Motorists Say EZPass Routinely Racks Up Unfair Fees for Unpaid Tolls

[ZLoth]

From The City - Reporting for New Yorkers:

Motorists Say E-ZPass Routinely Racks Up Unfair Fees for Unpaid Tolls
Proponents of a state bill already killed three times are still trying to pass measures to shield drivers from surprise fees and collection agency harassment.

Cashless tolling is causing headaches for some E-ZPass users who have unknowingly racked up hundreds and thousands of dollars in violation fees.

Complaints about E-ZPass billing are not novel, but a new attempt by the New York state legislature to pass the oft-vetoed Toll Payer Protection Act (TPPA) has brought renewed attention.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[jeffandnicole]

So, the 2 examples within the article of "EZ Pass Users" who have had headaches.

For starters... I placed "EZ Pass Users" in quotes.  These people don't have EZ Pass, so they're not EZ Pass users.

Among those who contacted Burgos' office with E-ZPass complaints recently was 26-year-old Cheyenne Samu, who lives in Jamaica, Queens. She showed THE CITY how she owes almost $5,800 in fees to the New York State Thruway Authority, stemming from about $735 in tolls that first started stacking up in early 2020.

She had no issue paying the tolls, she said, but as for the fees: "It's just robbing people, honestly."

If she didn't have issues paying the tolls, why didn't she pay the tolls?  The fees that they state are the issue are late fees that are charged 30 days after the payment was due.  She clearly has issues paying the tolls, because they're still not paid.

Valinotti purchased a car in March 2019 because her then-partner needed to drive between Connecticut, Queens and Brooklyn for work.

Valinotti doesn't have a license, so she never drove the car, and says she was unaware of two years' worth of tolls that racked up.

In June 2022 she discovered that as the car's owner, she owed around $700 to the Port Authority, over $1,000 to the Thruway Authority, and a staggering $100,000 – the cost of 117 pages' worth of violations – to the MTA.

Is this the best example this publication could find?  Someone who doesn't have a license buys a car in her name for someone else to drive, then that person continuously evades tolls.  If she wasn't getting monthly statements, then she probably used a false address when buying the car, and the system eventually found her.  If she was getting monthly statements, then the 'discovery' wasn't much of a discovery.   EZ Pass isn't the enemy here.  Hope that partner was worth it.

Then I start going into searching mode.  Can't find that person on social media...well, maybe a match, but with no activity.  There's a very general match on Google...but not for someone who lives in NYC.   Other "known as" names pop up, and maybe there's a match, but if the person is real they're using an alias.

No wonder this bill keeps getting vetoed.  We're not talking innocent victims.  We're talking about people that intentionally are trying to scam the system.

[HighwayStar]

My one dealing with the New York Toll authority...

Before I had an EZ pass I was driving the Thruway and went to pull off and get dinner. After I was on the ramp I see a purple "EZ Pass only" sign painted on the ramp.
(Now, I hate toll roads as it is, but I find the idea of some ramps being pass only particularly egregious).
So when I go to get back on in the cash lane, I explain this to an attendant and they tell me to keep the ticket so that when I get the violation notice I can send it in and pay for the toll I owed, which was something like $3.
A month later I get the notice, I call them, figure out what I need to send in with the ticket, and enclose the entire thing with a cheque to cover a $5 service fee and the toll.
Within a few weeks of that I get another notice telling me it is now a $50 fee on top of the toll. I call a second time and ask why I am getting this. I get the long distance runaround that amounts to me having to wait for the dispute process.
Another few weeks, another letter threatening to send me to collections. I call a third time and get the same run around.
Another few weeks, more threatening letters, I think more fines as well but I can't remember for sure.
I call a fourth time. Normally I am pretty laid back when it comes to calling call centers, but at this point I was at the end of the rope. I curtly explained to the first line agent that this was the fourth call I had made, I had spent hours on the phone, I had sent them payment two months ago, and all of this was over a $3 toll that I only incurred because they could not bother to sign an EZ pass only exit well enough for someone to avoid it or just staff the damn thing. I told them to just put me through to a supervisor.
When I got the supervisor, I made it clear that if the could not solve this today I wanted to talk to their boss. This one finally was able to figure out what was going on and put an end to this.
After that I got the EZ pass.

Given how poor my experience was, I can certainly believe the basis of this claim. And it is par for the course with a government/pseudo-government agency that is an extension of the bureaucracy and immune to the forces of market competition or regulation. I can say that in my industry if we treated a customer like this, throwing on fees and making collection threats over $3, heads would roll, the Fed would be involved, and large fines would result. I have no issue with the toll authority being held to the same standards.

[Rothman]

Your problem was sending a cheque instead of a check.

[HighwayStar]

Your problem was sending a cheque instead of a check.

