Penalty fare amount.

[KMoo]

The anxiety is still really eating me up about this and I still have that sick feeling in my stomach, I know I should just try and stay calm and wait until TP get back to me either through a letter to go to court or me emailing them about settling out of court, it’s just it can take them up to 21 days to reply back and I’m just really anxious right now.

Sorry for using you guys as my little like therapist right now but I have no one else I can tell and I really am panicking right now.
I really don’t know what to do in this situation and I only have myself to blame which makes it so much worse.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Sep 2024 ==

.......

Hi,

I didn’t see the letter which said I had until the 15th of July to pay which is the one I posted in here, my mum had a horrible habit of not telling me when I have Mail and throwing it in a pile of Mail that has everyone’s in so I find it easy to miss Mail if I’m not really looking, I still have not received any court letter but I read that, that can take up to 6 months to receive.

I bought the ticket months in advance as I was going to a concert and took no notice of it until I was pulling it up and by that point it was already too late I’d be stopped been scanned by the penalty fare people.

 

[some bloke]

The anxiety is still really eating me up about this and I still have that sick feeling in my stomach,

If you were to be convicted under a byelaw there would be no implication of dishonesty, and the threat of owing anywhere near 10K is not going to materialise.

And we haven't yet found out whether the company will simply let you pay.

And what you've just posted about not seeing the letter, and the long time between buying the ticket and using it, may be helpful.

was going to pay this at the end of this month,

I'm sorry I missed that - so it seems you can't say you tried to pay.

Are you saying in an earlier post that you sent this email, this morning?

Dear Sir/Madam,

Hi I got a fine from yourselves the 21 May 2024, I have gone to look at my bill and it is now saying I owe £10,000 I was wondering why this is happening because I was going to pay this at the end of this month, but cannot afford it at this much, has this gone to court without me knowing?

Please find a screenshot of the bill I see when looking

It seems pretty good to me, though probably best not to say in future "I was going to pay this at the end of this month". It's possible the company might just let you pay when they see it.

If you want to write more, make sure you refer to that email.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Sep 2024 ==

I'm sorry how this has affected you - as you can see from other posts on this forum, it's common for people to freak out initially at the threat of prosecution.

 

[KMoo]

If you were to be convicted under a byelaw there would be no implication of dishonesty, and the threat of owing anywhere near 10K is not going to materialise.

And we haven't yet found out whether the company will simply let you pay.

And what you've just posted about not seeing the letter, and the long time between buying the ticket and using it, may be helpful.

I'm sorry I missed that - so it seems you can't say you tried to pay.

Are you saying in an earlier post that you sent this email, this morning?


It seems pretty good to me, though probably best not to say in future "I was going to pay this at the end of this month". It's possible the company might just let you pay when they see it.

If you want to write more, make sure you refer to that email.

Thank you for spending so much time talking to me, I’ve never been in trouble like this before or even gone anywhere near a court.
I guess it really is the 10k which is making me panic the most, I’m just starting to get back in my feet after being made redundant I don’t think I would ever survive if they went yep you’ve got to pay 10k and also the thought of prison I can’t tell you how much that scares me, I know that is highly unlikely as this is my first offence but it won’t leave my mind.

I have not sent this but I have written and will probably send it tomorrow morning.

“
Dear Sir/Madam,

I have seen that I have missed the final deadline before my penalty fare would go to criminal proceedings, is there anyway of me paying my bill without having to resort to going to court?

I have learnt from my mistake and I will make sure to double check when it comes to the times of my train ticket, I am genuinley sorry for what has happened here and it will never happen again. Due to my severe dyslexia I can read the timing on my ticket wrong which is what happened in this circumstance, please find attached evidence of my dyslexia report.

I have looked at my fare with the intention to pay but with how high the bill is I am unable to pay. Has my penalty fare been withdrawn? And may I have an explanation for the high fare on my payment portal.

Due to unemployment I was unable to pay the penalty fare but I am now in the position to pay the fare.

Kind regards,
My name”

 

[some bloke]

There is no 10K, and no threat of prison.

Magistrates can't send someone to prison for a first offence even if they are convicted of the more serious offence involving intent to avoid a fare, so you literally could not get to prison on this if you tried.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Sep 2024 ==

Have a look at other threads on here, and also search for news stories if you want (though better to listen to an audiobook or something till you go to sleep). There are no news stories about people paying anything like 10K for one minor ticketing offence, because it can't happen (unless of course the person chooses to spend thousands on lawyers).

The option the company chose was a penalty fare, so it wasn't considered serious.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Sep 2024 ==

If you have already sent the shorter email, it's probably a good idea to see what people on here have to say tomorrow before sending another one.

 

[KMoo]

There is no 10K, and no threat of prison.

