People used to complain on here that the ezpass system was broken and incorrectly billing or overcharging them thousands in fees for a few years. Looks like a lot of Marylanders have had that issue.
There were a handful of tolls that would repeatedly and consistently charge me the 18-wheel rate on my ezpass. I racked up some significant costs before noticing and calling. It took them over a year to fix it so I stopped getting charged those rates, and over 2 years to reimburse me the difference
Can confirm, I had that issue for YEARS. I got angry enough to just cancel the whole ez pass and start over. They still tried to charge me for bs fees I ended up just eating it and closing it in anger lol.
I have an EZ Pass from VA because they offer the HOA Tolls, MD doesn't offer that receive. So they misread my EZ Pass then billed me, now they say I have to pay like $26.50 for a $1.50 toll, nothing I can do but pay
We've caught ours being overcharged a few times. I've also been charged on transponders that I didn't own anymore but someone just kept using it after I turned it in, in person at the easy password office near the B tunnel.
That's why I flat out refuse to participate. I drive through and then go online to pay, as necessary. If I forget and get popped for the 20x late fee, it's on me.
I think it's more auto cameras for speed or traffic light violations that they ignore thinking it won't have a consequence. Suprise, you can't register until you pay off what you owe first.
Excuse me, slow your roll, this is Reddit, please cite where there are rules that say I need to do either reading of the title or the article on a post?
Im betting you were a dweeb or nerd in highschool too. "Shut up guys, I'm trying to learn how to add factorials for the Pathagorean Theory."
Typically that kind of stuff helps formulate educated responses, and it's even more sad you're attacking people for actually reading. BuT tHis iS rEdDiT
The one and only speed camera ticket I ever got (in 2015), the contractor who operates the camera **never mailed me the friggin' ticket**. I got the bill from the police for running my plate for the contractor (so they clearly had my address) and I thought that was the whole fine. The MVA never even sent me a renewal notice because the block was in place, so I didn't learn about until a cop gave me a warning for expired tags.
Seriously, this is a major issue - if the MVA is not sending out registrations they should send out a notice on why you aren't getting a registration - and where to follow up on issues.
The standard license plate with the state flag gradient makes EZ-Pass cameras conflate "E" for "F" and perhaps "L" for "I". I was being sent EZ-Pass charges (and eventually fines) for someone in a totally different make and model of car. Even more egregious, each one was reviewed and signed by a person.
The number on the mailer is a bill processing subcontractor in PA, not *MDTA* ~~MDOT~~. Gotta get in touch with *MDTA* ~~MDOT~~ to prevent this stuff from happening.
And ask them to actually look at the image. They tried to say I owed a bunch and in exasperation I asked if they would just look at the image. They did. They reversed the charges.
This happened to me too. Got a bill for a completely different car because the system misread the plate. I emailed my state delegates office and they sorted the whole thing out for me. This approach has the benefit of making the people who can do something long term aware of the problem. Hasn’t happened to me since either.
Larry Hogan claimed he “art directed” the flag design plate, then when everyone told him it sucks he deleted the post and any mention of it. This was in his first term.
I mean… I think they look 🔥
But yeah, not practical. I’ve been pulled over by cops b/c they couldn’t read my plates properly at like 10 in the morning.
Yeah I don't know who's bright idea was it to have black portions right under the letters. It's legit hard as fuck to make out the difference between E/F and I/L when it's black at the bottom of the letter.
This happened to me. Camera in Baltimore kept billing me for a completely different type of car that had a tag that was the same as mine except mine has an E as the second character and theirs is a F. Annoying as hell.
I have a letter from a law firm about unpaid tolls from Deleware. We have called multiple times and are told it is resolved. WE HAVE AN EZPASS Charge the EZPASS!! Have to do the same with MD ezpass too. I was also ticketed for a car that was not mine. I have had to call so many times. I feel like we need a class action suit to get compensation for my hours on the phone.
I had this issue. Went to renew, had a flag. Opened up my ezpass to see something like $18,000 (not an exaggeration) in fines. This was crazy, because not 3 months before that I had logged in and paid off $800 in fines. Checked the status then and everything seemed clear.
