Friendly helpful staff, but massive scam artists as a whole. I had heard the stories of violations and charges totaling into thousands of dollars. I simply thought it was toll-dodgers that had it coming, until it happened to me.
I bought a preowned truck and drove my usual commute through the EZ Tag lanes. That evening, I realized I had driven through with the previous owners tag. I ordered a new EZ Tag in my name and used the cash toll lanes until my EZtag came in the mail (three weeks wait!). Meanwhile, I expected to hear from the previous owner about the tolls and forgot about it. Turns out the previous owner had cancelled the EZtag straightaway. Neither he nor I received a notification that the vehicle had been through the toll without a operable EZ Tag and therefore without payment.
THREE MONTHs goes by and he calls me. He had just received a letter from a collections agency about the five dollar (four passes) toll violation and late fees now totaling more than eighty dollars! I told him sorry and asked why he hadn't called sooner. He said he had no idea about the violations, EZ Tag had not contacted him by email, phone or mail until three months later. I told him not to worry, I'd take care of it. He sent me a copy of the letter he had received from collections. I took the letter in with me to resolve what I thought was a simple issue of lapsed EZ Tags / registration transfer. Surely this must happen a lot, as people purchase used vehicles from each other all the time.
I took time from work, patiently waited in line at an EZ Tag Store and explained what had happened asking the fines to be waived. The representative was nice and sympathetic. However, entirely unhelpful saying there was absolutely nothing she could do. I explained that EZ Tag had the previous owner's and my contact information, we both had current EZ Tags for multiple vehicles and EZ Tag did not notify either one of us. Three months of fines, involving a collections agency and threatening to revoke registrations seemed entirely unnecessary. Possibly even premeditated in order to collect multiple fines. Really, could they not have contacted us soon after the toll violation? Not even a week, a month later? The system records plate number and vehicle registration immediately when passing through a toll lane. The only explanation is EZ Tag purposefully and unethically waits to contact Texans in order to accrue multiple fines.
In the end, it is obvious that EZ Tag is more concerned with racking up multiple charges than notifying Texans in a timely manner. Houston should be ashamed to allow Harris County Toll Road Authority to operate with blatant disregard for ethics and possibly even outside the law. Do you think I'm exaggerating? Read this... http://m.ripoffreport.com/reports/hctra-ez-tag/houston-texas-77043/hctra-ez-tag-harris-county-toll-road-authority-royally-screwed-houston-texas-1141130 read more
