Thursday, March 29, 2012

Go-Pass.com May Be Charging You More Than You Owe for Tolls

home_mapThere are evidently two companies that control the tolls on Denver’s E-470.  Most of the road is controlled by ExpressToll.com, but the North West corner, called the Northwest Parkway, for some reason is controlled by a different company called Go-Pass.  Not only is this terribly inconvenient (having to have two different accounts and/or getting two different bills to pay tolls for simply driving in a circle –even on just one outing), but the real insult to injury is that it would seem Go-Pass likes to charge you for things that may not have transpired.

We picked someone up at the Denver airport and drove them to Boulder on E-470.  I received our bill from ExpressToll.com, logged on, and paid the $3.15.  There were no fees, and it was very simple (actually, the online billing system was screwed up and they kept trying to charge me $6.30 even though the bill was only for $3.15 so I had to call and get that sorted out, but that’s another story…).

A month later we received a bill from Go-Pass.  The toll was $3.20, yet the bill was for $4.55.  I’m sure they count on people going, “Meh, it’s only a couple of bucks,” but I called the number on my bill.

First of all, there is a $.15 processing fee.  Why in the world would this not be included in the toll?  Not only that, but there is a $.60 mailing fee.  Here’s the kicker though… they charged me two “mailing fees,” claiming to have already sent me one bill.

When I called to get this corrected, I think the person on the phone was rather surprised that I was complaining about $.60 (again, I think they make money off most people just saying, “Meh, it’s only $.60”).  I told her I had never received a previous bill.  She told me I had.  I asked if I was just supposed to believe her and accept her word as fact.  She said they keep very specific records.  So I asked her to prove it.  She put me on hold for quite a while, but when she came back she let me know that she had spoken to her supervisor, and when they looked it up it turns out that even though the bill had been generated, “for some reason” it hadn’t gone out.

WELL IMAGINE THAT.

I am so sick of companies nickel and diming me for fees and services, and then on top of that charging me for services that I DIDN’T RECEIVE, because they don’t think I’m paying attention.

I know most people don’t.  But the point of this post is: PAY ATTENTION… YOU’RE LIKELY GETTING SCREWED.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good morning! I'm a Customer Service Agent for E-470 and EXpressToll, and while we are separate from Northwest Parkway, we do provide the EXpressToll system which will eliminate any additional fees that Northwest Parkway charges and will help you save 20% on tolls on E-470. It also allows for all of your toll transactions to post to one account instead of receiving separate bills. Feel free to visit our website at www.EXpressToll.com to sign up or you may contact me at 303-537-3400 ext 4072 with questions. - Jake

The Invisible said...

Thanks for your comment, Jake. I looked into doing this, but to set up an account, you need to give your credit card and start out with a $35 balance (that balance get's auto-replenished from your credit card when the balance dips to a certain point). Considering the errors in charges and fees I've come up against thus far, I am in no way comfortable giving EXpressToll access to my credit card, as I'm sure there will be plenty of erroneous fees and charges that I'll need to dispute and try to get reversed (not worth the 20% discount for the 5 or 6 times a year we use 470).

Anonymous said...

You're not required to setup the account with a credit or debit card in fact, but yes, you are required to have a prepaid balance. Any prepaid balance is completely refundable if you ever wish to close the account. You should also be receiving another bill for the remaining charges you accrued on your trip on the 9th, so don't be surprised by that. One of your charges was processed a little later than the others and didn't make it on the previous bill from E-470/EXpressToll.

The Invisible said...

1. Yes, you can use a paper check (when's the last time anyone used a paper check?!), but the point is that you are required to pay into an account and the money will be automatically deducted as EXpressToll sees fit. From my illustration, this may be an erroneous charge, and in my experience it's a lot easier to get a charge reversed if the money hasn't already been paid (so that the charge has to be reversed AND the money refunded).

2. So you're telling me I drove through two toll points less than 15 minutes apart, and the bills are going to arrive TWO MONTHS apart? This is exactly the kind of shenanigans I'm talking about.

3. Is it common practice for EXpress Toll to discuss a client's private account information (how many times and when I was charged) in a public forum? If you have this information, then you obviously have my contact info., so why post this in a public place?

Just more fuel to the fire of not trusting EXpressToll's decisions and policies.

Anonymous said...

