Usually they simply send you that big bill but wipe it away as soon as you call to pay. Do you not have an iPass account?

This really doesn't make sense. (I mean I realize how fucked up Illinois government is). If you had an IPass account they send you a notice in the mail and email. I know this because my wife just had to change her account when her credit card expired. Honestly call the TV station out in Rockford (not much going on out there I assume) and see if some eager beaver reporter wants to report on the incompetence of state government.

I don't get it either. I have had 2 cards expire - one b/c of date and one b/c of fraud. I received an email telling me to update my information.

If you have an iPass account, it should not be an issue. In fact, the wife took a registered car w/o the transponder and blew through a toll. I tried to pay, but customer service told me that, b/c the license plate number was on the iPass account, the ticket for failure to pay was automatically cancelled and my account was merely charged the toll.

I cannot believe you could not call them and get this straightened out, even in FIB land.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

+1 on Windy's response. Somehow..and I stress "somehow" I've dodged this bullet. Between their shit system that alerts you to having a low balance on your ipass and the difficulty in simply funding your ipass it has to be a major income source for IL (through fines etc).

It's not a short term fix but I'd raise some local gov flags but also continue to contest (it's not going to do shit..but you might get some satisfaction out of not just taking it up the ass). Additionally I would really suggest you take it to court..sucks..but what can you do. It's a bloated fine based system we've got going here in IL but I'm not sure how else you can navigate this..

Sorry for all the trouble but please do update the thread on your experiences..

well..this explains how I've avoided a ridiculous amount of fines over the past few years!

I've had this happen twice- first time I had bought a new car, so new plates but same transponder. Called them up, had $200 in "fines" wiped out. That was in 2007. 3 months ago, I told my dad to just blow through the tolling stations, as I had added his Ohio plate to my transponder years ago. He had changed plates and didn't tell me, and he got a letter with a photo of his van and about $120 in fee/fine. I called up, added his new plate, and they vacated the fine.

You've had some shit luck. I have zero confidence in IL government creatures, but the iPass people have always been unfailingly nice and helpful to me.

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If I don't, who will? -Me
It's like being bipolar in opinion is a requirement around here. -TripleThreat

Just had a similar thing happen this year in June when the transponder failed on four tolls over three days while I was driving our new car. I called to correct it, but couldn't be used the transponder is under my spouse's name; then eventually she called in and added the car, but forgot to ask them to apply the charges to the transponder.

Next thing I get is a 286 dollar bill from a sleazed out law firm for the 6 dollars in tolls, plus the law firm's fees. I called in and was told that the State of Illinois charged an additional ten bucks for credit card processing, and was asked "is this okay?"

I paid online instead and didn't see that particular charge, but the whole process stinks of Illinois. Seems you have an initial chance to deal with the tollway people, then you get sent over to the law firm pretty silently.

You may want to try sending them a detailed letter stating your case. If this doesn't work, a letter from your attorney may do the trick...wait - aren't you an attorney yourself?

Good luck.

Usually they simply send you that big bill but wipe it away as soon as you call to pay. Do you not have an iPass account?

Yes we have an ipass account. We did get a few messages prior to calling about "Your i-pass is low" but we failed to make the connection between "old card dead" and "i-pass not getting replenished". We generally get a notice anytime the i-pass is replenished and we just didn't pay attention. I realize that is on us.

That being said when we did realize the problem we called and paid up, updated the card etc etc. We were even told "It's been fixed". Then a month or so later we a letter and the amount keeps growing.

We called again on this letter and we were told "Sorry nothing we can do about it except court"

~Matt

If you had an IPass account they send you a notice in the mail and email. I know this because my wife just had to change her account when her credit card expired.

As posted above we do get notices and I know this is on us. We've switched from my e-mail to my wifes and back and forth a couple times. Combine that with you get a notice every time it's replenished and we simply did not pay close enough attention and forgot about the carb being cancelled so it didn't hit us. Yeah I know we screwed up and have no problem paying a reasonable "Late fee" or whatever...but $700 dollars on a few dollars in missed tolls?

Honestly call the TV station out in Rockford (not much going on out there I assume) and see if some eager beaver reporter wants to report on the incompetence of state government.

I thought there was a whole story not to long ago where the tollway ended up finally dropping a ton of fines and claimed to have "Changed their ways"...apparently not :-)

~Matt

Additionally I would really suggest you take it to court..sucks..but what can you do.

I look at this as a last resort. Court would not be in my county or even a neighboring county. In short it's going to be an all day ordeal.

There are a couple other routes, just found an "Online" dispute system that has recently been put in place.

~Matt

You may want to try sending them a detailed letter stating your case. If this doesn't work, a letter from your attorney may do the trick...wait - aren't you an attorney yourself?

Since I'm not an attorney going to court, having a letter drawn up by an attorney etc etc is going to cost me a chunk of change no matter what, either in time off work or paying for professional services. I find it interesting that the fines ratchet up quickly and to an amount where paying them becomes less expensive then trying to fight them...no racket there.

~Matt

Another option is to try contacting the Trib, there is a transportation guy (Jon Hilkevitch) and there was someone else who would report upon egregious shit like this, usually once the organizations were contacted by the paper, they agreed to do the right thing.

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There are three kinds of people, those who can count, and those who can't.

I just quickly skimmed all of the other responses but my advice is to call back again and speak with another phone representative. I had a similar situation but only $450 in fees and tolls about a year ago. I called and the representative very easily removed the fees as long as I was willing to pay the tolls immediately. However, I have had two friends who had similar experiences as you where the first person they spoke with wouldn't remove the fees. After hearing my story and others who had the fees removed, they both called back spoke with someone else and magically the fees were easily removed. In my opinion, it may be worth another call or two to see if you can find someone more helpful. Good luck!

