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Mass is ripping down all the tollbooths Friday. But they're not ripping down the tolls. Either you get EZ pass or get invoices by mail, with surcharges.

I have been hearing about people scammed by this system for years. Just got done reading their complaints website. Boy, am I even more scared now.

I got the transponder in person so I'd have it in time, only to be told "our computers are down so don't use it 'til next week".

I had been planning to only use it in Mass, & give cash to humans in states that still have them, only to read "don't; you may get double-dipped". Apparently even having the transponder on the car makes you game for this. Even through the cash-only window?! Am I going to have to keep peeling it off?

I did open up a separate account for this. At my bank this no-checks account is luckily free.

ghostjmf wrote:Mass is ripping down all the tollbooths Friday. But they're not ripping down the tolls. Either you get EZ pass or get invoices by mail, with surcharges.

I have been hearing about people scammed by this system for years. Just got done reading their complaints website. Boy, am I even more scared now.

I got the transponder in person so I'd have it in time, only to be told "our computers are down so don't use it 'til next week".

I had been planning to only use it in Mass, & give cash to humans in states that still have them, only to read "don't; you may get double-dipped". Apparently even having the transponder on the car makes you game for this. Even through the cash-only window?! Am I going to have to keep peeling it off?

I did open up a separate account for this. At my bank this no-checks account is luckily free.

I had a CA Fast-Pass for several years. I lived near a new toll road and took that south a few times a month. What triggered my decision to purchase it originally was sitting in 4 lanes of traffic on the road to Las Vegas while those in the car pool lane zipped on by.

The only scam I experienced was that originally, there was no monthly fee. You were only charged for trips made. Once they discovered that ridership estimates for the toll road had been horrendously over-estimated, they decided to start charging all transponder holders a monthly fee of $1. I kept it for a little while longer and saw the fee keep creeping up. I finally cancelled it and decided I would always have a passenger or 2 if I need the toll roads in the future.

When I'm on a real computer I'll post the link to the massive database of EZ pass complaints. People have even been billed for the truck the pass is shipped to them on passing through tolls. Billed at a truck rate, way higher than the car rate. At least I picked mine up by hand, & they haven't been able to turn it on yet.

They told me not to even attach it to my car 'til they do. But I can't check for that on their web site because, well, I'm not officially in their system yet.

I just took it out of my backpack, for fear some random security point I *walk* through could register as a charge. These things are reportedly way too sensitive.

Also, people have been sent bills for other people's cars, because info is entered into the system by people who make lots of mistakes. The bills contain big penalty fees, of course.

People have been billed for the car they followed, as well as for their car.

It goes on & on.

They used to charge to join. Because Mass is forcing it on us, the transponders are now free. Whee.

As promised, here's the link to how poorly administered, & just plain corrupt this system is:

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/utilities/ez_pass.html

I'm going to try very hard, once the transponder is on the car, to aim at "cash only" windows on out-of-state tollbooths. Because if I drive through the "EZ pass or Cash" window, the pass will be charged.

Also, from my reading, my setting the "take out of acct" limit at $20.00, Mass's minimum, may be construed by the system as my account only having $20.00 in it. It has $40.00 in it; the idea is that when I hit the "under $20.00" mark, the system would automatically slurp up the next $20.00. If it doesn't I'm going to be in the "we'll mail you a tiny fine with a $50.00 penalty charge" group, exactly not where I'd plan to be.

But I can't get into the system to check this yet because, well, I'm not yet in the system, even though I turned all my info in in person.

Sheesh.

Give people an opportunity to complain about the system and they will. The comments probably overrepresent complaints.

When I lived in California, the system worked great. I never had any problems.

The issue for me now is that I frequently rent cars when I travel to Boston and it looks like I'm about to get screwed. Either pay a daily fee for use of the rental car company's transponder (plus the tolls) or buzz through without a transponder and the rental car company, as the registrant of the car, gets billed, and then turns around and passes on the toll plus the state surcharge plus their own surcharge.

California handles this problem well. Once I get in town and know the license plate of my rental vehicle, I can create a temporary account and authorize them to charge my card if my rental car passes through in the limited time period I've authorized. Thus far, I've only had to do this on the Golden Gate Bridge as that's the only Bay Area bridge that is totally cashless. I hope Massachusetts will adopt this common sense approach.

Bazodee, you were in CA; wasn't that the CA Fastpass system Estonut talks of? EZ pass is a diff system.

Everyone who has tried to get a temp or shared EZ pass, according to that complaint site, just got in a world of trouble. I'd recommend you let your rental co handle things; at least their charge is a known quantity. People getting bills for tolls mailed to them have had $50.00 & $100.00 "late fees" attached to the 1st bill they ever saw (I had initially seriously considered just not getting the pass, & going this route; they photo your plate whether you have a pass or not; currently, they claim they will not use the photo info to pursue speeders).

In Mass, you can easily avoid the Tobin Bridge in both directions. It is supposed to sprout an outbound toll, though they haven't said when. Interstate route has you taking 93 in Somerville, *west* of the bridge, to Mass 128, which is/becomes 95. Local roads route puts you either on route 16 to route 1 (connects to 95) or on local roads through the Chelsea produce market (connects to 1); not recommended by me after dark.

Note: People doubting this should look at a map to see how in heck you can avoid a toll road over *water* so easily & still get anywhere near where you want to go without going far out of the way to do it. It has to do with the weird geography of Boston. And that route through Chelsea will be impassible once Wynn builds his casino around there.

East-west there are roads that parallel the Pike, but route 9 has lots of lights through lots of towns, & route 2 is way more scenic & faster, but I wouldn't take it in snow. They don't plow it even near town.