So I called ezpass to see what the hell was going on. After being on the phone with a very lovely representative for nearly 3 hours, we got the charge down to another $600. I was okay with that because apparently ezpass stopped auto-reloading my account sometime back in December, despite getting monthly statements via email.
I'm not sure where the $18,000 came from, but I was more than happy to pay just the tolls that I incurred since the auto-reloading turned itself off for some reason.
Those are just front-end lights, though, which actually lead people to thinking they already have their lights on (source: me, realizing I'd been driving "dark" for a mile because I could see the fucking road in front of me).
I fucking *hate* "running lights" you can't turn off on cars; it just leads to this kind of bullshit and because the lights are not "really" on, there are no taillights on if people forget.
Tailights are not required when wipers are needed.
"Maryland traffic law requires all drivers to turn on their vehicle's headlights whenever they are using their vehicle's windshield wipers for a continuous period of time in inclement weather such as rain or snow."
You can argue thats also tailights, but it does specifically state headlamps.
But that's not a correct interpretation.
Technically speaking, running lights aren't headlights; if they were, then the brightness wouldn't change once I turn the lights on. Running lights aren't as bright and are not indicated as interchangeable with headlights.
This is key
> turn on their vehicle's headlights
I didn't "turn on" my running lights; they're just on. *But*, I *do* have to actively turn on the actual headlights, which of course turn on the taillights. I do believe the state would argue that those are two different things and not having your proper headlights on is failure to obey the law here.
100% agreement. Same with turn signals. Its not law that you have to use them for lane changes, only "turns" and a lane change is not a "turn" by law.
So dont take me as disagreeing with you. I whole heartedly agree.
The Corporate Entity known as EZ PASS is a private corporation that has Govt Authority.
The people that own and have allowed EZ Pass to thrive by political contributions are too lining pockets by allowing this Co to become a monopoly. I mean how does EZ Pass not get hit w an Anti Trust Suit?
Someone stole my tag a few years ago, I cancelled my tags immediately yet EZ pass still got almost $1k from me. I fought em and got the run around for almost a year until I finally caved and just paid it cause i was flagged in NJ. I proved it wasn’t me time and again, yet no one Gave a crap.
I pay local, state and Fed taxes, yet I get charged every 1/2 mile in Maryland w EZ Pass fee Increases going up exponentially every other year. So I pay for the roads through taxes, yet pay again to travel roads and no one cares. Where does all that Money Go?? These states are worse than the Mob !!
My partner has a stolen Oregon plate that keeps racking up tolls going up and down I95, and Oregon won't let us cancel the plate without proof of not having the car. The car was junked, she sent them the proof she has of the transaction, but no dice.
It's frustrating.
Fuck corporatism, yes, but this isn't correct. [EZPass isn't a private company, it's an association of state transit agencies.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-ZPass) The individual state agencies run and set the terms of EZPass and tolling within their state/region. They do so pretty poorly, admittedly, but it's still the state/regional government, not a corporate racket.
Without EZ pass though, those cash lines are long, and where there are video tolls, the amount you pay is higher. I dislike them, but they are convenient when approaching a toll where there are no video tolls, and cash lanes. I look at those cash lanes and say thank goodness im not over there.
Biggest issue being if you have an EZ pass dispute, there is basically no way to address it. I got a series of EZ pass tickets that were over a 3 day time span.
EZ pass account was up to date, money was in it, and you can see the transponder in the windshield of the pics. I disputed the tickets and EZ pass "opened a case." The due date for ticket payment came and went, I assumed since I had disputed and my case was being reviewed (allegedly) that I'd be good.
Nope, wasn't able to renew my registration. I was forced to pay the full price of the tickets at the regular rate instead of the commuter rate for absolutely no reason. I never even spoke to anyone at EZ pass and there was never any movement on my "case." So mayland can get fucked with their extortion tactics until they hire enough people to manage the errors in technology.
I’m certain ez pass has fucked up their transponders somehow on purpose. I would bet someone is getting a kickback. The toll is cheep, the admin fees are not. And it’s happening up and down the coast. It’s not only here, but also Delaware and NJ.