Magistrates can't send someone to prison for a first offence even if they are convicted of the more serious offence involving intent to avoid a fare, so you literally could not get to prison on this if you tried.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Sep 2024 ==

Have a look at other threads on here, and also search for news stories if you want (though better to listen to an audiobook or something till you go to sleep). There are no news stories about people paying anything like 10K for one minor ticketing offence, because it can't happen (unless of course the person chooses to spend thousands on lawyers).

The option the company chose was a penalty fare, so it wasn't considered serious.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Sep 2024 ==

If you have already sent the shorter email, it's probably a good idea to see what people on here have to say tomorrow before sending another one.

Thank you again for spending time talking to me, I’m sure you’ve had to say the same thing a hundred times, this really does make me feel much better, I’ve just got to try and stay calm and wait until I get a reply from TPE or another letter.

 

[KMoo]

It has been about 2 weeks since I made this post, I am still waiting for TPE to get back to me and my balance is still showing the £10,000 and still no letter for a court date. This has been the biggest stress of my life, the waiting is killing me

 

[furlong]

Another option might be to see if the Metro newspaper wants to run the story: Train company demands £10000 from dyslexic passenger who boarded wrong train.
It's not unusual to see media reports of unjustifiably large utility bills where the utility company repeatedly ignores attempts to correct them,

 

[KMoo]

Another option might be to see if the Metro newspaper wants to run the story: Train company demands £10000 from dyslexic passenger who boarded wrong train.
It's not unusual to see media reports of unjustifiably large utility bills where the utility company repeatedly ignores attempts to correct them,

Their site says it’s can take up to 21 days to get a reply but if it goes over 21 days I will definitely be trying to take this further.

 

[some bloke]

Have you tried to pay the £170 using the portal?

If the portal doesn't accept it, you can tell them that you tried, and about the fact that you didn't see some of the correspondence until much later.

They can't easily get a large amount of money from you, as a court would need a good reason for them to be claiming it. And there is no indication that they have done much substantial work on the case.

 

[KMoo]

Have you tried to pay the £170 using the portal?

If the portal doesn't accept it, you can tell them that you tried, and about the fact that you didn't see some of the correspondence until much later.

They can't easily get a large amount of money from you, as a court would need a good reason for them to be claiming it. And there is no indication that they have done much substantial work on the case.

It unfortunately doesn’t let me it just asks for my bank details and pay now which I’m assuming would try and take the whole 10k

 

[some bloke]

That's OK - so you can write to them again.

I bought the ticket months in advance as I was going to a concert and took no notice of it until I was pulling it up and by that point it was already too late I’d be stopped been scanned by the penalty fare people.

That seems to me not a bad answer to the question how you didn't notice the wrong time both when you bought it and when you used it.

If you post a draft here, people can comment.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Sep 2024 ==

Actually is there an inconsistency here?

If you got on the train because you read the time wrong, how did you only notice it when it was too late?

I’m severely dyslexic and I read the time on my ticket as 12pm instead of 2pm, so I got on a train which was 2hrs early which means I had an invalid ticket for that train.

 

[KMoo]

That's OK - so you can write to them again.


That seems to me not a bad answer to the question how you didn't notice the wrong time both when you bought it and when you used it.

If you post a draft here, people can comment.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Sep 2024 ==

Actually is there an inconsistency here?

If you got on the train because you read the time wrong, how did you only notice it when it was too late?

I read the time as 12pm on my ticket because of my dyslexia and never checked it again as I got through the gates and everything at sheffield, it wasn’t until the lady said you’re in your train 2 hours early that I went, oh bugger

 

[some bloke]

OK, so I think you mean you read it as 12 the same day as you travelled.

It wasn't clear as you said you took no notice of the ticket until it was too late, which might imply you didn't look at it that day before getting on the train.

 

[KMoo]

OK, so I think you mean you read it as 12 the same day as you travelled.

It wasn't clear as you said you took no notice of the ticket until it was too late, which might imply you didn't look at it that day before getting on the train.

Yes sorry, it’s really hard to get across what I’m trying to say especially when panicking and dyslexia makes everything harder but that is correct

 

[some bloke]

Anyway, it's reasonable to write again now especially if you have things to add.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Sep 2024 ==

it’s really hard to get across what I’m trying to say especially when panicking and dyslexia makes everything harde

I think you do pretty well.

I'd say it's worth mentioning that you had bought the ticket x months before.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Sep 2024 ==

Train companies start huffing and puffing if people don't reply. It doesn't necessarily mean they actually want anything more than a couple of hundred quid.

 

[KMoo]

Hi everyone!!!

I have some amazing news, someone from TPE saw my thread and looked into the matter and I’m glad to say it is all settled now and I have paid the outstanding payment!

I would like to say thank you to everyone in this group who has helped me, I know I have been a bit of an emotional wreck in here but we are all sorted and from now on I will be double and triple checking my ticket before I get on a train.

I hope you all have an amazing night!

 

[Hadders]

Excellent news! Thanks for letting us know.