EZ Pass hell for honest mistake - heading to court

[Anonymous]

You can use the easy pass in whatever car you want as long as you have money on it. They are not scanning license plates and ez passes to make sure they match. I'm not sure what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can use the easy pass in whatever car you want as long as you have money on it. They are not scanning license plates and ez passes to make sure they match. I'm not sure what you are talking about.

Wrong, if the EZ Pass doesn't work for some reason, license plates is the next thing that is tried to see if the driver has an EZ Pass to begin with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to add that if your credit card expires, EZ pass doesn't notify you. Even Netflix notifies you! It happened to me that our cc on file was compromised and we had to get the new one and then I got couple of bills in mail, I called and asked them to update it as soon as a got a new credit card and asked how come they don't automatically notify people, and the answer was, "we don't do that." This is clearly meant to screw people over and pile up bills make huge fines. But, I have to say that 7K in fines is being irresponsible, especially as we all know EZ pass is a shady business organization and we must approach it as such, use at your own risk!

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.

Which state are you in? We are in MD and nobody notified us and when I called to update, I was told that they never notify about expired cc on file.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to add that if your credit card expires, EZ pass doesn't notify you. Even Netflix notifies you! It happened to me that our cc on file was compromised and we had to get the new one and then I got couple of bills in mail, I called and asked them to update it as soon as a got a new credit card and asked how come they don't automatically notify people, and the answer was, "we don't do that." This is clearly meant to screw people over and pile up bills make huge fines. But, I have to say that 7K in fines is being irresponsible, especially as we all know EZ pass is a shady business organization and we must approach it as such, use at your own risk!

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.

Which state are you in? We are in MD and nobody notified us and when I called to update, I was told that they never notify about expired cc on file.

Are you people SO OBLIVIOUS to your own finances that you keep using EZPass and don't notice that you are never getting hit with credit card charges for it? I use EZPass all the time and whenever I see the yellow "low bal" light at a toll, I know to have my eye out for the charge refilling my account. I would totally notice if I never got billed.

Are you guys paying any attention AT ALL?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Me too. I 've had mine through NJ also for over 20 years, way before MD joined the EZpass consortium. I haven't had any problems with mine even though I've used it on many rental cars across multiple states, let friends used it. I also have automatic replenishment where it automatically adds money to the account if the balance falls below $10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

Only in VA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to add that if your credit card expires, EZ pass doesn't notify you. Even Netflix notifies you! It happened to me that our cc on file was compromised and we had to get the new one and then I got couple of bills in mail, I called and asked them to update it as soon as a got a new credit card and asked how come they don't automatically notify people, and the answer was, "we don't do that." This is clearly meant to screw people over and pile up bills make huge fines. But, I have to say that 7K in fines is being irresponsible, especially as we all know EZ pass is a shady business organization and we must approach it as such, use at your own risk!

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.

EZ Pass sent me 2 emails last week, saying my balance was low and my CC expired. I took the 5 minutes to log in and enter a new CC. You people that ignore emails or actual mail that come to your houses are lazy. I would never pay $, just because I didn't address an issue that was clearly presented to me to resolve. I say all that from my soapbox, as I am married to someone that think things like this will take care of themselves...
And Transurban, is absolutely for profit and they've discovered an additional revenue stream that is not at all regulated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Me too. I 've had mine through NJ also for over 20 years, way before MD joined the EZpass consortium. I haven't had any problems with mine even though I've used it on many rental cars across multiple states, let friends used it. I also have automatic replenishment where it automatically adds money to the account if the balance falls below $10.

We've had VA EZPass for 10 years without issue. There's just no accounting for the stupidity on this board. People have to actually, you know, PAY ATTENTION, which clearly is too much for some of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Me too. I 've had mine through NJ also for over 20 years, way before MD joined the EZpass consortium. I haven't had any problems with mine even though I've used it on many rental cars across multiple states, let friends used it. I also have automatic replenishment where it automatically adds money to the account if the balance falls below $10.

We've had VA EZPass for 10 years without issue. There's just no accounting for the stupidity on this board. People have to actually, you know, PAY ATTENTION, which clearly is too much for some of them.

It's the worst most bloated supremely useless government 'agency' ever created.
Turn off the cameras, fire everyone, drain the darned swamp and let people ride on the roads their tax dollars already paid for.

[Anonymous]

It is also different on different roads - in VA the state doesn't use license plate tolling (like MD or NJ do) because the state didn't make the private firm use it. So if the pass doesn't register you get hit with fines. In MD you don't even need a transponder - your license plate as registered is the same as having an EZ pass.

[Anonymous]

Wait - I've got it. DC should set up EZ pass stations for anyone crossing into the city.
They can recoup $$ from all of those people living outside the city but commuting in. Fund the metro?
Create jobs?

Why should New York & New Jersey & the Maryland ICC be the only ones that rape I mean tax people?
Big government can be created to take all your money..

Trump admin and congress and anyone else that already has healthcare is exempt of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait - I've got it. DC should set up EZ pass stations for anyone crossing into the city.
They can recoup $$ from all of those people living outside the city but commuting in. Fund the metro?
Create jobs?

Why should New York & New Jersey & the Maryland ICC be the only ones that rape I mean tax people?
Big government can be created to take all your money..

Trump admin and congress and anyone else that already has healthcare is exempt of course.

You know that DC has asked about a commuter tax in the past, right? But that Congress actually controls that, and would never allow it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You know that DC has asked about a commuter tax in the past, right? But that Congress actually controls that, and would never allow it?

because a majority of the congress live outside of Dc and would get taxed. no way that they are agreeing to tax themselves..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Me too. I 've had mine through NJ also for over 20 years, way before MD joined the EZpass consortium. I haven't had any problems with mine even though I've used it on many rental cars across multiple states, let friends used it. I also have automatic replenishment where it automatically adds money to the account if the balance falls below $10.

We've had VA EZPass for 10 years without issue. There's just no accounting for the stupidity on this board. People have to actually, you know, PAY ATTENTION, which clearly is too much for some of them.

Guess what..your transponder could quit tomorrow and suddenly you are with issues!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Me too. I 've had mine through NJ also for over 20 years, way before MD joined the EZpass consortium. I haven't had any problems with mine even though I've used it on many rental cars across multiple states, let friends used it. I also have automatic replenishment where it automatically adds money to the account if the balance falls below $10.

We've had VA EZPass for 10 years without issue. There's just no accounting for the stupidity on this board. People have to actually, you know, PAY ATTENTION, which clearly is too much for some of them.

Guess what..your transponder could quit tomorrow and suddenly you are with issues!

And I would PAY the FINE and get a replacement after the FIRST notice. Done. Problem solved.