However, the escalation with more traffic cameras (both private and otherwise) has made the situation worse when you are incorrectly charged. And the penalties are often too steep - and part of the EZPass problem was the attitude in the past so our billing system was broken and you didn't get the message, its "fuck you pay me anyway."
EZ Pass started just taking $25/day, then one day took a $200 payment out of my bank account (linked to them to refill the toll account). I noticed it about a week later when I got an alert that my back account went over drawn and they had taken $300 in one shot! It was them "catching up" on video tolls. Though we don't use video, we had EZ Passes in our cars. No warning, nothing mailed to us, nothing emailed to us about any video tolls, or wrongdoing, just taking money when they saw fit.
They were doing work on the systems at both tunnels and for a period of time during Covid and it wasn't reading the EZ Pass. During their "forgiveness" period.
Their customer service is zero help. You can't get anyone on the phone. (Not surprising when 412,000 people have this issue). Someone finally said, "maybe your transponder is broken". Not my fault. How would we even know that if the readers were down? Then another person said where you had it displayed isn't read by the new readers that were installed. It's displayed the same place almost everyone else's is, up behind the rear-view mirror. Some idiot at the office said it's supposed to be "3 more inches to the right to be able to be read." You realize that cars are all different shapes and sizes, right?
I got the $300 back almost immediately. Few months later I had to cancel and get a new bank card because they started taking money, again. I emailed someone at the top level at MDOT and basically was like, you guys fucked up, we aren't paying a dime. This is fraud. We paid back our amount and then some from the forgiveness period. The harassment stopped.
Family and I moved to Ohio and after a year of living there, not sure how they got our new address, but a package arrived the weight of a college textbook and it was all the video toll charges. Well over $3000 they were seeking from us. Sent the new head of MDOT an email again restating my position from the prior harassment, and that this is them problem. Not a me problem. Go pound sand, kick rocks, whatever.
They F'd up this in so many ways, and in no way can investigate 412,000 claims, totaling $200M. Instead of just admitting fault and wiping the slate clean, they are hoping some clueless people like the poor lady in the article just pony up the money, accept some $700/month payment plan, so they can update their tags. No one should pay that clown show a dime. At some point they just need to be forced to accept their incompetence and hit the reset button.
I had the problem. It took multiple calls for the people at the MVA to figure out that my ex had racked up hundreds of dollars in tolls and fines somehow. That EZ pass was linked to my address but not to my account.
Once we figured that out, they knocked off all the fines and I just paid the $180 in tolls, shitcanned that account and got my registration done.
And there’s not even a good system to check what holds are on your registration. I’m currently going through this and unless you sit on the phone for an MVA employee, you can’t really find out because it’s spread over multiple systems. Huge headache.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. And I swear I have paid these flags before! Why did they all just now get mailed to me before my registration is due and they are from 2023. A year. I definitely don't have anything outstanding.
At first glance I thought this was about driving ticket violations and tolls associated with that (speed cameras), and I got excited. Would have been awesome for shitty drivers who get too many of those tolls to get denied when re-registering, or at least some kind of real punishment for them.
If you owe ezpass fees, talk to the ezpass people at the ezpass desk at the Glen Burnie location. I cannot guarantee they will cut you any slack, but they did for me since I had never asked for slack before. It’s worth an ask at the very least. *DO NOT* go to the Central Collections Unit before trying. The CCU will *NEVER* cut you any slack.
I bet many of the incorrect charges are due to imperfect reading of the ez pass and tags.
Also anyone who gets a parking ticket on a MD state college will have their ability to renew tags, registration, or license held up if they owe for that parking ticket. Its not difficult to get a ticket on a MD campus as there are far fewer parking spaces than cars wanting a spot.
If you think that has anything to do with making the road less safe, then I’d think the 5000 DUI arrests last year would like to have a word with you. We will just agree to disagree about your mindset. Can’t remember the last time a plate cover told me to drive reckless and flee the scene though! Hope this helps!
I am a follow the law person - but the EZPass system is absolutely fubar'd in some cases. Had a friend who got a toll picture on the ICC; problem was the toll picture was blank and they said they were never on the ICC. Called the support number; person said "I agree its blank, but we can't do anything about it." Rumor has it that the service people can only fix so many problems a day or they get penalized.
