Anyone just avoid toll roads because of what a scam it all is? (Dallas: living in, move)
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I've gotten only great customer service from NTTA ... even when the problem was my good (typo on the license plate that I updated online). They were quick to solve the issue and cut the amount we owed. Never a billing issue.
While I'm not a huge fan of all the express lanes in the DFW area (some are just way too high-priced and actually aren't much faster) they are a big help in most areas.
I would like to see some kind of restriction on large trucks with speed governors using the one-lane express lanes: they really slow things down!
I've dealt with all three of the "big" toll tag companies (DFW, Houston, Austin) in my time in Texas. NTTA has been by far the easiest to deal with across the board. They actually have friendly people that answer the phone, how they manage that when they've probably been dealing with a barrage of people sounding just like the OP, I'll never know.
As long as you have the Texas Toll sticker, and give them access to your checking account, the problems seem minimal - but I do wonder how closely anyone is actually watching these charges. I mean, they'd only have to charge everyone a couple of erroneous charges a month to make a killing.
The issue for me has really been the fact that I refuse to give them access to my money - I insist on them sending me a bill in the mail, which they WILL do but boy they do not like it. It's almost like they are "going to make me pay" for this inconvenience to them - even though they upcharge me, apparently enough to make a profit - for mailing me the bills, which I always pay IMMEDIATELY.
Several times a year, I get letters stating that I haven't paid a bill, so now there's a late charge. And I look up the bill, which I've paid, and then I have to call them, be on hold, email them the cleared check and other records that I paid them, and then wait several days or a week or more, for them to either email me or call me back to tell me that the late fee has been removed and I'm good to go. This is time and effort that ticks me off.
They also recently sold to another company and I've gotten all sorts of crazy bills from them, then letters stating to ignore those bills - as well as late fees in the HUNDREDS of dollars, which they also say to ignore...who knows, but one thing I do know is that their system SUCKS.
And this is with me avoiding toll roads generally, because I want to avoid the drama and wasted time.
And every time I get them on the phone, they tell me, as if it's news to me, "Hey, you can avoid this by getting a toll tag." And I always tell them, "Are you kidding me? You are this messed up but you want me to give you access to a bank account?" No way.
There have been numerous lawsuits and plenty of media coverage around here of, at the very least, gross mismanagement, and probably abuse and deception, by the toll road billing companies.
Don't even get me started on their "billing system," which seems to be completely random. I mean, I will go weeks and weeks without a bill, and then suddenly two or three separate bills (when I use the toll roads, which unfortunately I use probably once or maybe even twice every week) of $3 to $12 dollars, and then occasionally, with the same usage, some crazy bill that goes WEEKS back, for $30 or more dollars. And who could keep up with this stuff? How do I know where I was a month ago?
One woman here finally decided to get all her bills out, and found out that they had overcharged her, with overlapping bills, literally over a thousand dollars in one year. If they'd been just deducting it, she may have never figured it out.
I've had multiple tags on cars since the early 90's and never had any billing issues much less big collection bills like the OP mentioned. I think those cases are drivers who ignore the letters, don't update their driver license info when they move, don't update their billing info when it changes, or switch tags around without registering. Your account is tied to a credit card or bank account. Your little charges would be paid as they were incurred unless your account billing info became invalid or they couldn't match the license plate to your account.
Only drive on them a few times a year and never had a problem. I do check them for accuracy, as it is easy enough since it only happens occasionally. If I drove them all the time, though, it would be hard to verify each one. I do have mine on auto-reload, but not to my checking account but rather my credit card.
My understanding is that their late fees are horrendous and there does seem to be an issue there, but I have never had one.
The funniest story was back before they auto-reloaded and I had run mine to a negative balance (like, $1) and I tried to pay it. It wouldn't let me log on to their system to pay it and told me I had to call. When I called, they said I had to pay a 'reopening' fee or something due to the account being dormant for so long, and it would cost $14. I was on their web site while I was on the phone and it was telling me that opening a new account was 'free!' and you would get this 'welcome package' yada yada. So I paid the $1 and then had the guy on the phone open a new account for me for free instead of reopening the old one for $14.
I am sure such loopholes are long since fixed, but for whatever reason, this guy was very pissed that I had gotten around their $14 fee. I have no idea why he should care, though, which made me think that maybe they made some sort of commission or got 'atta boy!' points on their reviews.
The issue for me has really been the fact that I refuse to give them access to my money - I insist on them sending me a bill in the mail, which they WILL do but boy they do not like it. It's almost like they are "going to make me pay" for this inconvenience to them - even though they upcharge me, apparently enough to make a profit - for mailing me the bills, which I always pay IMMEDIATELY.
Several times a year, I get letters stating that I haven't paid a bill, so now there's a late charge. And I look up the bill, which I've paid, and then I have to call them, be on hold, email them the cleared check and other records that I paid them, and then wait several days or a week or more, for them to either email me or call me back to tell me that the late fee has been removed and I'm good to go. This is time and effort that ticks me off.
They also recently sold to another company and I've gotten all sorts of crazy bills from them, then letters stating to ignore those bills - as well as late fees in the HUNDREDS of dollars, which they also say to ignore...who knows, but one thing I do know is that their system SUCKS.
And this is with me avoiding toll roads generally, because I want to avoid the drama and wasted time.
Sounds to me like you are manufacturing 99% of your problems by being the problem child in the system. I used to carefully review the monthly charges and never found an error, or I should say an error where I was charged a toll I didn't pass through though occasionally they failed to bill a toll. I've since quit wasting my time scouring the detailed log to find a wrongful dollar charge.
