Life in the [Tx Tag] Lane

I’ve got some paper writing to do so I figured I’d warm up by writing a blog post about a topic near and dear to my heart right now: the government. The one thing I have learned in my existence on this planet is that all government is inefficient. Case in point...

I got a notice from the toll road authority back in January saying I was a toll violator. It was actually a cool thing to receive because I got a pretty little picture of my vehicle (the best side of the car too – the backside). It was quite amusing to have received the notice since I had a toll tag in my car. No big deal, right? (If it weren’t a big deal, would I be writing this post?)

The notice had a slip that was to be returned with your payment for the violations (3 violations at $1.50 a piece plus $33 in “admin” fees). $37.50 is a pretty hefty amount for 3 tolls. Fortunately, the toll road authority was smart enough to realize that their sensors are not 100% perfect. As such, they included a section on the slip that allowed individuals with toll tags to include the tag information, name, address, license plate number, etc. So I filled that stuff out. But before I returned it, I had a look at the time and date of the alleged violations.

The first two violations amused me. I looked at the detailed activity on my tag and noticed that the tag had been zapped five minutes before the violation and five minutes after. So it was clearly working. The third violation made me angry. My detailed activity showed that my tag had been charged at the exact location and at the exact time that the violation occurred. Not wanting to be double-charged, I included my detailed statement, highlighted AND circled the part showing they had already charged me, and included a note stating I did not authorize getting charged for the third “violation”. I put everything in the mail and that was that.

Or so I thought.

It’s important at this point to explain something. I have a tag that is good on all of the toll roads in this great state. The toll road I was driving on is operated independently by the county. What does that mean? Inefficiency. It means that my tag should work on the toll road. If it does not, I am going to get notices from the county, not the state. I will be forced to reconcile the mistake with the county, not the state. Just keep that in mind.

A couple of weeks after I sent the information to the county, I (or more accurately, H) get a message from the STATE. They say there is something wrong with the tag’s account and to call them back. So I do. I go through the whole story about how I have a tag and yada yada and how I sent my info to the county and yada yada. Then, after I’m done explaining, they tell me they can’t talk to me because my name’s not on the account. (Now I know how telemarketers feel – I let them talk and talk and talk and then tell them I’m not interested.) They do tell me that the account is still active, there’s enough on the account, the tags still work, etc. So, I figure it’s no big deal that they won’t talk to me. The county has my info, they’ll charge my account, end of story.

Well, about a week ago I received a notice from a collection agency saying I had outstanding toll violations and to pay immediately or they were going to seize my vehicle or something stupid like that. The collection notice was nice enough to even tack on another $42 in charges (making the total bill $79.50 for three violations (one of which had already been charged to my account). I was pissed. I was so pissed. I was so angry it’s not even funny. There was no way in hell I was paying them. Unfortunately, I received the notice over the weekend and, as you might guess, the government’s not open on the weekends (or any other time you actually need them). So the issue stews and festers in my head.

Monday rolls around and the first thing I do is call the state (who holds my account – which I was informed was active, had enough money in it, etc.). Again, they tell me they can’t talk to me. But of course, this is after they tell me that it’s my fault (or, more accurately, H’s fault since her name is the one on the account). They tell me that they didn’t send the notice to me, the county did. They tell me I am legally liable for the tolls (duh, didn’t contest that) and the admin charges. They tell me that I am irresponsible and they can’t do anything for me. Call the county they say. I tell them that they will talk to me. It’s my car, my tag, the violation was sent in my name, etc. I did a lot of yelling and got nowhere. Sandra ended the call asking if there was anything else she could “help” me with. I let her know that she was not entitled to use the word “help” since talking to her did not come anywhere near the definition of the word.

Phase 1: failure.

So I email H and tell her to call the state immediately and get my name on the account. Because I wasn’t done and I was calling back.

While she was doing that, I decided to call the county (who sent me the violation, but who I don’t have a tag with). Busy signal. I try again. Busy signal. I try again. Busy signal. I continue redialing for the next 15 minutes and finally get through...and then promptly get placed on hold (see my all-government-is-inefficient statement above).

Eventually someone answers the phone and, while they will talk to me, I get much the same reaction. I am legally responsible for the tolls and the additional fees. And since it has been referred to a collection agency, there’s nothing they can do. Not a good answer. I proceed to lay into them as well about why I provided my tag information and heard NOTHING from them (which is true – they sent me the violation, demanded I respond, and then did nothing but refer it to a collection agency). I inquired why they didn’t contact me (when they had my name, address, phone number, etc.) if there was some kind of problem with the information I sent. Of course I got the ho hum, I don’t know, you owe the fees, how would you like to pay?

I promptly informed the lady that I didn’t want to pay and wanted to know what the appeals process was. There isn’t one. But, for a fee ($50) you could request an administrative hearing in front of a judge and plead your case. She said that most people weren’t successful (but of course she was going to say that). I requested an administrative hearing from her, but of course she was powerless to set one up. I had to call the collection agency (which is also a law firm here in town). Great, one more party to deal with.