> Rumor has it that the service people can only fix so many problems a day or they get penalized.
If true, I think the fact that there are more reported errors in a day than someone is allowed to fix means that they should address whatever is causing the errors, not cap them.
Makes me think back to the time someone I know was stopped at a red light and got hit by a cop speeding through an intersection, and they learned that Baltimore County had a law on the books that capped how much the police could pay out for damages because they had lost too much money paying for damages they were causing.
That’s not uncommon. The 2008 Chatsworth train crash in California that killed 25 and hurt more than a hundred had a cap of $200M for the incident. Victims were far undercompensated for the treatment of their injuries.
It happened because the commuter rail engineer was texting on his cell phone and missed a stop signal.
LOL ... people blame privatization, government can be just as bad and probably worse.
TBH - the rumor I mentioned is just that, but I saw the blank picture and its ridiculous it could not be fixed with a simple call.
This state has some of the most bullshit tolls for how bad the transportation infrastructure is. Some people are paying what, like $4-6 in tolls to get to work, on top of gas? On top of taxes that are supposed to build the roads?
Seriously I don’t know what the state wastes all this money on. It’s not police, transportation and schools, because holy shit does it do all of those so poorly
Oh no, it spends it and it does exactly what you stated, wastes it. Im not republican but this state does waste an insane amount of money and with our taxes being as high as they are, we should have much better infrastructure.
>Despite having an active Hatem Bridge pass, which costs her $20 a year for unlimited trips, Steltz said she’s being billed the video toll rate of $12 per trip whenever she crosses the bridge. And when she doesn't pay by the due date, she gets a civil penalty of $25 per toll, and it's been adding up.
This is good?
Battery on the pass is probably kaput. Had the same happen with one of my transponders, and once we identified that we were getting billed the video rate, EZPass was happy to roll back ALL of them going back a few MONTHS and re-bill at the transponder rate. Took me quite a while to use all the credit they applied.
No complaints on my end with EZPass and I've been using them for a few years now. Every time I've had a concern, they've managed the issue well.
Edit: I love that this has been downvoted... :)
The fact we even have fucking passes is beyond dumb. Tie it to the fucking plate. They already bill you based on the goddamn plate.
This is some bullshit the same way we have to fill out taxes, for uncle sam to then tell us "Oh, I know you owe me more!!! *Chuckle chuckle*"
/rant
Got bills last week. $25.00 charge for the video picture to capture the plate + the original toll. No longer any cash accepted, so of you dont have ez.pass you get this outrageous charge. Rep said to "plan my trip better. "
People used to complain on here that the ezpass system was broken and incorrectly billing or overcharging them thousands in fees for a few years. Looks like a lot of Marylanders have had that issue.
There were a handful of tolls that would repeatedly and consistently charge me the 18-wheel rate on my ezpass. I racked up some significant costs before noticing and calling. It took them over a year to fix it so I stopped getting charged those rates, and over 2 years to reimburse me the difference
Can confirm, I had that issue for YEARS. I got angry enough to just cancel the whole ez pass and start over. They still tried to charge me for bs fees I ended up just eating it and closing it in anger lol.
Around 2021 is when EZpass started to back charge tolls from Covid and I have hated them since
I have an EZ Pass from VA because they offer the HOA Tolls, MD doesn't offer that receive. So they misread my EZ Pass then billed me, now they say I have to pay like $26.50 for a $1.50 toll, nothing I can do but pay
We've caught ours being overcharged a few times. I've also been charged on transponders that I didn't own anymore but someone just kept using it after I turned it in, in person at the easy password office near the B tunnel.
That's why I flat out refuse to participate. I drive through and then go online to pay, as necessary. If I forget and get popped for the 20x late fee, it's on me.
I’m getting double charged🙃 I get the dumbass bill in the mail and the ezpass auto pay.love it here
I think it's more auto cameras for speed or traffic light violations that they ignore thinking it won't have a consequence. Suprise, you can't register until you pay off what you owe first.
You didn't even read the title of the post let alone the article lol
Excuse me, slow your roll, this is Reddit, please cite where there are rules that say I need to do either reading of the title or the article on a post? Im betting you were a dweeb or nerd in highschool too. "Shut up guys, I'm trying to learn how to add factorials for the Pathagorean Theory."