I'm now reading about a class action suit cheated people won against EZ pass in Virginia.

Lots of people, & at least one class action have won cases against EZ pass.

But the latest twist here in Mass; instructions they gave me had a defunct website which sent me to another site. That site gave no way to check your account, just info about EZ pass.

I hunted up checking website, & watched little circle spin on my tablet for a while. OK, so its a popular site right now.

This morning radio tells me site is down 'til Tuesday.

They're telling people (via the TV news) who don't have transponder yet that they have a 6-month amnesty on getting one; "just drive through, we'll send you bills, & if after you get transponder we find you deserve discounts (commuters who live next to toll tunnels get discounts, as do some other frequent-fliers) we'll mail you rebates".

Oh yeah, that'll work.

ghostjmf wrote:Bazodee, you were in CA; wasn't that the CA Fastpass system Estonut talks of? EZ pass is a diff system.

Everyone who has tried to get a temp or shared EZ pass, according to that complaint site, just got in a world of trouble. I'd recommend you let your rental co handle things; at least their charge is a known quantity. People getting bills for tolls mailed to them have had $50.00 & $100.00 "late fees" attached to the 1st bill they ever saw (I had initially seriously considered just not getting the pass, & going this route; they photo your plate whether you have a pass or not; currently, they claim they will not use the photo info to pursue speeders).

The daily fee was $15 and I was renting a car for 10 days, but would actually only travel through the T.W. tunnel once. So if I let the rental car company "handle it", the charge would have been $150 plus one toll through the tunnel!

Yikes!

If it weren't for their truly awful record I'd say let them mail you the bill. But it has to go through the rental co to you, so get them involved looking for it.

ghost, we've had ours for a while for when BD and SIL were in North Carolina and Virginia. Numerous drives on Mass Pike, Jersey Turnpike, Tappan Zee bridge, and all the other toll roads and bridges down I-95. Also occasional trips to Maine and the NH tolls. Never had a problem. Of course, they hold that $20 hostage. In-state tolls are registered same day, out-of-state ones take a few days to be charged to the account.

If the car is being towed or carried somewhere, definitely take the thing out or it will register any time the truck goes through tolls. Save that silvery envelope. If you have to mail it back for some reason and don't use that envelope or something similar, it will register each time the mail truck goes through tolls. You need to block the signal for the mailing.

But that's Mass. bureaucracy for you. Make the change first and only then work on the infrastructure to support it.

Buried in their brochure they tell you to "put transponder away, or better yet leave it at home" if you mean to pay cash at an out-of-state toll.

And of course, the 1st thing on your mind while being towed is going to be your transponder.

So now I have to keep the mylar envelope in the car, "just in case".

I am going to buy several mylars. For insurance. And extra layers.

I also *have* to get on to their currently-down website to see if they know I'll have another $20.00 to slurp down after I've used up the 1st $20.00. Their form apparently wasn't clear, as the clerk who took it from me kept asking like *they* didn't understand either. So they really tie up $40.00 (+ $2.00 I leave to keep acct alive after they've emptied it). If tbey don't do the slurp I'll be mailing checks to them, which I could do without this auto-withdrawal thing.

Also, their brochure says they have the right to change the amt slurped "based on your usage". If they change the amt on me, as they have to several on complaints site, tbey'll wipe the acct out.

ghostjmf wrote:Buried in their brochure they tell you to "put transponder away, or better yet leave it at home" if you mean to pay cash at an out-of-state toll.

And of course, the 1st thing on your mind while being towed is going to be your transponder.

So now I have to keep the mylar envelope in the car, "just in case".

I am going to buy several mylars. For insurance. And extra layers.

Use the mylar envelope for when you plan to pay cash. --Bob

I should. I've been told that even when you're in a cash-only booth the transponder can get picked up by the neighboring booth.

Funniest comment in thread I looked up regarding mylar & "how to get an EZ pass not to read":

"send it through the public school system"


Don't agree; still laughed

Mass site still down.

Trip this weekend verified I will have to use EZ lanes if transponder is in car. Using cash/pass lanes would ding transponder, & there are no "cash only" lanes on the way to where I go in Maine. Attendant at one dual lane tells me "we can cancel your pass ding in the system" but that way lies madness, according to complaints site.

Zigging around highway to get to "EZ only" lanes; not safe.

Also, with its boothless EZ system, Mass could make any road a toll road if it wanted. I bet that's in the future. Remember, when the passes were 1st rolled out, they were only supposed to be for people who wanted not to stop at tollbooths, not a way to get rid of toll-collectors.

I shouldn't have to worry about toll road passes here in Chicagoland. I had to go to Lisle overnight as that's where the HQ of the consulting company I work for is. The toll to get there was $1.80 and for the drive to Chicago this morning it was $1.50. I doubt I'll have to go back there.

BJ: You luckily didn't have to take that (in)famous toll road along the lake then. It must have been over 20 years ago I was there; one road cost, I dunno, $3.00 & another almost parallel, I believe private road, which did connect with local, public, surface roads, cost $7.00 or $8.00. 20 years ago. I was told that the cost was to keep the bar so high that there was little congestion on it.

I can only imagine what it costs today. Actually, I don't have to imagine; that complaints site, while it doesn't talk about Chicago, which is apparently not on this east-coast system, it talks about the tolls for New York bridges being way higher than they were when I was driving down there. And they were already high.

I'm doing this from memory, which is never the safe way in the internet world, but anyway.

So far they have not subtracted my starting $20.00 from my acct. I know this from my bank, not their site, which is still down.