After she explained her powerlessness to me, I began laying into her about getting double charged. At this point, her attitude changed. She was actually sympathetic. She said that I shouldn’t have been double charged. I then explained that I had included my statement detail when I sent my response. But, not surprisingly, it was ignored. (See statement above regarding government inefficiency.) So she asked me to fax the detail in and that she’d call me back. No dice. There was no way in hell I was going to wait for them to contact me. Instead, I turned the tables and put her on hold. When she got the information, she saw the mistake and reversed the toll charge and the prorated portion of the admin fees (totaling $26.50).

I recognized at this point the lady had lied to me. She had told me that she was powerless because the case had already been referred to the collection agency. But here she was reversing a portion of the fees. I applied a little more pressure trying to get the remaining fees (but not the tolls) reversed by getting her to recognize that I do have a valid account, the tag had been charged before and after the “violations”, etc. No dice.

I was now in a zero sum position. The bill has been reduced to $53. I could pay $50 to get an administrative hearing, plead my case, and hope the judge would reverse the $50 in additional fees they had charged me. If he did, I would end up paying...$53 ($50 for the administrative hearing and $3 in the toll “violations”). Or he could tell me to get out of his court, charge me an additional $50 and make me pay $103.

I told the lady I didn’t want to pay anything until I had talked to the state again. I also asked about the general procedure when something like this happens. She told me that when a person holding a state tag provides the state tag’s information, they send it on to the state to charge the account. So, to be clear: I sent my tag information to the county; since it wasn’t a county tag, they forwarded my name, address, phone number, tag number, car make and model, etc. to the state; the state SHOULD charge the account; the story SHOULD end. Good to know for my call back to the state.

Phase 2: partial failure.

So I called the state - again. I also explained that my name was now on the account and that I expected them to talk to me and give me some meaningful (in relative terms) information. Ultimately, the reason that they did not charge the account was because the license plate of the car I was driving was not registered on the account at the time of the violations.

So here’s the information that the county forwarded to the state: my name, my address, my phone number, my tag number, the make, model, model year, and color of the car, the license plate number, and a pretty little picture of the car when it went through the toll and didn’t pay.

Here’s the information that the state had available to them (from the account detail): H’s name (since her name was the only one on the account), our address, our phone number, the TWO tag numbers on the account, and the make, model, model year, and color of both cars on the account.

However, because the state didn’t have the license plate number of the car at the time of the violations, they couldn’t (sorry, they wouldn’t) do anything. I asked the guy how much sense it made to have all of this matching information and still not be able to do anything. His response: talk to your wife about why she failed to keep the account up to date.

Big mistake.

I proceeded to lay into him about how inefficient they were. How can you have a system that only cross-references the license plate? Did you not look up the tag number when the county sent the information to you? Did you not see that all of the information (except the license plate number) was on the account? Most importantly, what kind of system lets you register your vehicles without the license plate (that is, we added BOTH cars to the account when we got the tags IN 2007 – we just didn’t include the license plate number for my car because we had temporary tags)? If the license plate was so important, why not reject the vehicle registration in the first place?

I then explained my fundamental issue with this whole thing. They (the state and the county) push these electronic tags. “It’s so easy. Just get a tag and live life in the fast lane. Just drive on through and we’ll do the rest.” Hell, they are adding more and more tag lanes and fewer booth lanes. But when something goes wrong, I am holding the bag. I get that I’m responsible for the tolls and I have no problem paying them. But I don’t get that I am sent a notice, I reply to the notice including ALL of my information, hear nothing back from the county, and then get collection agencies on my @ss.

His response: it was your responsibility to follow up with the county.

Again, a mistake.

How is it my responsibility to contact the county? They contacted me because they screwed up. I gave them my account information INCLUDING statement detail showing that my account was active and had enough money in it to pay the tolls. They sent that information on to the state who promptly wiped their hands of it and said there was nothing they could do. My fault? Don’t push this on me bucko.

His response: we tried to call you to add your license plates to the account, but you didn’t respond.

I explained how that was not true because I called them back. He further explained my name wasn’t on the account so their hands were tied. I only had one question for him before I was done with this whole charade. I had called them and they wouldn’t talk to me because my name wasn’t on the account. If H had called them back in February and had given them the license plate information, would they have charged the account for the tolls?

His answer: no. Because the license plate information was not on account at the time of the violations, there was nothing they could (or, more accurately, would) do.

End result: The county’s machines messed up. They contacted me. I responded with my tag information (and other information). That information was sent to the state. The state contacted us to add the license plate info (but for that reason alone). No other information was sent to us to let us know that the account wouldn’t be charged. The case was sent to a collection agency. And we were stuck holding the bag, paying $53 for two tolls. Government efficiency at its best.

Son of a b. I've just written four full pages. If I had this much ammo for my paper, I'd almost be done!