etc are all possibilities. Postage on a letter is 50-odd cent - the fee has gone up to €50 so postage on a letter is not an unreasonable expectation.

QUOTE]

Think about all the unused cars out there, lying in peoples yards, gardens, scrap yards and the back of garages used for parts that will never be used again, are still registered as being on the road and in someones name. if there are 10,000 cars like this in the country that would cost €5200 on postage alone, if there was 20,000(and i would guess this number is alot more) it would cost €10400!! not to mention the cost of paper, ink and envalopes. I would consider this unresonable

Osk

Yawns wrote: »

You have no time or inclination to ring or chec kthe window.

Don't misquote - I said I don't have time or inclination to ring every day for a cancellation as was previously advised.

I placed the disc in the holder in November 2008 and as I stated I was under the impression that the NCT lasted for 2 years - I have no idea why 02-10 never clicked. It was when I replaced my car tax disc in April that I realised it expired in February and set about making an appt immediately.

Yawns wrote: »

Do you know when your tax and insurance is due or are you wholly reliant on letters for those too?

Yawns wrote: »

You're just too lazy.

No need for such sarcasm or personal insults.

Max Power1

Osk wrote: »

Don't misquote - I said I don't have time or inclination to ring every day for a cancellation as was previously advised.

I placed the disc in the holder in November 2008 and as I stated I was under the impression that the NCT lasted for 2 years - I have no idea why 02-10 never clicked. It was when I replaced my car tax disc in April that I realised it expired in February and set about making an appt immediately.





No need for such sarcasm or personal insults.

Its hardly a personal insult! Cars are driven almost daily and (hopefully) checked weekly and monthly for stuff like oil and fluids etc. How someone cannot notice their NCT is due is beyond me.

kildare.17hmr

Max Power1 wrote: »

Its hardly a personal insult! Cars are driven almost daily and (hopefully) checked weekly and monthly for stuff like oil and fluids etc. How someone cannot notice their NCT is due is beyond me.

exactly!

Osk

Checking for oil etc is not the same as checking a disc on your windscreen!!

Re: postage of €10400 - bear with me here....

There are about 45 test centres. Let's give the benefit of the doubt and say that each centre averages out at 4 tests per hour x 8 hrs/day x 5 days/wk x 52 weeks/yr @ €50 for a full test.

45*4*8*5*52*50 = €18,720,000

..and with this 'backlog' there are a lot more than 4 tests per hour if this morning's waiting room was anything to go by Also some centres used to work 7 days/week (not sure if this is still the case?).

€18,720,000 - €10400 postage isn't a bad result!

All this effort for something I don't even feel strongly about! I saw my NCT was up and made an appt - I found this thread when searching for how to claim to have it done for free due to waiting over a month That's a whole other argument I guess.....

kildare.17hmr

Osk wrote: »

Checking for oil etc is not the same as checking a disc on your windscreen!!

Re: postage of €10400 - bear with me here....

There are about 45 test centres. Let's give the benefit of the doubt and say that each centre averages out at 4 tests per hour x 8 hrs/day x 5 days/wk x 52 weeks/yr @ €50 for a full test.

45*4*8*5*52*50 = €18,720,000

..and with this 'backlog' there are a lot more than 4 tests per hour if this morning's waiting room was anything to go by Also some centres used to work 7 days/week (not sure if this is still the case?).

€18,720,000 - €10400 postage isn't a bad result!

All this effort for something I don't even feel strongly about! I saw my NCT was up and made an appt - I found this thread when searching for how to claim to have it done for free due to waiting over a month That's a whole other argument I guess.....

any business though wether they have 50 grand or 50 million turnover would find wasting that sort of money unaccepable! (id say if you checked up the figures on the nct site for last year and then done your sums you would get a much bigger figure!)
did ya get a free nct in the end?

Osk

I've to write to Customer Services with my receipt and booking details and 'they judge every case individually' :rolleyes:

Worth a shot all the same...

I just checked their site statistics :eek:I was waaaaaay out - by about €32million!!! Good God!