Ahh, yes that might have been it.

[ZLoth]

(Now, I hate toll roads as it is, but I find the idea of some ramps being pass only particularly egregious).

An unfortunate but necessary evil if you want to get a road built in a timely manner in some cases. I happen to find the article via a Google selection, and thought it was interesting enough to share even though I use NTTA instead of EZ-Pass.

When my move to Texas was still at the level of "distinct possibility" instead of "it's happening", I made sure to familiarize myself with the area I was going to move. One was the toll reads and the fact that "bill by plate" pricing was 50% higher than electronic toll collection as well as the fact that parking at both airports can be paid with toll-tag. The toll tags were ordered, received, and applied to my mother's and my car just before we moved out to Texas. I'm also very lucky in that my usage of a toll road is a "rare occurrence" rather than a "everything necessity".

Which begs the question... if there is a discount for utilizing electronic toll collection, why not sign up for it and save the headaches?

[hotdogPi]

One thing I've noticed is that every electronic toll collection system seems to have these horror stories except Massachusetts.

[SectorZ]

One thing I've noticed is that every electronic toll collection system seems to have these horror stories except Massachusetts.

About that... https://www.wcvb.com/article/5-investigates-massachusetts-toll-collection-drivers-angry/38944138

[kphoger]

BREAKING NEWS!  Some people think they should have been charged less than they were!  We found multiple people willing to gripe about fees!

[jmacswimmer]

One thing I've noticed is that every electronic toll collection system seems to have these horror stories except Massachusetts.

FWIW, I did find this one involving an I-vs-1 mixup:

https://www.wcvb.com/article/massdot-bills-wrong-woman-tolls-for-months/40933992

J&N touched on this above, and I agree that it's a bit irritating that all of these news articles tend to refer to the entire AET system as "E-ZPass" when it's typically toll-by-plate/mail issues that are being written about. To be fair, it doesn't help that toll bill/violation letters tend to have the E-ZPass logo somewhere on them. As an example, here's a sample NOTD posted on the DriveEzMD website that has the E-ZPass logo on it despite being for a plate lookup - obviously the idea is to encourage signing up for E-ZPass, but I can see how it leads to people thinking of the entire tolling system as E-ZPass versus being just one of the payment options.

[Henry]

Just goes to show what a scam EZPass truly is. If I can help it, I'll shunpike where no cash is accepted.

[Rothman]

Just goes to show what a scam EZPass truly is. If I can help it, I'll shunpike where no cash is accepted.

Yeah, stick it to the man!

I don't believe I have ever had a problem with my E-ZPass, having used it with multiple agencies...if not most of them by now.

[ZLoth]

BREAKING NEWS!  Some people think they should have been charged less than they were!  We found multiple people willing to gripe about fees!

And this week's villain.... EZPass! Want to know more? CLICKBAIT!

[SP Cook]

EZ-Pass is not a scam. 

Cash less tolling, while not a scam, is simply a stupid system.   It is easily scamable.  The only toll systems that work should be cash or transponders, with a single, continent wide, transponder which should be mandatory in high volume toll roads.  That simple. 

So, here in WV, after various office holders get plate numbers 1-8, numbers 9-2000 are given away by the governor to insiders. 

So this friend of mine has some number in the 700s, lets say 725.  So his plate number is simply 725.  Fair enough.  However the state issues plates to dealers.  These have a weird format.   The first part is written as a fraction, with half size figures.  The top figure is "D" for new car dealer, "DUC" for used car dealer, "R" for Repo Man, and there are some other.  The bottom figure is a two numbers.  The there are between 1 and 3 full sized numbers. 

Example:

DUC
-----     725
17   

With multiple copies of each plate, every dealer gets, more or less, as many such test drive plates as they ask for, all the same number.  As with most states, there is huge abuse of the system, with dealers using the plates on cars that really are not for sale. 

Well the computers that do photo toll by plate, and the photo cop speeding random tax scam, ignore the half-sized characters.  My friend gets dozens of bills from all over the country, because the used car dealer has plates on all sorts of cars that run through toll by plate roads, knowing they will never get a bill.  My friend has a form letter he sends, but still get threatening letters from toll authorities all the time.  Luckly (note his plates are insider plates) our DMV just tells them to pound sand. 

Toll by plate just doesn't work. 

[vdeane]

One thing I've noticed is that every electronic toll collection system seems to have these horror stories except Massachusetts.

Incidentally, such is the reason why I refuse to use bill by plate.  If a toll facility doesn't take E-ZPass and doesn't have a cash option, I just won't use it, ever, for any reason.

[triplemultiplex]

Toll by plate just doesn't work. 

