Today is today.. not 3 months ago

[Slytovhand]

Well, I haven't threaded on here in ages, so I suppose it's time to

Guy rings in with a bill we've posted to him for a car he's got, and already has sounding grrrr....

I pop onto the account, and the vehicle in question, and lo and behold, the car isn' t there. Apparently, he's owned it for 3 months now...

I explain 'policy' (logic would be way to difficult a concept to get through... as you'll see), which is - vehicle must be on the account if you want it to charge to the account (after all, if we take a photo of your rego, and when we look it up, we see that said rego isn't on an account, then we send a bill... is that too difficult a concept???)

Then he gives me the "But couldn't you just have added it - you've got my name, and address and everything that matches".

"Hello, we're not <road transport gov't body>, we don't have legal rights to that information".

"But, I've got $$$ on the account, why can't you just take it out of that". (this is where it gets more seriously sucky, as he used that line numerous times!

Because... the.vehicle.wasn't.on.the.account.on.the.day.of.tr avel! And, when the photos get processed, that's what will come back, and that's why they send you a bill for it... and that's why there's an admin fee... (is it really that hard to understand??)

"But I've got $$$ in my account, why doesn't it just take it out of that?" <rinse, repeat, bang head>

(and No, he wasn't asking to have the charge transferred to his account, he wanted all future bills to just magically disappear...).

"But I've got $$$.."

"But that's today! Today has no relevance to what happened 3 months ago!" (yes, I did say that to him... I'm not the best customer service person out there - but I'll get your job done fast, efficient, and accurate! I think it's a fair trade-off)

End result (other than him saying we're ripping him off, and it's fucked up), is his terminating the call

Well, no - end result is me writing a note on his account explaining it for the next operator who has to deal with it

[EricKei]

Just for clarification - what would this sort of bill be sent for? I'm not quite sure what you do, just curious

[bean]

Sounds like it's for some kind of toll road. Judging from the terms used, in the UK or Australia.

On our toll roads in Texas, if you have a "toll tag" (basically an RFID tag placed on your windshield), the toll is deducted from your balance. If your tag doesn't work, isn't on the car, or otherwise you're borked, they take a photo of your license plate. They attempt to look up to see if you have a toll tag associated with the plate, if you do, the toll is deducted from your account. If you don't, it's invoiced (plus applicable fees if it's still a cash road, very few of these still exist in TX) to the address your car is registered to.

The North Texas Transit Authority will let you take an amnesty program if you rack up a bunch of fines - basically they send you a mega huge bill, you call them going WTF, and they tell you "If you get a toll tag and pay the going rate for the tolls you ran, we'll wave the $25/violation fees as long as you keep your account current for 1 year". I've taken advantage of this when I ran up over $600 in tolls/fees - most of that in fines ($25 per toll ran) when I had a rental car. I'm not sure how it works in Austin or Houston though - Austin uses TxTag, not sure what Houston uses. NTTA runs the toll roads in North Texas (Dallas/Ft Worth area), though you can use TxTag, NTTA toll tags, etc on roads through the entire state.

[Slytovhand]

Yep, Bean has nailed it (other than the names, prices, and the huge admin waivers )

You're lucky to get away with it in a rental. Over here, it's the rental company that hits you with fees, not us. We can do waivers... you reckon a rental company will?

[prb]

Yeah, here we have the 407 ETR which uses cameras to capture licence plate pictures and charges a Video Toll Charge or you can use a transponder with an RFID tag that you can move between vehicles. Rental car firms usually charge $25 in addition to the 407 ETR fees unless you have a transponder that you take with you and hold up to your windshield when entering and exiting the highway. Some people tow trailers on the 407 ETR for free, illegally, because the Ministry of Transportation provides Name/Address/Phone information for vehicles but not trailers and the rear plate is read on entering the highway and front plate on exiting, they charge Video Toll Charge plus the distance between your exit and the previous one because drivers are supposed to phone in their trailer's number plate to have it linked to any vehicle that they tow it with, but hardly anyone does.

[EricKei]

Houston uses EZ Tag (I was just up that way a couple of days ago on business). I'm not sure what we use here. Then again, we have a grand total of TWO toll roads, both of them bridges (Causeway and the Crescent City Connection/GNO).