If You Were Charged A $50 Fee When E-ZPass Had Cashless Tolls, You ...

E-ZPass went cashless during the early part of the coronavirus pandemic.

Drivers who didn’t have E-ZPass would simply drive through a toll and later get a bill in the mail.

But there was a mistake in the back office, and Conduent — the company that handles billing and customer service for E-ZPass — didn’t send 79,000 first notices over a seven-week period, NJ Advance Media has learned.

Instead, those drivers later received second notices — which to them appeared to be first notices — charging them not only the toll amount, but also a $50 administrative fee.

That fee is usually only charged if a driver doesn’t pay the toll amount within 30 days, but none of the these drivers got first notices because of the error.

NJ Advance Media learned about the problem when Ray Berner, 73, shared that he received four notices with the $50 fees.

The trips, which included taking his wife to the doctor and visiting a car dealership, should have cost $8.50, the Barnegat man said.

Berner said he knew something was wrong because he previously received two toll-by-mail bills and paid them without issue, and without the hefty fee attached.

But on June 26, he received three bills with nine toll charges totaling $8.50, plus an additional $200 in administrative fees.

“I believe these charges to be in error and should be rescinded,” he said, noting he called and spoke to a representative who told him not to worry about the administrative charges. “But with your driver’s license and auto registration possibly in jeopardy, I need documentation from the Authority confirming this.”

He paid the tolls amounts but not the administrative fees, and he asked Bamboozled for help.

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The New Jersey Turnpike Authority looked into the issue and it said it was not only Berner who had the problem.

It said the 79,000 bills represent about 2.5% of the 3.1 million toll-by-mail notices processed by Conduent during the seven weeks when the cashless toll procedures were in place.

The Turnpike Authority said it has directed Conduent to remove the wrongful fees from driver accounts and to return money to anyone who has already paid the fee, said John Keller, the Turnpike Authority’s executive director.

“The toll-by-mail program was a temporary alternative to cash collections, and it was put in place under difficult circumstances,” Keller said. “We regret any anxiety this mistake might have caused our customers.”

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Karin Price Mueller may be reached at [email protected].