GO PASS is a rip off
Its a private company run by money grubbers who are quick to send your bill to collection after just a month and a half, not to mention if you don't pay immedaitely, they tack on $25 late fees or 'civil penalty'. They also try to pretend they are a government entity by referring to you as a 'defendant'
I avoid using it at all costs, as it is a headache dealing with such an untrustworthy company.
take the long way and you want end up paying for it in the long run(more than these so called standard toll fees)

The Invisible said...

For anyone who comes across this post... I think it's interesting (read: sad and infuriating) to note that I STILL haven't received the bill for the second charge this service representative mentions (from Feb. 9 --more than TWO MONTHS ago). I wonder if they will claim it was sent, rack up a bunch of late fee charges, then send me a bill with all the late fees listed. Unbelievable.

Unknown said...

Go-Pass is bunch of scumbags sending me a bill for the same toll over and over again. They keep adding on a late charge to boot. I have already paid this bill twice not realizing it. I will never use that road again.

Anonymous said...

I received a bill for $1.75, dated March 12, 2015, for an alleged violation, May 7, 2011.... almost 3 years later!!
Funny thing... I HAVE NOT BEEN IN COLORADO IN THE LAST 25 YEARS... nor has my car... (BTW~ Lovely place, enjoyed it very much and will go back to visit one day.)

I have never had a Florida license plate matching the one given.
I have to admit the customer service was very quick to point out that a "B" was misread for an 8 on that plate. ...May a little TOO quick???
I think I will avoid the Northwest Parkway when I do visit again.

The Invisible said...

Interesting to hear a specific example of their license plate reading technology not working (reading a B as an 8). It's great that it sounds like they resolved it pretty easily, but good to know people should definitely be checking to make sure it was actually their license plate that gets billed!

Anonymous said...

They double charged us once 11/20/2016 and again 1/20/2017 for identical vehicle, location, time, and amounts. BBB and Attorney General were notified as they were denying the occurrence and trying to force us to pay. All customers are likely being double charges. They have charges on this January bill from May 2016.

On another instance, I sold a vehicle over a year ago. They tried charging me for her trip through Colorado and wouldn't produce evidence of me going through cC

Anonymous said...

Just so it's clear, Express Toll is managed by E470. However, NW Pkwy/Go-Pass will allow you to use your Express Toll account to pay both E470&NW Pkwy, that there's supposedly no need to set up a secondary pay account with NW Pkwy. Essentially E470 is East of I25 and NW Pkwy is West of I25, although physically it's the same damn road.

I travel this express way frequently as I'm a Lyft and Uber driver, and many customers want the fastest way to the airport. I received a collection notice from NW Pkwy. So I checked our Express Toll account, and I'm not missing any payments. I contacted NW Pkwy, and they're telling me they sent us 4 initial bills before sending us to collections. We never received any bills whatsoever other than the collection notices. The collection notices do not indicate dates and times our vehicle in question passed through their tolls.

In my initial email to their customer support I indicated that I know Express Toll is E470, and that I checked with them first before E470 referred me to NW Pkwy. Then NW Pkwy raddled off the difference between the two, included the dates we opened our Express Toll accounts, Listed every vehicle and plate number my family has with them, and pretty much provided every detail possible with the exception of the information needed: The dates and times our vehicle in question passed through their tolls.

Here's what I think is happening. Express Toll requires you to have a pre-loaded balance of something like $35. When you pass through tolls, they deduct the tolls from the deposit. However, sometimes the amount of tolls over a certain time add up to be more than the deposit. So they go to charge another $35 to refill the deposit, plus any additional amount owed on top of that. When they did this last, it was a $62 charge in total. They hit my debit card on a bad day when all kinds of bills were due and the $62 got declined. They tried again two days later and it went through fine. I think after the initial decline they reported unpaid tolls to NW Pkwy, but didn't follow up two days later telling them it was paid. Now NW Pkwy is trying to double dip me.

Also, my brother in law works for DIA and takes E470 every day to work and back. NW Pkwy double dipped him every day for several months.

Make sure you pay attention to your bills.

Lee G said...

Hi, this is a question for Jake from above (although I see this was from a while ago so anyone who has input I'd be happy to hear from)
I pay through expresstoll and am in good standing with them. I just got a bill from go-pass for $306.25!! This is the literal first time I am seeing anything like this at all.
If we can take care of both of these separate balances through express toll....why did this happen to me? I pay all of my express toll balances so why on earth do they want me to pay $306.25??