Inadvertently didn't pay $4.00 EZPass toll in Delaware. Got bill for $91.50. How in the world is this legal? Options?

Let's keep the talk about running. Post somewhere else about tolls. Maybe there is a letstoll.com for you?

cant you go to court and get this rectified?

In Canada if I get a speeding ticket 10km/over, if I go in and plead my case to what we call the 'justice of the peace',

I can get 10, 20% or more taken off. I can also go to court if I want.

If it's an honest mistake, I'm sure a reasonable official should be willing to let you off the hook if you pay the $4

I would suggest she basically beg for leniency:

https://abc7ny.com/traffic/thousands-in-fines-causing-commuters-e-z-pass-exasperation-/3143730/

Seems like she'll have success if she does. If not, she can tell her story on social media and shame them out of collecting the ridiculous markup.

Lucky the car wasn't subject to civil forfeiture.

Toll roads are a scam, but EZPass is the worst. They refuse to upgrade to pay by mail. With pay by mail, you usually end up paying a buck or two more than the EZPass rate. You only get hit with fines if you don't pay timely.

That's insane. In Seattle they forgive your late fees ($40 per unpaid toll) if you go to the office and ask. The clerk at the office told me somebody recently came in and had $300,000 of late fees forgiven. And those fees are only if late, the surcharge a toll with no pass is like $1.

I missed a couple in Chicago maybe 10 years ago when they were changing all the toll plazas over to open lane tolls. The lead up to the plazas had some really weird lane changes and due to heavy traffic, I couldn't get over to go through the cash lane. Would have caused an accident. Tried to double pay a toll in the next plaza (in cash) and was told it wasn't needed due to the construction. A few months later I got a bill in the mail for $180. Would have had to drive to Chicago to fight it. What a joke.

Out here in CA I forgot to pay few tolls. I owed over $700 after all the extra charges were tallied up. I went to the Toll Roads office and said I got a new card and forgot to update it on my online account. So they removed all the extra charges and I just paid the $30 in tolls I owed.

Not sure how that story can help your friend, but maybe come up with something good. I don't condone lying, but I also don't condone big business/big government taking advantage of the peasant class.

I say a good place to start is go to the office and say she doesn't remember driving through any of the EZPass lanes and that she paid her tolls normally with cash. They obviously have evidence (cameras), but she can admit to the honest mistake and if she's in person they might be nice and say fine just pay the tolls you owe.

The key is go to the office in person. It's easier to negotiate in person. The other party is less likely to argue in person. It's easy for them to put their foot down and say no on the phone.

That’s simply gouging.

Delaware grabs so much money from people driving back and forth from DC/Baltimore to Philly for like a ten mile stretch in Delaware, where no one is stopping at and visiting.

And these fees on top are a theviery.

Oh yea, be very polite. Say hi, ask how their day is going and so on. They are less likely to be lenient to someone who walks in being rude and accusing them of being crooks. They are crooks, but that won't help your cause.

You're surprised a liberal state is ripping you off?

If she is your friend, open up the trust fund and make her whole again. But she shouldn't commit the crime if she doesn't want to pay.

Contact Joe Biden to have a push-up contest in Delaware, double or nothing on the toll.

TAA wrote:

You're surprised a liberal state is ripping you off?

Wrong, simpleton. Republican open markets are all going towards toll roads. You won't be able to drive on the street in front of your home without paying a toll. ... Once you get used to that, you can rejoice that you no longer pay taxes for roads. ... The roads will never be free, but you seem to think that they are ... magically built for you to ride on FOR FREE!

Iowa Fatso wrote:

Contact Joe Biden to have a push-up contest in Delaware, double or nothing on the toll.

You’re a liar! Have her offer to stroke his leg hair.

Yeah, she deserves a big safety net for using roads someone else paid to build.

Iowa Fatso wrote:

Contact Joe Biden to have a push-up contest in Delaware, double or nothing on the toll.

Contract Donald Trump to have an hamberder eating contest, double or regular fee to join his golf club.

meh, tell her to call them and say she paid the tolls but the toll equipment must have malfunctioned. They are not going to make her pay that charge. They have no legal standing on which to do so. That said, they will send it to a bill collector if she doesn't act promptly. Having been in a similar situation in the past with EZ pass, it will not be easy for her to contact them. She will need to wait a long time on hold before connecting with an operator. They basically try to extort money out of people who will just pay the penalty without contesting it because it's such a PIA to do so.

So apparently your friend didn't see the multiple signs alerting them to the fact that the left 2 lanes were EZ Pass Only lanes? You know they start putting those signs up like 2 miles before the actual toll and also have it painted in the ground...

I do agree the fines are a bit absurd.

Btw, this is the I-95 toll at Newark if she was going to Philly. They don't charge Northbound over the Delaware Memorial Bridge and while the Southbound toll is $4, very few people coming from Philly take that as it's pretty out of the way.