That has not been my experience.
Every single time I've used a AET facility with no transponder, I've never had any trouble looking up my plate and paying the toll.  Maybe it's not available right away in all cases, but that's about my only complaint.
Therefore, toll by plate works perfectly. :poke

[Rothman]

Florida's toll-by-plate worked for me.

[kphoger]

Toll by plate just doesn't work. 

Cross-posting an experience of mine, from back before KS/OK/TX interoperability launched...

Before last year, my annual runs to México involved keeping money in a day pass account specific to the Camino Colombia (TX-255).  I would update vehicle information every year, depending on who was driving with us and what license plate numbers had changed.  Over the years, unbeknownst to me, gantries on that road recorded violations–I assume because I failed to update our info correctly or enough in advance.  But, our vehicles always being Kansas-plated, we never received any notice.  Two years ago, however, we used the new TX-130 bypass from Georgetown to Seguin.  A month or two after we got back home, we received the pay-by-mail bill, and–lo! and behold–there were charges included from previous years' violations on the Camino Colombia on both our vehicle and our friend's.  This makes me a little concerned that, if and when Texas gains access to other states' DMV information (such as Kansas), people will get bills in the mail from violations incurred years ago they thought they'd never be fined for.  I wonder if they store these violations in a database, and it's just a matter of time before they one day have a way of sending out the bills.

[RobbieL2415]

FWIW if you have EZ Pass but forget to put up your transponder, they are still able to bill your account via your license plate.

[7/8]

EZPass is awesome! I got the NY one at the end of 2019 for about $20, and all that money went directly onto my account (in that sense, it's like the transponder is free). There's also no monthly fees, which is the main reason I decided to get one. Meanwhile, the 407 (Ontario) transponder is $3.95 a month or $24.50 a year, and it doesn't work for any other toll roads . I wish the 407 would switch to EZPass, but I doubt it'll ever happen.

[JREwing78]

Having an EZPass effectively makes the IIlinois Tollway 1/2 price. They seriously sock it to the folks who don't have a transponder, to the extent that if I bought a transponder at the WI/IL state line, it would pay for itself by the time I reached the IN state line.

[HighwayStar]

(Now, I hate toll roads as it is, but I find the idea of some ramps being pass only particularly egregious).

An unfortunate but necessary evil if you want to get a road built in a timely manner in some cases. I happen to find the article via a Google selection, and thought it was interesting enough to share even though I use NTTA instead of EZ-Pass.

Which begs the question... if there is a discount for utilizing electronic toll collection, why not sign up for it and save the headaches?

If you read the bottom of my story, I did sign up after this incident. I never did before because I did not even live in NY.

I don't buy the idea that toll roads are the "only way" virtually every toll road in existence would better have been built as a free road with funding coming from sources other than tolls.

[ZLoth]

Which begs the question... if there is a discount for utilizing electronic toll collection, why not sign up for it and save the headaches?

If you read the bottom of my story, I did sign up after this incident. I never did before because I did not even live in NY.

I don't buy the idea that toll roads are the "only way" virtually every toll road in existence would better have been built as a free road with funding coming from sources other than tolls.

My apologies, the question about not having a toll tag wasn't directed at you. I was wondering out loud who people don't sign up for the service and have one less headache.

[J N Winkler]

My apologies, the question about not having a toll tag wasn't directed at you. I was wondering out loud why people don't sign up for the service and have one less headache.

Getting a transponder is really a no-brainer only if it is completely free (no one-time or monthly charges), billed in arrears, reads reliably, and works in a large interoperability zone that does not have transponder discrimination.  Those stars don't align as often as you might think.  My K-Tag meets nearly all of those criteria, for example, but does not read reliably on the Kansas Turnpike itself.  Transponder discrimination and monthly fees are endemic in E-ZPassland.

[HighwayStar]

My apologies, the question about not having a toll tag wasn't directed at you. I was wondering out loud why people don't sign up for the service and have one less headache.

Getting a transponder is really a no-brainer only if it is completely free (no one-time or monthly charges), billed in arrears, reads reliably, and works in a large interoperability zone that does not have transponder discrimination.  Those stars don't align as often as you might think.  My K-Tag meets nearly all of those criteria, for example, but does not read reliably on the Kansas Turnpike itself.  Transponder discrimination and monthly fees are endemic in E-ZPassland.

Not sure how Kansas handles this, but at least from my experience if you have the transponder you also register the License Plate. Assuming it does not read then they run the plate against the database. I have always thought that they would extend the tag rate in that case to your account. I think I recall reading about this with Colorado, and they mention that if you have many such events they may contact you to fix the issue with the tag not reading (and they show up on the toll as license plate based rather than tag).  So at least in these areas the tag actually reading is not relevant anymore.
Interoperability zones are another matter, but my solution has been to just keep multiple tags and swap them as needed.