EZ Pass hell for honest mistake - heading to court
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Anonymous
Uh, you got a letter well before it went to $120. Also, you could have gone online well before a letter was sent an owned up to it and not paid anywhere near $120. |
Anonymous
I paid the 120, I'm not trying to get out of it, and you're correct I had gotten letters. The point that I am making is that there is almost no other scenario where fines go up like 1000+% in a relatively short period of time and where there appears to be no ceiling to the doubling/tripling etc. This isn't enforcement it is predatory. I am UMC so whatever it's not going to kill me. But there are people who have to choose between keeping the lights on and paying a ticket and a setup like this sets those people up for a slow spiral towards bankruptcy. This is about lining ez passes pockets. No one is arguing against finest they're arguing against crazy excessive fines. |
Anonymous
Yes, but they don't charge you a fine until you're like 30 days overdue. I had my CC expire. I got my notice in the mail and went on-line and there were about $30 in tolls racked up. I updated my CC information and added $50 to my balance and it covered the tolls with no fees or penalties. The fees and penalties were added on because drivers in the DC region are notoriously bad about ignoring tolls, having negative balances and generally being irresponsible. The builder of the Greenway and later the ICC said that if they were going to pay up front for the roads, they wanted to ensure that they weren't lending users money for long periods of time. Studies at the time showed something like an average of over 2 years to collect tolls on similar roadways over the years. They wanted to make sure they got paid in a timely fashion. So, there are grace periods when you don't get fines. If you exceed the grace period, you get small fines, but they did add the exponential clause intended to make people more aware and pay up faster. I get that the exponential factoring is predatory, but the concept is that the road builder just wants the money from tolls to offset the money they've already paid out for the road. What would you do if you had a customer who came in and bought a cup of coffee from you everyday. He had an account and he sometimes paid it, but then stopped paying, but you still gave him coffee "on his tab". You remind him that he hasn't paid. You're a good guy and let him slide for month. Then you tack on a fee and he says "Sorry, I'll pay it when I get home." Meanwhile another 3 weeks go by. And he hasn't paid. It gets to 6 months and he hasn't paid despite two more small fees being added on. Now imagine that you have hundreds of customers and you're having trouble with monthly cash flow on your business because you have hundreds of customers that are haven't paid for months and you haven't made enough money to pay for the supplies you bought last month, but you still have to pay for supplies this month. That's the general concept. The builder mandated the toll, fee and penalty policy before they built the road and the state agreed to it. If you pay attention, pay your debts within 30 days, you don't get into these problems. Be responsible. I'm not excusing the draconian fees and penalties, but saying that the user bears some responsibility and shirked it. The solution is to be more responsible. |
Anonymous
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If the E-ZPass account is not funded or the sensor doesn’t see an E-ZPass, the fines begin. Transurban sets the fine for the first five days at $1.50. After a month, the first invoice is for $12.50 per trip (on top of the tolls), and then it goes up to $25.
After two months, the fine jumps to $100, and it goes to a collections agency. After six months, it goes to civil court. That’s when the fines hit $1,000 — per trip. Transurban said the most important things people can do to avoid the same situation is to make sure the E-ZPass transponder is correctly mounted on the car, link the account to a license plate and make sure the E-ZPass account is fully funded. |
Anonymous
But if you got 50 parking tickets, your car would be booted (repeatedly), eventually impounded, and you could be out a lot of money. Plus, with the amounts you're citing, $180 per unpaid tickets times 50 tickets and it's $9000. So yeah, that could bankrupt some families. |
Anonymous
| As an aside, thanks OP! This thread got me to check my transactions online. I found out a strange charge of $7.50 for the same exit I use for 2.50. I called and they said it charged me for 5 axis and could be a car was following me too closely or something. She said she would submit the dispute form. |
Anonymous
You're only like 25% right. Per the Alexandria parking citation page, my car would be subject to a boot by the time I got my third ticket. Lets say some nice guy gives me a pass and I get to 4 tickets. Instead of the 5th I would get the boot and be required to square up with the city. And I was wrong, reading this page the ticket goes up 25 dollars if you don't pay on time (so 40 to 65) and then if they have to pass it to the DMV (to freeze my registration until I'm square) or a collections agency, another 20 dollars is added. So an Alexandria parking ticket has a ceiling of $85. So four tickets that have maxed out (egregious delinquency in paying and taking care of it) will top out at $340 dollars. And then lets add on another potential 300 to have the boot removed or get my car out of impound. Alexandria will only let me get to ~650 before I am forced to take care of the situation or to stop driving. So yes, I'm out a lot of money, but still in this scenario, the value or the initial infractions is $140 dollars and I am going to, at the absolute most, have that amount double twice before the ceiling is reached. EZ Pass will just keep racking up the fees. They are predatory, full stop. |
Anonymous
You kind of side step this point. For the 5th ticket, your car could booted or even towed/impounded. Then you have no access to your car and you have to find alternate travel arrangements to get to the city offices to pay your fines. You are out a half to full day of work to go and pay your fines then still have to wait after paying the fines to have the boot removed. Essentially they are putting your car in hock until you pay up. The problem with EZ Pass is that they have no way to boot the car or otherwise lock possession and use of your car. Disabling use of the car. Maybe an alternative would be to place something akin to the breathalyzer steering wheel locks. If you got an Nth EZPass violation it would prevent your car ignition from starting the car the next time until you paid up your tolls. You could finish the current trip you were on, but after that, your car would be "booted until you paid up instead of fines. Would you prefer to have fines that you could pay or have your car locked for a day or two while you sorted out your unpaid tolls and waited for them to unlock the car? |
Anonymous
This is untrue. They email my husband and me when our credit cards on file don't allow them to refill our account (we have two accounts because we each got ez pass before we got married and its just easier to keep doing what we are doing then open a new, joint account). I have also run into problems with them re: license plate registration--It has been a few years but something happened on a toll road in Richmond (one with the overhead sensors that read your license plate, like they do on the Express Lanes on 495). They sent me a notice, I called them and explained, they were very nice and waived fees. |
Anonymous
But isn't it obvious if you go through and the light doesn't change color to let you know that your toll was paid? If I have a few days where the light doesn't change, I call to find out why. |
Anonymous
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Something I saw my parents do growing up, sit on a table on weekends, bills spread out, computer in hand, checkbook on the table, and do a lot of financial things.
I think some of the people in this thread should do that. Some people seem to think that having a lot of money means they don't have to worry about potential fraud, and in turn, ignore statements when they arrive. I do think Pennsylvania needs to show the cost of the toll (since EZ Pass tolls are reduced as opposed to cash) on the screen when one uses those lanes. |
Anonymous
| It all depends on the state you get your EZ Pass from...MD and VA are terrible. I've had mine through NJ for almost 20 years and never received a fine nought I've used it in multiple cars across multiple states. It costs all of $12 per year and is worth every penny. |
Anonymous
NJ doesn't have EZ Pass flex, which can pay off on 95 and when you have 3 or more people in the car, you don't pay the toll. |
Anonymous
| I would guess either your transponder isn't working correctly or your credit card number changed and isn't working. The license plate isn't your problem, OP. |
Anonymous
Why would you let it go on for so long? You disputed "invoice after invoice" but didn't get it figured out until you were at the $7000 mark? I hope they reduce the amount owed, but clearly this is entirely on your shoulders |
Any advice is welcome!! Would love to hear any personal experiences with this.