KenBuster: Auto Congestion Charge payment nonsense

AnonymousWed 21 November, 2007 11:31am

Surely a more useful gadget would be revolving number plates in a James bond style!

AnonymousWed 21 November, 2007 12:08pm

i read that tfl makes £95m a year in fines. obscene

might not stop you having to pay the charge but at least it will stop them scaming even more money off you in the name of congestion

AnonymousWed 21 November, 2007 2:31pm

The article is a bit harsh. At least this company is doing something to help people who may forget. Surely its the consumers choice if they want to take the hassle out of paying, and hence not forgetting and so not getting fined. Its simple and effective....wish I'd thought of it.

Rory Reid (CNET.co.uk)Wed 21 November, 2007 3:40pm

FIRSTLY: Lets not be juvenile. Fines are NOT a bad thing for society. They prevent people taking the mickey and dodging payment. If we didn't have fines you'd have idiots parking their cars in the middle of roundabouts, nobody would buy train tickets, and of course, nobody would think twice about dodging the CC charge. SECONDLY: I have nothing against the people who created this product. But how can I recommend that instead of paying tax, you pay someone to take your money and pay your tax for you? That's st00pyd.

AnonymousWed 21 November, 2007 4:10pm

But I think the point is - it's a hassle paying the charge, even if you don't forget. And tfl WANT you to forget, so they can fine you, because that's where they make their money.

I've forgotten a couple times just in the last 6 months and got fined, and had the hassle of paying maybe another 10 times (and it IS a hassle - phone up while your out on the move, or remember to pay on the internet before you go out, that's if you know you're 100% going into the zone, or when you get back, which may be after midnight anyway). Sounds worth it for someone like me.

john bairdWed 21 November, 2007 4:51pm

Surely it's just an insurance policy against forgetting, and hence paying the fines?

Rory Reid (CNET.co.uk)Wed 21 November, 2007 6:33pm

You can pay by text -- how convenient is that? Even if you forget, you can still pay the following day and the charge only goes up by £2 to £10. You'd have to forget 50 times a year (assuming you remembered to pay the next day) before you get your money's worth from a KenBuster. FIFTY TIMES A YEAR. FIFTY TIMES A YEAR. Did I say FIFTY TIMES A YEAR already? I can't remember. Ok you win.. this thing's fantastic... for alzheimer's patients. Look, if you 'forget' to pay that often, you're either mentally ill, or you're deliberately avoiding paying... in either case, you don't need a KenBuster, you need a kick up the ****.

Rory Reid (CNET.co.uk)Wed 21 November, 2007 6:47pm

What if they marketed it as following: "KenBox: For people who can't be arsed paying." That would be fine by me.

AnonymousWed 21 November, 2007 8:14pm

Dear Mr Reid,
I am one of those twats who regularly forgets to pay the CC. I have SMS payments organised through my mobile phone to make automatic payments, but I keep forgetting, because I drive into town quite regularly. This year, I have clocked up 6 fines already, which at £50.00 a time, costs around £300.00.

I don't think that your maths are at all correct. If you forgot to pay the charge 50 times each year, you'd end up paying Ken £2500.00. When I forget to pay, it means that I forget to pay and don't remember to pay it the next day. From the information I have seen about this device, some 4500 people each day do exactly the same thing as me. I know that I am stupid, I'm at fault, and there are 4500 people like me that I do the same thing EACH DAY, but this device sounds brilliant for me. Sign me up.

AnonymousWed 21 November, 2007 8:18pm

Rory Reid is a cyclist anyway. What does he know about motoring? A computer genius, perhaps, but quite plainly no driver!

FreddieThu 22 November, 2007 12:10pm

If it's all that simple why is it that over a million people a year get fined?

Rory Reid (CNET.co.uk)Thu 22 November, 2007 12:44pm

127,750,000 people entered the congestion charge zone in 2003. I'm not sure what the figure is today, but i bet it's significantly higher. If only 1 million people get fined per year, that's less than 1%.