This sounds like a general issue with "auto pay". You have an online tag account to see your status. And I have my cc set up to text me when there is a charge. If I were to get a charge over $40 or more frequently than seems correct, I'll look into it closer. Until then, I have better things to do with my time and it doesn't make economic sense to spend hours looking for a few dollars.
I use tollways every day. I've had one issue with them, but they waved the fees because it was a mixup on some tolls I had driven on the day I signed up for the Toll Tag. They waved the fees.
People like to ***** about tolls because they have this stupid idea that they are entitled to drive as fast as they want on perfect roads for free because they pay gas taxes and registration every year.
Taking 5 min you would realize that our taxes don't even come close to covering the cost of driving and that about half of it comes out of general funds.
I'm happy to pay the tolls instead of ***** and moan about how my driving isn't subsidized enough by other people, and quite honestly I wish more of our roads were toll roads.
As long as you have the Texas Toll sticker, and give them access to your checking account, the problems seem minimal - but I do wonder how closely anyone is actually watching these charges. I mean, they'd only have to charge everyone a couple of erroneous charges a month to make a killing.
The issue for me has really been the fact that I refuse to give them access to my money - I insist on them sending me a bill in the mail, which they WILL do but boy they do not like it. It's almost like they are "going to make me pay" for this inconvenience to them - even though they upcharge me, apparently enough to make a profit - for mailing me the bills, which I always pay IMMEDIATELY.
Several times a year, I get letters stating that I haven't paid a bill, so now there's a late charge. And I look up the bill, which I've paid, and then I have to call them, be on hold, email them the cleared check and other records that I paid them, and then wait several days or a week or more, for them to either email me or call me back to tell me that the late fee has been removed and I'm good to go. This is time and effort that ticks me off.
They also recently sold to another company and I've gotten all sorts of crazy bills from them, then letters stating to ignore those bills - as well as late fees in the HUNDREDS of dollars, which they also say to ignore...who knows, but one thing I do know is that their system SUCKS.
And this is with me avoiding toll roads generally, because I want to avoid the drama and wasted time.
And every time I get them on the phone, they tell me, as if it's news to me, "Hey, you can avoid this by getting a toll tag." And I always tell them, "Are you kidding me? You are this messed up but you want me to give you access to a bank account?" No way.
There have been numerous lawsuits and plenty of media coverage around here of, at the very least, gross mismanagement, and probably abuse and deception, by the toll road billing companies.
Don't even get me started on their "billing system," which seems to be completely random. I mean, I will go weeks and weeks without a bill, and then suddenly two or three separate bills (when I use the toll roads, which unfortunately I use probably once or maybe even twice every week) of $3 to $12 dollars, and then occasionally, with the same usage, some crazy bill that goes WEEKS back, for $30 or more dollars. And who could keep up with this stuff? How do I know where I was a month ago?
One woman here finally decided to get all her bills out, and found out that they had overcharged her, with overlapping bills, literally over a thousand dollars in one year. If they'd been just deducting it, she may have never figured it out.
Attach your NTTA account to a credit card and cross reference NTTA statements to the bills. I've been doing this for a couple of decades across multiple accounts at a time and caught one mistake.
Being a small-town type, toll roads are the bane & scourge of my motoring experience. Austin is veritable minefield. But, then again, the SH 130 skirting the Capital is preferred to the horrors of I-35 going through it.
Just set your google maps to avoid them or pay them like everyone else.
I don't see how being a "Small Town Type" has anything to do with this. I'm from a small town originally.
As long as you have the Texas Toll sticker, and give them access to your checking account, the problems seem minimal - but I do wonder how closely anyone is actually watching these charges. I mean, they'd only have to charge everyone a couple of erroneous charges a month to make a killing.
The issue for me has really been the fact that I refuse to give them access to my money - I insist on them sending me a bill in the mail, which they WILL do but boy they do not like it. It's almost like they are "going to make me pay" for this inconvenience to them - even though they upcharge me, apparently enough to make a profit - for mailing me the bills, which I always pay IMMEDIATELY.
Several times a year, I get letters stating that I haven't paid a bill, so now there's a late charge. And I look up the bill, which I've paid, and then I have to call them, be on hold, email them the cleared check and other records that I paid them, and then wait several days or a week or more, for them to either email me or call me back to tell me that the late fee has been removed and I'm good to go. This is time and effort that ticks me off.
They also recently sold to another company and I've gotten all sorts of crazy bills from them, then letters stating to ignore those bills - as well as late fees in the HUNDREDS of dollars, which they also say to ignore...who knows, but one thing I do know is that their system SUCKS.
And this is with me avoiding toll roads generally, because I want to avoid the drama and wasted time.
And every time I get them on the phone, they tell me, as if it's news to me, "Hey, you can avoid this by getting a toll tag." And I always tell them, "Are you kidding me? You are this messed up but you want me to give you access to a bank account?" No way.
There have been numerous lawsuits and plenty of media coverage around here of, at the very least, gross mismanagement, and probably abuse and deception, by the toll road billing companies.
Don't even get me started on their "billing system," which seems to be completely random. I mean, I will go weeks and weeks without a bill, and then suddenly two or three separate bills (when I use the toll roads, which unfortunately I use probably once or maybe even twice every week) of $3 to $12 dollars, and then occasionally, with the same usage, some crazy bill that goes WEEKS back, for $30 or more dollars. And who could keep up with this stuff? How do I know where I was a month ago?
One woman here finally decided to get all her bills out, and found out that they had overcharged her, with overlapping bills, literally over a thousand dollars in one year. If they'd been just deducting it, she may have never figured it out.
So, here's your solution.
Go put $100 on a prepaid debit card, use that card for the toll tag.
Voila - you save yourself $1 per toll and there's no "access to your checking account" and no more phone calls.
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