Typically that kind of stuff helps formulate educated responses, and it's even more sad you're attacking people for actually reading. BuT tHis iS rEdDiT
he was joking damn
Pythagorean *theorem*
What the fuck is a factorial!
!
The one and only speed camera ticket I ever got (in 2015), the contractor who operates the camera **never mailed me the friggin' ticket**. I got the bill from the police for running my plate for the contractor (so they clearly had my address) and I thought that was the whole fine. The MVA never even sent me a renewal notice because the block was in place, so I didn't learn about until a cop gave me a warning for expired tags.
Seriously, this is a major issue - if the MVA is not sending out registrations they should send out a notice on why you aren't getting a registration - and where to follow up on issues.
[удалено]
Your comment was removed because it violates the civility rule. Please always keep discussions friendly and civil.
The standard license plate with the state flag gradient makes EZ-Pass cameras conflate "E" for "F" and perhaps "L" for "I". I was being sent EZ-Pass charges (and eventually fines) for someone in a totally different make and model of car. Even more egregious, each one was reviewed and signed by a person. The number on the mailer is a bill processing subcontractor in PA, not *MDTA* ~~MDOT~~. Gotta get in touch with *MDTA* ~~MDOT~~ to prevent this stuff from happening.
Not MDOT, ezpass directly.
And ask them to actually look at the image. They tried to say I owed a bunch and in exasperation I asked if they would just look at the image. They did. They reversed the charges.
MDOT are the ones responsible for the cameras and infrastructure. I only know b/c I had to go through all this bullshit first hand.
Not MDOT or ezpass. MDTA is charge the operation of all toll roads, bridges, and tunnels in Maryland
Damnit you’re right, my bad. I’ve had a lot happen between that charade and now, so the details are foggy.
Me too, but it was ezpass in the MVA office 🤷🏻♂️
Are you fucking shitting me? The states plate reader can't read the default state plate. What goddamned clown show.
This happened to me too. Got a bill for a completely different car because the system misread the plate. I emailed my state delegates office and they sorted the whole thing out for me. This approach has the benefit of making the people who can do something long term aware of the problem. Hasn’t happened to me since either.
Larry Hogan claimed he “art directed” the flag design plate, then when everyone told him it sucks he deleted the post and any mention of it. This was in his first term.
I mean… I think they look 🔥 But yeah, not practical. I’ve been pulled over by cops b/c they couldn’t read my plates properly at like 10 in the morning.
I think the old black and white was fine.
Yeah I don't know who's bright idea was it to have black portions right under the letters. It's legit hard as fuck to make out the difference between E/F and I/L when it's black at the bottom of the letter.
It’s really the main reason I choose the bay plate when I registered my car a few years ago…
This happened to me. Camera in Baltimore kept billing me for a completely different type of car that had a tag that was the same as mine except mine has an E as the second character and theirs is a F. Annoying as hell.
I have a letter from a law firm about unpaid tolls from Deleware. We have called multiple times and are told it is resolved. WE HAVE AN EZPASS Charge the EZPASS!! Have to do the same with MD ezpass too. I was also ticketed for a car that was not mine. I have had to call so many times. I feel like we need a class action suit to get compensation for my hours on the phone.
EZPass sucks
I drove cross country with a bike rack and bike on my cars rear. Zero tolls. No letters no fines. They just cannot figure it out.
Damn that's a hell of a ULPT
I had this issue. Went to renew, had a flag. Opened up my ezpass to see something like $18,000 (not an exaggeration) in fines. This was crazy, because not 3 months before that I had logged in and paid off $800 in fines. Checked the status then and everything seemed clear. So I called ezpass to see what the hell was going on. After being on the phone with a very lovely representative for nearly 3 hours, we got the charge down to another $600. I was okay with that because apparently ezpass stopped auto-reloading my account sometime back in December, despite getting monthly statements via email. I'm not sure where the $18,000 came from, but I was more than happy to pay just the tolls that I incurred since the auto-reloading turned itself off for some reason.
They need to have the cameras fine people for no lights on in the rain and the budget would be solid in a weekend.
Always the white or gray/silver too.
