Keep tabs on your toll-road balance
By GORDON DICKSON, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
If you drove on the all-electronic Texas 121 toll road north of Grapevine but haven’t gotten a bill in the mail, don’t assume everything is OK.
Norma Bartholomew, a Fort Worth resident and a research associate at Texas Christian University, drove the road in Denton and Collin counties one day in February 2007.
Like many other drivers, she doesn’t have a TollTag, so she expected the Texas Department of Transportation to photograph her license plate and mail her an invoice.
From what she had read, that’s how electronic toll roads work.
But the bill never came.
Then a few weeks ago, a collection agency called on behalf of the Transportation Department.
The caller accused her of ignoring 14 attempts to collect $1.90 in tolls during the past 15 months.
Bartholomew was told she owed the state $101.90, including $100 in administrative and late fees.
This month, she finally cleared up the matter.
The Transportation Department realized it had made a mistake and mailed the bills to the wrong address.
The department waived all but $2.90 — her original toll plus a $1 administrative fee.
But getting her name cleared and most of the fees waived took weeks of stressful calls to several department offices.
Read the rest of the article HERE.
7/29/2008
"I don’t want this on my credit report."
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11 comments:
Why are we putting up with this crap?
Why are we putting up with this crap? Why do state govs see this as a legit way to collect taxes? All this waste and admin to collect $1.90 when they could have collected it with almost no cost at the pump?
We got to stop the Toll Trolls before it gets worse!
Build a free infrastructure for everyone to use, not those who can afford it!!!!
I infer from the end of this article that TxDOT will augment car thieves driving on toll roads by adding to the victim's financial losses (while claiming inherent gov't immunity for their own bureaucratic malfeasance). Further, was this en total article a subtle or satiric promotion to purchase toll tags?!?
the point of toll roads is to crush america
Maybe she needs to update the address on her vehicle registration as required by law and then she would of gotten her bill. Have any of you ever heard of personal responsibility - of course not, it's easier to blame it on someone else. The error was fixed - what are you whining about?
And then maybe she doesn't. What's your point, as you seem to be the one crying about nothing? This is a needless waste of time and effort caused by heavy handed government thugs.
How about increasing the personal responsibility of the leaders of this state, Redflex, Cintra, et all to have their computers, cameras, and tolling equipment running flawlessly. When there's an error, raid the personal bank accounts of these leaders and wreck their credit and give the money to those damaged by their negligance. Tollers and taxers are as bad as medical insurance companies- blame the policy holder for company wrongdoing.
Hey retard. MAYBE her address is correct. You have no proof otherwise. If you want to pay for something that you already have paid for through tolls then go right ahead. The point is that the camera's should have never been installed to make that error in the first place.
You must work for TxDOT. That comment has TxDOT Admin stupidity written all over it.
That does seem to be the tXdot MO, to label as whiners those who nail them with objections.
why are citizens responsible for the failure of government to update its databases? There are several incidents of car owners getting tolled and reprimanded for actions done by the buyer, years down the road, BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT NEGLECTED TO UPDATE ITS DATABASE PROPERLY for transfer of ownership. the seller has absolutely no gddamn control over the incompetence of the data entry clerks behind the counter at the DMV or at Redflex or elsewhere. All the seller can do is fill out forms correctly and HOPE the employees do their job correctly. There's no way the seller should be held responsible for the failure of these employees.
Why is it a toll road in the first place? Should have been fully funded by gas taxes. That's the question. With every toll road citizens run the risk of being falsely accused. All of that time spent fighting the parasites could have been spent doing real work and helping the economy. What if it were an ER doctor who missed a day of work due to fighting tollers? A patient could have died. What if it were an engineer working on a product release? A missed day or days of work means the product doesn't get released on time and the company loses. A foreign company wins. Simple business case. Our country is falling behind in productivity and we cannot afford to miss work to fight tolling errors.
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