E-Z Pass Caper - Chapter 2

Yesterday the citations came in the mail. Four citations in three envelopes. (It is nice to see that the State of New Jersey is trying to save money on paper and postage.) Now remember I had already been charged $30 by some agency that works with Hertz for them to send my name and address to New Jersey.

The citations each had a picture of the back of my rental car going through the toll I had not paid, due to the EZ-Pass not being recorded. The tolls not paid total $5.75. They also wanted $75 in administrative fees. Thank God two violations came on one form other wise they would have wanted $100 in fees!

As I had fire coming out my ears about the $75 on top of the $30 I had already paid, I turned the pages over to look at the possibilities for disputing these fees. After all I had acted in good faith in assuming that the E-Z pass was recorded. I was VERY relieved to find that there was a provision for E-Z Pass Customers to have the administrative fees waived. I just had to give them my account number and transponder number. I also had to promise to contact my E-Z Pass Customer Service Center and add the plate number of the offending car to my account. Right! Like I am ever going to rent that exact same car again.

Bottom line: $5.75 in tolls could have become $110.75, but wound up being only $35.75!

EZ (?) Pass Caper: Chapter 1

EZ Pass is an automated toll collection system used widely in the northeast (where they have a LOT of toll roads). A device on your windshield emits a low frequency signal to an antenna in the tollbooth. As I now live in Kentucky, I do not use my EZ Pass often but did take it with me in September for a vacation trip to NY, CT and PA. I did not “glue” it to the windshield of the Hertz car. I just had my co-pilot hold it up to the windshield as we went through tolls.

Yesterday I got an innocuous looking letter from a “Processing Center”. The envelope was not even sealed! The letter said that when I rented from Hertz I agreed to let this “Center” supply my information to any agency that had issued a CITATION for the car I rented. They enclosed an invoice for $30 for their services. Even worse, Hertz gave them my credit card number and the “Center” had already billed me.

Further investigation revealed that I had been issued four citations by the State of New Jersey for “Toll Violations”. I checked my EZ Pass statement. While five tolls had been charged during the rental period, the ones in question had not.

I believe that the four “Violations” were for tolls of $0.35 each.


I also think that they were not at tollbooths but rather toll collection stations that have a huge, tall “gantry” above the roadway. You drive through these gantries at a speed of up to 50 MPH. It appears that these devices did not receive the signal form my EZ Pass transponder.

I sent an email to the NJ Turnpike Authority last night, but suspect that I’ll need to wait until I get the citations in the mail before they can do anything.

So now the score is: Tolls not paid” $1.40; Expense "incurred” $30.

To be continued....