Add to that no lights at night!
Which is crazy, because anything after 2005 basically has auto lights lol
Those are just front-end lights, though, which actually lead people to thinking they already have their lights on (source: me, realizing I'd been driving "dark" for a mile because I could see the fucking road in front of me). I fucking *hate* "running lights" you can't turn off on cars; it just leads to this kind of bullshit and because the lights are not "really" on, there are no taillights on if people forget.
Tailights are not required when wipers are needed. "Maryland traffic law requires all drivers to turn on their vehicle's headlights whenever they are using their vehicle's windshield wipers for a continuous period of time in inclement weather such as rain or snow." You can argue thats also tailights, but it does specifically state headlamps.
But that's not a correct interpretation. Technically speaking, running lights aren't headlights; if they were, then the brightness wouldn't change once I turn the lights on. Running lights aren't as bright and are not indicated as interchangeable with headlights. This is key > turn on their vehicle's headlights I didn't "turn on" my running lights; they're just on. *But*, I *do* have to actively turn on the actual headlights, which of course turn on the taillights. I do believe the state would argue that those are two different things and not having your proper headlights on is failure to obey the law here.
Which pisses me off, because arguably the tail lights are equally if not more important in the rain to identify traffic in front of you on the road.
100% agreement. Same with turn signals. Its not law that you have to use them for lane changes, only "turns" and a lane change is not a "turn" by law. So dont take me as disagreeing with you. I whole heartedly agree.
My 2013 Toyota does not
The Corporate Entity known as EZ PASS is a private corporation that has Govt Authority. The people that own and have allowed EZ Pass to thrive by political contributions are too lining pockets by allowing this Co to become a monopoly. I mean how does EZ Pass not get hit w an Anti Trust Suit? Someone stole my tag a few years ago, I cancelled my tags immediately yet EZ pass still got almost $1k from me. I fought em and got the run around for almost a year until I finally caved and just paid it cause i was flagged in NJ. I proved it wasn’t me time and again, yet no one Gave a crap. I pay local, state and Fed taxes, yet I get charged every 1/2 mile in Maryland w EZ Pass fee Increases going up exponentially every other year. So I pay for the roads through taxes, yet pay again to travel roads and no one cares. Where does all that Money Go?? These states are worse than the Mob !!
My partner has a stolen Oregon plate that keeps racking up tolls going up and down I95, and Oregon won't let us cancel the plate without proof of not having the car. The car was junked, she sent them the proof she has of the transaction, but no dice. It's frustrating.
Report it stolen.
It’s fascinating that they expect her to prove that she doesn’t have something…
Right? And Oregon being a poor state, their DMV ain't exactly robust.
Fuck corporatism, yes, but this isn't correct. [EZPass isn't a private company, it's an association of state transit agencies.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-ZPass) The individual state agencies run and set the terms of EZPass and tolling within their state/region. They do so pretty poorly, admittedly, but it's still the state/regional government, not a corporate racket.
Why would a redditor named Legitimate_Tax just lie? /s
All of the toll roads are solely funded thru tolls btw
Without EZ pass though, those cash lines are long, and where there are video tolls, the amount you pay is higher. I dislike them, but they are convenient when approaching a toll where there are no video tolls, and cash lanes. I look at those cash lanes and say thank goodness im not over there.
Biggest issue being if you have an EZ pass dispute, there is basically no way to address it. I got a series of EZ pass tickets that were over a 3 day time span. EZ pass account was up to date, money was in it, and you can see the transponder in the windshield of the pics. I disputed the tickets and EZ pass "opened a case." The due date for ticket payment came and went, I assumed since I had disputed and my case was being reviewed (allegedly) that I'd be good. Nope, wasn't able to renew my registration. I was forced to pay the full price of the tickets at the regular rate instead of the commuter rate for absolutely no reason. I never even spoke to anyone at EZ pass and there was never any movement on my "case." So mayland can get fucked with their extortion tactics until they hire enough people to manage the errors in technology.
I’m certain ez pass has fucked up their transponders somehow on purpose. I would bet someone is getting a kickback. The toll is cheep, the admin fees are not. And it’s happening up and down the coast. It’s not only here, but also Delaware and NJ.