Rory Reid (CNET.co.uk)Thu 22 November, 2007 12:48pm

Sorry I'll clarify: that's 127 million CARS, not people. And to the person who said I ride bicycles -- that's a slur against my character. I was conceived in a 1979 Chevy Corvette and gave up breathing oxygen for pure nitrous oxide by the age of 8. Don't try that at home. Here's evidence of me NOT using a bike: http://crave.cnet.co.uk/video/0,139101587,49294118,00.htm

AnonymousThu 22 November, 2007 2:00pm

I don't care what anyone says about this product to be honest - I like it. My dad is building contractor and has a team of builders working for him....who use 4 vans between them. Last year the company was billed over £2000 in fines. Now, if he buys 4 of these Kenbusters, which will cost him £800, he will actually save more than 100% of my cost. I realise this product is not for everyone, but for some - it’s going to be a money saving device.

AnonymousThu 22 November, 2007 2:40pm

Rory, 120 odd thousand journeys a day - how many of those are chargable joureys. Bet it includes taxis, buses, electric cars and other exempt vehicles. Slurs on your character - hum - certainly your journalism needs a little more work. Get back on your bike!

Rory Reid (Cnet.co.uk)Thu 22 November, 2007 4:47pm

Your marketing skills need work, buddy. Best of luck.

AnonymousWed 19 December, 2007 8:01pm

Has anyone actually got one of these? I ordered one at the end of november as a christmas present and still have received nothing. Is this a hoax?

AnonymousMon 18 February, 2008 5:40pm

Having a busy life as most Londoners do, i've forgotten quite a few times and i live on the edge of the congestion. On paying my penalties the officer told me he had reported this device several times to his manager, as people had complained that they owned the device but were still being fined. He advised me to cancel the credit card i had used as it was some kind of fraud. Has anyone else had a similar experience with the Ken buster. I'm now worried i've forked out £199 for nothing.

AnonymousTue 20 May, 2008 9:10am

Hi Guys,
the Kenbuster sounds great to me. But...as per the last person's comments, is it a hoax?? has anyone else found that it's a hoax??? thanks

AnonymousTue 20 May, 2008 9:20pm

This article IS baised! Did Ken himself write it? Or Boris?! £200 seems steep, but having shelled out over a grand in fines last year £200 is nothing compared to what it'll save me. OK, so I'm forgetful when it comes to paying the charge, but if you intermittently drive in and out of London in a busy job, can you honestly say you would never get a fine?

AnonymousTue 3 June, 2008 11:42am

Mine turned up today and appears to be working great. Having opened the box up it looks pretty simple.... it is basically a Telit GE863-GPS 'phone' which has integrated SIM and GPS... much like the guts of say a Nokia N75 without the screen, keyboard etc. This sends your location via GPRS over to the KenBuster server I would imagine, which decides if you are in the zone or not and then pays the charge for you. The software at the KenBuster end is no doubt all automated, and the £50 and £8 per month is the best deal as, when IBM take on the CC system, they're bound to come up with some kind of automated payment scheme, at which point you can cancel your subscription. You could then pop your own data-only SIM in and reverse engineer the hardware for some other application (assuming they don't ask for it back) if you so desired. The guts would also sell well on eBay, I'd imagine.

AnonymousWed 16 July, 2008 6:04pm

I disagree, financial fines are both unfair and unnecessary. A £50 fine levied against someone on a minimum wage or on benefits is far more of a punishment than to a top bracket earner or millionair. Therefore it is unfair and unjust. Further more if the fine is issued and the person cannot afford to pay it, the fine increases, with repocusions that could potentially be disasterous for them and their familly. To a millionaire £50 is loose change. Why should your punishment be worse for the poor than for the rich? Isn't the crime the same?
A much fairer system would be a 'time' fine. Most people have roughly the same life expectancy, around 80 years. Therefore a 1hr penalty would be much fairer than £50.
The level of punishment would then be more equal across society.
I can think of plenty of ways to detain someone for an hour, which could also benefit society. If they failed to do their allocated detention then they would be persued by the courts as the present system.