EZ Pass hell for honest mistake - heading to court

[Anonymous]

We have never had any issue 'lending' our EZpass - just have to update online with car's info. I had a crazy trip up and back to New England where I didn't realize pass wasn't in car and had to go state by state to remove fines but this sounds like it is on you. You will be lucky if you get kind reception but as attorney said above - this sounds way beyond 'honest mistake'

[Anonymous]

When did you receive the first notice of a violation?

[Anonymous]

Haven't read all 3 pages yet but I only learned we (spouse, actually, as he's the one who manages this particular account) hadn't updated the EZPass account when we both got new cars a few years ago. I started getting blue warning lights going through, which didn't make any sense to me since the balance automatically reloads. It turns out the EZPass battery was dying, and since I was going through in a car not registered to an account, I would have been racking up the charges as well. Luckily it was easily solvable before it got out of hand, but a battery problem could be why it's dinging OP for not having it on registered car.

[Anonymous]

When I took a trip to Ohio recently, a day or two later, I checked my account to ensure all the tolls were paid. The OP should have been checking the account on a weekly basis.

[Anonymous]

I've gotten a ticket for switching the car that my ezpass was used in. I paid. The ez pass is tied to the license plate.

Op, if this were like two weeks of violations, I'd be with you on the leniency. But you let it go waaaay too long. If I were in your jury, I'd be voting to convict and have you pay.

[Anonymous]

Ignoring 50 violations is not "an honest mistake." I don't think any court is going to buy the "we have new baby excuse."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does the license plate matter at all? If the EZpass is in the car properly, it reads that, not the license plate.

We just went through this. Husband got a new car, I didn't update the car in our account, we traveled over Xmas and I started getting notices for unpaid tolls. I assumed our transponder wasn't working. Turns out, for the low speed tolls, it reads the transponder. For the higher speed tolls that are everywhere now, it is too fast to read the transponder so it snaps a pic of your license plate and then they match it to your EZ Pass account and debit your account. But, if your license plate is not updated, you get a notice in the mail for an unpaid toll. OP, I called as soon as I got the notices and resolved the issue. If you pay right away, there's no penalty and they just charge you the price of the toll that you went through. So how on earth did you wait until after you got 50 notices to do anything??

Same with us. My husband called updated license plate and they vetoed fine charge and just deducted true fee from credit card.

We did this after first notice in mail. Definitely don't ignore the notices.

[Anonymous]

This exact thing happened to us...we didn't know we had to register a new car we bought. We figured out how much we owed, and wrote them a letter saying we propose that we pay that (rather than the higher amount they charged that was based on higher fees for those without passes and their assumptions about where we got on and off the highway). They agreed to that. I think if you can calculate what you actually owe, they will let you do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is crazy. We move our EZpass from car to car, without issue. I believe only one vehicle is officially registered. As long as the pass has money in the account, it auto-deducts the toll without paying attention to the license plate.

- MD side

It doesn't always work that way. If you've been lucky so far, that's great, but my bother has gotten in trouble like the OP for lending someone his EZ pass.

Yup before we had an EZ Pass we got a call that FIL wasn't doing well and we had to get there ASAP. It's a drive multiple states away and tolls would prolong the trip. My parents let us use their EZ Pass and sure enough they got hit with huge fines. They appealed and gave proof including the death certificate because he passed away after we got there and the appeal was granted. But I don't think OP's situation is the same.

[Anonymous]

OP- you say you had an EZ pass account that you were paying. I don't understand where the fines possibly could be then. If your transponder was working and you were paying the account, license plate number wouldn't matter at all. Something doesn't add up. What was he disputing all those times? If they were saying he didn't pay and he was producing proof that he did, it doesn't make sense. If they were saying he didn't pay and he was seeing no evidence of deductions to your account then it's entirely his fault for not figuring out why the transponder/credit card wasn't working or the account was invalid. I don't see how you can shift the blame on this one because you DH didn't care enough to solve a problem he created.

[Anonymous]

Don't do the crime

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Ignoring 50 violations is not "an honest mistake." I don't think any court is going to buy the "we have new baby excuse."

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree OP should have taken this more seriously and certainly not have let it get to 7000 bucks but the EZ Pass fines are seriously out of control and they start multiplying really quickly.

I think they are really fleecing the public. OP should have taken care of it but no one should be on the hook for 7000 dollars because they forgot to change a license plate over. That is the type of thing that could completely bankrupt some people and is just not proportional to the crime.

This, but that hall monitors here just delight in this sort of thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - wow! this is surprising - we have 50+ violations or so...from my husband going to and from work. I would hope EZPass can remove the violations for those that are still in their jurisdiction. I have forwarded the evidence of our car registration, but it didn't sound like they'd retroactively remove the fines (worth calling again!). With those already in collections, it seems we are destined for court, or else work with them on their first offense program (they'll reduce the fines, but not sure by how much) - it's worth asking. thanks

I'm fairly certain it's not the license plate that is the issue here. I'm betting you did not have a valid credit card linked to your account.

If your EZPass is on any car and linked to a valid and current credit card such that the toll can be paid, you would not get a violation. You might get a warning, but again, if the toll was paid I have not found it to be a problem.
If your EZPass is on a registered car and fails to work (yes, the batteries on the EZPass die and you need a new EZPass), the EZPass system can bill you based on your license plate. This has happened to me several times - once all up and down 95 - and I did not get any violations. I did get a new EZPass transponder.

OP, have you looked at your credit card linked to your EZPass to show that it is valid? Have you looked at your credit card receipts to see that the tolls were paid?

This PP is exactly correct.

[Anonymous]

It is clear that OP didn't have the right licence plates to match the transponder. Did you get MD licence plates when you moved but never updated the info on the EZ pass? All cars in an account have to be registered and then you can switch transponder to those cars that are registered on the account. That is why I made sure we registered the new car the day we bought it.