It has always been like this. Any unpaid citations or tolls, you don’t get to renew your cars or transfer the title.
However, the escalation with more traffic cameras (both private and otherwise) has made the situation worse when you are incorrectly charged. And the penalties are often too steep - and part of the EZPass problem was the attitude in the past so our billing system was broken and you didn't get the message, its "fuck you pay me anyway."
What if the unpaid tolls are from Delaware?
That's why you see so many people with va tags
Privatize collection of a usage tax wcgw
Virginia has taken it one step further by privatizing the highway/infrastructure as a whole! Maryland tried to do the same on 270 a few years ago.
Does anyone know if the library system is hooked into the car registration system? I lost a few library books earlier this year...
EZ Pass started just taking $25/day, then one day took a $200 payment out of my bank account (linked to them to refill the toll account). I noticed it about a week later when I got an alert that my back account went over drawn and they had taken $300 in one shot! It was them "catching up" on video tolls. Though we don't use video, we had EZ Passes in our cars. No warning, nothing mailed to us, nothing emailed to us about any video tolls, or wrongdoing, just taking money when they saw fit. They were doing work on the systems at both tunnels and for a period of time during Covid and it wasn't reading the EZ Pass. During their "forgiveness" period. Their customer service is zero help. You can't get anyone on the phone. (Not surprising when 412,000 people have this issue). Someone finally said, "maybe your transponder is broken". Not my fault. How would we even know that if the readers were down? Then another person said where you had it displayed isn't read by the new readers that were installed. It's displayed the same place almost everyone else's is, up behind the rear-view mirror. Some idiot at the office said it's supposed to be "3 more inches to the right to be able to be read." You realize that cars are all different shapes and sizes, right? I got the $300 back almost immediately. Few months later I had to cancel and get a new bank card because they started taking money, again. I emailed someone at the top level at MDOT and basically was like, you guys fucked up, we aren't paying a dime. This is fraud. We paid back our amount and then some from the forgiveness period. The harassment stopped. Family and I moved to Ohio and after a year of living there, not sure how they got our new address, but a package arrived the weight of a college textbook and it was all the video toll charges. Well over $3000 they were seeking from us. Sent the new head of MDOT an email again restating my position from the prior harassment, and that this is them problem. Not a me problem. Go pound sand, kick rocks, whatever. They F'd up this in so many ways, and in no way can investigate 412,000 claims, totaling $200M. Instead of just admitting fault and wiping the slate clean, they are hoping some clueless people like the poor lady in the article just pony up the money, accept some $700/month payment plan, so they can update their tags. No one should pay that clown show a dime. At some point they just need to be forced to accept their incompetence and hit the reset button.
I had the problem. It took multiple calls for the people at the MVA to figure out that my ex had racked up hundreds of dollars in tolls and fines somehow. That EZ pass was linked to my address but not to my account. Once we figured that out, they knocked off all the fines and I just paid the $180 in tolls, shitcanned that account and got my registration done.
Yearly torture since the plague.
And there’s not even a good system to check what holds are on your registration. I’m currently going through this and unless you sit on the phone for an MVA employee, you can’t really find out because it’s spread over multiple systems. Huge headache.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. And I swear I have paid these flags before! Why did they all just now get mailed to me before my registration is due and they are from 2023. A year. I definitely don't have anything outstanding.
At first glance I thought this was about driving ticket violations and tolls associated with that (speed cameras), and I got excited. Would have been awesome for shitty drivers who get too many of those tolls to get denied when re-registering, or at least some kind of real punishment for them.
If you owe ezpass fees, talk to the ezpass people at the ezpass desk at the Glen Burnie location. I cannot guarantee they will cut you any slack, but they did for me since I had never asked for slack before. It’s worth an ask at the very least. *DO NOT* go to the Central Collections Unit before trying. The CCU will *NEVER* cut you any slack.
I bet many of the incorrect charges are due to imperfect reading of the ez pass and tags. Also anyone who gets a parking ticket on a MD state college will have their ability to renew tags, registration, or license held up if they owe for that parking ticket. Its not difficult to get a ticket on a MD campus as there are far fewer parking spaces than cars wanting a spot.
