I've received a letter today (3/11/2012) dated 25/10/2012 informing me that me CG125 has been recovered. Should I want to collect it, there is a £150 removal charge and a storage charge of £10/day. I've tried contacting the company but they are only open by appointment on Saturdays, this means by the time I can speak to them on Monday I will owe them 12days storage even though I've only found out today.
Is this reasonable or should I tell them to shove it? (my gut instinct is option 2 and only pay for storage from the time I was informed)
Matt
PS The letter was a signed for so I know it a) wasn't sent on the 25th and b) I have proof of when it arrived
Insurance company?
It wasn't insured for theft 🙁
Who is charging you?
Seems reasonable they get some fee, this seems excessive.
Spoken to Bill?
It's the recovery company that are charging. I can understand they should get a fee, but charging me ten days storage when the hadn't told me they'd got it seems unfair. If by Bill you mean the police then no, not sure why I would need to and what they could do?
Challenge the company to prove they sent out the letter promptly. Let your Insurance Company know and pass on your evidence of when the letter was sent. Also contact the police and raise a complaint of extortion by dating a letter earlier than it was sent, also ask them when they informed the company to collect the bike.
I suspect after making a formal complaint the fees will be lowered or dropped.
Try option 2
If that fails maybe try to negotiate on the fees due, Royal Fail aren't that slow at delivery.
As a last resort tell them to shove it
Sounds fishy
My stolen motorbike was found by plod at 2AM in a lethal sink estate
They phoned me at the time to ask if I wanted to come and collect it
As Id been drinking all night and was 100 miles away this wasnt an option so they then offered to recover and store it
I cant remember how much they wanted but it was enough for me to not bother as the bike was worth peanuts
Classy bit now - when I went to get it the next morning it had (predictably) gone and I then had to go and reregister the theft as plod had chalked the original crime as "solved" and even though Id never seen the bike again had to then go and waste another 2h at the local nick filling in the same ****ing forms
Madness
It's disgusting this - mate o mine had his nicked and had to cough up or do without his bike.
Like I say it is daylight robbery imo.
Not sure what advice to offer i'm afraid. 🙁
You could have bought it back off the people who stole it for less.
I seem to remember something about paying by credit card over the phone when you collect, and specifically stating that you're paying under duress, which buys you some time/bargaining power.
Someone will be along shortly to either confirm this, or shoot me down for being an uneducated oaf.
unless i could inspect it before hand id probably just forefeit the bike to recoverers......
how longs it been gone - likely its shagged.
stealing bikes and ragging shit out of them was a favorite game of the kids in northfield.
When a friend car was taken they tried this one, on advice of police we know they told them where to shove it. If it had to be moved as it was in a dangerous location then they can charge for moving it it, otherwise no contract exits between you and whoever has it. If hey have a problem with that thy can bill whoever told them to take it.
In our force, the owner has to be asked if he will pay the fees , unless the vehicle is in a dangerous position, then it has to be an inspector who has to authorise it.
Phone them up on Monday
First question
Who authorised the collection and storage of the bike
If its the police, why did they authorise without my consent
If the bike is not worth much, they will usually haggles with you rather than get nothing
I had this once and went ballistic at the police for not calling me first to collect. Was told that they just followed standard procedure. I pointed out that it was found less that half mile from my home and suggested that I would take them to court for the costs. I had a phone call an hour later telling me to pick it up.
I would suggest the best course of action is not go ballistic from the off
Phone the company up, remain calm but firm and they will usually sort it out when they realise you know your facts
If you do know the officer in case, they sometimes will phone the garage and try and sort it, depends on the bobby you get to be honest
Thanks for the advice. Seems like the general consensus is that I should have been informed that it was going to be stored and therefore shouldn't have to pay?, have I got that right?
The bike was pretty crap before it got stolen ( about 6 weeks ago) and I would want to insect it before I commit to 'buying it back' anyway. The letter says if I don't collect it within the stated times (14 days) then they will be instructed by the Police to dispose of it.
Those saying I should contact the Police and try to get them to deal with it, do you mean just call 101 and follow it through or is there someone specific I should be talking to?
Even if I can get them to remove the storage fees and it's just the £150 I possibly won't bother, obviously if they waive all fees then I will get it back
Thanks again,
Matt
You need to investigate more. When my car was stolen/ recovered I found out the garage that had recovered the car on behalf of the police had a statutory right to charge me. (Some regulation or other). I bet it will be same for all road vehicles so you will have to pay I think. (Sorry)
Just spoken to the police, they are looking into it and going to call me back. Sounded like the crime hadn't been matched up to the recovery, not sure what implications that has, I'll just have to wait and see
Yeah keep us posted. Could be useful info. Hope you get your bike back though. 🙂
Even a crispy CG is worth £300+ if roadworthy.
If that fails maybe try to negotiate on the fees due, Royal Fail aren't that slow at delivery.
Don't be too sure about that. As part of my job I look after all the incoming post at a business that does charity raffles and lotteries, dealing with many major charities. I have to sort the trays of mail into the individual charities for the girls to open and deal with the money and tickets, and I regularly get mail that's intended for destinations all over the UK, and sometimes international. Said mail is returned to the postie the same day.
It's very common to then have the same letter/s return the following day or day after. Then again a day or so after that. Repeat until bored. The record so far was a large, bright pink envelope addressed to somewhere in India, posted in Essex, that came back to me in Chippenham, Wiltshire, seven times across two working weeks! I regularly get letters paying parking fines, letters to the DVLC, (one last week), and it's common for them to pass through my hands several times over a week.
Then there are the many, many trays of 'gone away' or 'RTS' (return to sender) mail I get every day that I have to deal with, but that's a whole other issue to do with databases... 🙄
I've had another check (original info was relayed over the phone as I'm at work, not home where the letter was sent) and the letter is dated 31st but in relation to recovery of my bike on 25th. We can rule out post office as source of blame and start to ask why it took them so long to send the letter out at all?
are you sure they're not the ones that nicked it?
Also contact the police and raise a complaint of extortion by dating a letter earlier than it was sent
Jesus!
The police got back to me last night and it basically sounds like a paperwork screw up. The police have no record of the bike being recovered and they have spoken to garage at the recovery company and they have no record of it either. The police have suggested I contact the recovery company office on Monday. It looks unlikely that my bike has actually been recovered. I think a bike with a similar numberplate has been recovered, my number plate mistyped into a computer system and a letter sent out with the details that were found, it's about the only explanation I can think of.
Oh well, looks like I'm still motorbikeless
Either that or there's a good chance you could walk off with a different motorbike for a couple of hundred quid...! 😈
pretty sure that would be illegal and ultimately I would get found out, maybe I should risk it.............
So............................. it turns out the bike is down there and it's not in too bad a state. The reason the police didn't have it registered as recovered is because it hasn't got the numberplate on, so couldn't be linked to the crime. The ignition is knackered, the headlight bowl cracked and the mirrors gone. All in all not too bad. They are not charging me any storage fees (still got to pay the recovery fee) and I'm going to pick it up tomorrow.
My plan is to sort it out and sell it on, I can't risk it being stolen again so I will use the money from selling it to pay for my full license and then get a bike that is harder to steal and has some security features
matt
Result...sort off.
Glad you got it back, shame about the hassle