Ok so here's more info.

The original 700$ has been knocked down to 219'ish with a settlement of 119'sih.

This is what happened. Back in May our card was canceled for "Fraud" issues and we had 10, $1.90 tolls that were not paid because of low balance on the i-pass. When we found out we called to pay the tolls. However since it was set up under my account and my wife did not have the last four digits of my driver license and we needed a new transponder she decided it would be easier to set the new transponder to her account and ADD the new car the account. Two things happened at this point. First since it was a new account they decided they could not pay the old tolls with the new account balance. This was either a misunderstanding of my wifes or a miscommunication that "Everything was taken care" on their part. At the same time they, without being told to, REMOVED the other car from the account. The latter issue is what ended up costing the additional 500$ or so in fines and penalties. They have graciously taken that away entirely.

At this point we have attempted to pay the tolls and explain that we made several phone calls with in the time frame, 30 days, to pay the tolls but because of one reason or another it never got paid. I suspect the reason is that my wife was thinking "We have an account with a balance why are they not taking the money" when the case is "The other account owes money and it has no money in it".

In short we have 5 round trips, $1.90 each way, that they are slamming us with $20 for EACH toll. They won't drop the fines although they have agreed to a "Settlement" of $10 for each toll.

We may, at this point, just pay the $119 as it will be cheaper then any other option...and I suspect that is their end game. Again however, these blood sucking pigs are worse then any credit card out there. Imagine if you were late on your monthly payment and they charged you the late fee EVERY time you used your card while you were in arrears. People would be screaming bloody murder, and rightfully so.

To make matters worse during this entire fiasco we received a "We will suspend your cars registration if you don't pay your fine" from the secretary of state. So for a grand total of 19.90$ of tolls that were unpaid which occurred over a period of 20 or so days, despite having been in good standing with auto re-fill for years before the incident and opening a new account with a new transponder after the incident...they are going to fine us $200 and if we don't pay up they will make us criminals every time we drive our car by revoking our registration.

Anyone want to guess why I don't like the government? I deal with this kinda of bullshit regularly whether it's with payroll taxes, safety, blah, blah, blah blah and in every case it's the same BS. Small infraction met with unyielding sledge hammer blows until you capitulate to their demands no matter how unreasonable and then you are on the watch list for any minor infraction forever.

So now we are stuck with either hours on the phone that will likely get use no where. Trip to court where I may have a negative outcome or pay the 100-200$ fine for having the audacity to miss an e-mail and not getting in writing the correction was made.

Assholes...

~Matt

Pay the $119, mutter under your breath and move on with life.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Pay the $119, mutter under your breath and move on with life.

I know, done it enough times with other issues dealing with the state. Issue at this point, now that it's no longer $700, is that for the most part it's just more BS. I'm tired of people proclaiming how evil "Business" is and then constantly getting bent over by the government. Seems to be a complete disconnect for most people. If I had to make a list of the top 10, no vaseline, sand encrusted ass rapings I've taken in the last 30 years 8 of them would probably include something to do with the government. This despite the fact that mere 10% or less of may daily financial dealings are with the government.

Oh and I've been violated by private entities, but at least there you generally have some reasonable recourse.

~Matt

FIBs. Whatcha gonna do?

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

I understand completely. One time I parked at a subway station at 430 pm on a Friday afternoon (parking is free from 4pm onwards throughout the weekend). When I got back to my car later that evening I had a ticket waiting for me. It was complete bullshit. However, the energy used in screaming at people and fighting it just wasn't worth it. I paid the fine and moved on with life.

That's all you can do in a situation like this. Yes, it sucks. Yes, it's frustrating but you ain't going to win.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Now imagine that you are a poor person living paycheck to paycheck and this crap happens to you.

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LLLEEEEEEEEEEEERRRROOOYYY JEEENNNNNKKKIIINNNNNS!!!

We recently bought a new car, and my wife drove through an EZPass lane before realizing that we hadn't move the transponder and changed accounts. So we get a notice (complete with photograph of our temp plates) in the mail for the toll plus $50. Go on the web site to dispute it (the notice indicated the web address), indicated that the car was new, added the car to the account, deleted the old car (which we sold), and the $50 disappeared. Simple.

Decades ago, I got a ticket for going 35 in a 25. I noted that the 25mph sign was not white (mandatory) but yellow (caution). Got a letter from the county engineer indicating that the speed limit was indeed 35 (this was before the internet). Went to court, spoke to the prosecutor before the session. Judge starts the session, prosecutor stands up and dismisses the ticket right away.

But hey, this is New Jersey.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Now imagine that you are a poor person living paycheck to paycheck and this crap happens to you.

Why do you assume that I'm all that far removed from such a pay check to pay check scenario? Why do you think I was worried about a $700 dollar fine? If I had an extra 50K a year "F'you" money I probably would have called, paid and moved on. $100- $200 bucks is not "Pocket change" for me. Why do you think I get so pissed off when all around me people are getting subsidies and benefits that I have to pay for that in some cases I don't have myself because I can't afford to pay for them?

FWIW there is a "Hardship" program available. I suspect if you were on state aid and had an income of near zero these fines would be dropped. Yet another example where I get to pay and the "Poor" do not.

Yes, I'm bitter. Sick and tired of being bled dry.

~Matt

Go on the web site to dispute it (the notice indicated the web address), indicated that the car was new, added the car to the account, deleted the old car (which we sold), and the $50 disappeared. Simple.

Apparently not so simply in IL.

~Matt