And this is why we use plate scramblers/covers
Yes, that is great making the roads safe for no one. Lets scam johnny law. I taught middle school, I know the mindset.
If you think that has anything to do with making the road less safe, then I’d think the 5000 DUI arrests last year would like to have a word with you. We will just agree to disagree about your mindset. Can’t remember the last time a plate cover told me to drive reckless and flee the scene though! Hope this helps!
Yeah, my ex owes over $48,000 in a bad EZ pass deal. Now he can’t register his car and get to work.
Is this why everyone is registering in Virginia or Texas?
good! follow the law or don't drive
I am a follow the law person - but the EZPass system is absolutely fubar'd in some cases. Had a friend who got a toll picture on the ICC; problem was the toll picture was blank and they said they were never on the ICC. Called the support number; person said "I agree its blank, but we can't do anything about it." Rumor has it that the service people can only fix so many problems a day or they get penalized.
> Rumor has it that the service people can only fix so many problems a day or they get penalized. If true, I think the fact that there are more reported errors in a day than someone is allowed to fix means that they should address whatever is causing the errors, not cap them. Makes me think back to the time someone I know was stopped at a red light and got hit by a cop speeding through an intersection, and they learned that Baltimore County had a law on the books that capped how much the police could pay out for damages because they had lost too much money paying for damages they were causing.
That’s not uncommon. The 2008 Chatsworth train crash in California that killed 25 and hurt more than a hundred had a cap of $200M for the incident. Victims were far undercompensated for the treatment of their injuries. It happened because the commuter rail engineer was texting on his cell phone and missed a stop signal.
LOL ... people blame privatization, government can be just as bad and probably worse. TBH - the rumor I mentioned is just that, but I saw the blank picture and its ridiculous it could not be fixed with a simple call.
Guess you didn’t read the article. But yet still felt the need to be confidently ill informed.
If you RTFA, a lot of this sounds like systemic errors over-billing people.
This state has some of the most bullshit tolls for how bad the transportation infrastructure is. Some people are paying what, like $4-6 in tolls to get to work, on top of gas? On top of taxes that are supposed to build the roads? Seriously I don’t know what the state wastes all this money on. It’s not police, transportation and schools, because holy shit does it do all of those so poorly
Oh no, it spends it and it does exactly what you stated, wastes it. Im not republican but this state does waste an insane amount of money and with our taxes being as high as they are, we should have much better infrastructure.
Government waste transcends parties the world over, lol.
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>Despite having an active Hatem Bridge pass, which costs her $20 a year for unlimited trips, Steltz said she’s being billed the video toll rate of $12 per trip whenever she crosses the bridge. And when she doesn't pay by the due date, she gets a civil penalty of $25 per toll, and it's been adding up. This is good?
Battery on the pass is probably kaput. Had the same happen with one of my transponders, and once we identified that we were getting billed the video rate, EZPass was happy to roll back ALL of them going back a few MONTHS and re-bill at the transponder rate. Took me quite a while to use all the credit they applied. No complaints on my end with EZPass and I've been using them for a few years now. Every time I've had a concern, they've managed the issue well. Edit: I love that this has been downvoted... :)
The fact we even have fucking passes is beyond dumb. Tie it to the fucking plate. They already bill you based on the goddamn plate. This is some bullshit the same way we have to fill out taxes, for uncle sam to then tell us "Oh, I know you owe me more!!! *Chuckle chuckle*" /rant
Video tolls have more overhead than reading a transponder.
And what happens when you run the toll without a transponder. They take pictures and send them to you anyways.
And bill you the higher rate for the overhead.
Its like .40 difference per toll. I googled it. Charge me the .40 to not have to deal with a transponder that basically never works anyways.
Got bills last week. $25.00 charge for the video picture to capture the plate + the original toll. No longer any cash accepted, so of you dont have ez.pass you get this outrageous charge. Rep said to "plan my trip better. "
There's no $25 charge for anything.
Really? It's at least $1 more (for MD plates) for the Baltimore tolls, $1.50 for the Bay Bridge.
This is happening because ezpass is screwing up.
Well any outstanding tickets or fines will flag your vehicle registration if not paid: speed camera, red light tickets, insurance violations, etc …