North Texas Tollway Authority [NTTA] review: overcharging 72

I got a call from collections for $400+, after calling NTTA and explained THAT I PAID MY BILL in Jan. 2010 for $79.00. They are telling me the $400+ in colections is from a seperate "invoice" number from October for $12.00. This makes absolutely no sense and I will pay a lawyer $400 before I pay them!

I too agree that something has to be done against these outrageous charges. I received a bill from the NTTA for $149, which was for a car my son was driving. My son went online to pay it and he had thought he submitted the payment and then that was that. Well we received a notice for a violation which totaled to almost $2500. I called and they said they would take $900 off of this which still leaves $1600. According the the bill they charged $25 admin fee for each time he went on the tollway. This is outlandish, I have never seen anything quite like this in my entire life, how can they even get by with this? I know I owe it and have no problem paying it, but $2500, but I will never drive the texas toll roads ever again! You couldn't push my car on that tollroad. I am going to contact my state representative!

I only have 2 main ways to get to work. George Bush or 121. 121 is closest to me and I knew it was to become a tollway but I thought what they were putting up were going to be tollbooths. Call me ignorant. I did have a tolltag but I hadn't been using it and I get a bill for $97.00 saying if I used my tolltag that it would be like $40. I sent in $50 and if that didn't work, I'd send in the rest. I am a single mother and just didn't expect the $97 bill. So I get another invoice from them telling me that I have $10 left on my tolltag. I get another invoice the following month showing that my tolltag is over .10cents. I had started using the access road and only get on in one spot where it crosses 35. SO, long story short, in January, I get an invoice for $2300 for the original $97 bill. I am completely at a loss as to why they gave me a credit on my tolltag but didn't apply anything to the bill they sent me. As everyone here has said, I will pay the toll but I'm not paying a $25 administrative fee for every time I went through the toll when I didn't even know they were already charging me. I will happy to fight this with anyone. I don't want a 2 hour drive to work but I can't afford to take the tollroad, especially when they are charging me $2300 for $97 in tolls. I don't ever recall signing anything that says that I agree to such fees. I don't remember seeing any signs posted on the toll that says if you are more than 30 days late you will be charged $25 for every time you pass under one of the readers. Unbelievable.

DEAR Don't tread on me... what do we do in this sitaution? I'm desperate for help!

Because of the NTTA, I do not have a valid drivers license. I have warrants and I have been jailed. ALL FOR TOLL TAG VIOLATIONS WHICH WHERE BILL 2 YEARS AFTER THE FACT. When I pay some, more pop back up. I want in on a class action suit because I want them to prove it. My whole life has been ruined by the NTTA.

PEOPLE, I have been to Lew Sterritt. It is not a kindergarten. They will issue warrants for your arrest. I suggest we all challenge the NTTA, make them go to court every time.

STAY OFF THE TOLLROADS!

Contact me ryani.kehoe@gmail.com

The first notice I received on 1/2/2010 was a VIOLATION INVOICE. The tolls from 05/2009 and 10/2009 totaled $8.02. The total amount due was $183.02 because they added a $25 admin fee to each of the 7 tolls. They said I could pay $65.77 as a discounted payment. I live in Parker County, rarely ride this road and have no need for a toll tag. How was I supposed to pay a bill I never received? Why didn't they send the initial ZipCash bills - for EITHER of the 2 trips we made on this toll road? Why didn't they send the Late Notice for EITHER of the 2 trips we made on this toll road. They fail to send the original bills, fail to send the late notices, but have no problem sending the Violation Notice. We have not changed our address. This is dishonest and deceptive practice by NTTA. It is pathetic.

MLC

Here is how you BEAT the NTTA up! Everyone who gets an bill with ridiculous fees, these are the 3 things we need to do.

FIRST file a small claims lawsuit against them for this matter and state that the process for billing that is used is flawed and is in only in the favor of NTTA to take advantage of getting extra excessive fees. First, they will not have the legal sources to chase down and fight every case and the more filings made will really make it more difficult and costly for them. They most likely will work a deal out with you and make sure to only settle for the actual toll fees and make sure they pay your filing fees.
If they are stupid enough to let you get a judgment you can lay claim to it and you now have leverage to demand payment from them or you will turn the matter over to a collection agency. Most likely they will never let it get this far.

TWO, make a copy of your bill and send it with a letter to your Texas State Rep or Senator. Tell them that you want them to take away the collection tools away from the NTTA and end their ability to collect fees.
Tell them you want any late fees to be collected when you renew your vehicle registration and that fines can only be assessed after you have failed to renew your registration and pay the fees within 30 days after your renewal deadline.

THREE, pass this information on to anyone you know who has already paid fees and have them file a small claim suit to get there money back (up to $5000).

These methods should not only help us convince the NTTA to change their unfair collections and will help get the support of the legislature.

I am planning to put together a website to organize everyone who has been abused by this unfair collection system and will help give us a united voice with or lawmakers. I will use key words like NTTA sucks so that you can find it once it gets operating.

Good luck and hopefully this will be the end of this ridiculous system of toll collecting!

POWER TO THE PEOPLE! STAND UP AND DEMAND YOUR RIGHTS OR THEY WILL BE TAKEN AWAY.

Tyranny is when the people are afraid of the government, liberty is when the government is afraid of the people.

Thomas Jefferson

I moved to Carrollton, TX from Dallas in April..before I moved I updated my change of address with Texas Department of Public Safety. A few days ago I received a letter from NTTA with my old address and a forward sticker with my new address. I opened the letter thinking it was a toll tag bill (since I do not have a tolltag) that I needed to pay. Well lo and behold the bill was there, but in the amount of $853.98! It was a violation invoice. I immediately called NTTA and spoke to Valerie. She told me that initially there was a bill sent out to my address for the $28.98 in toll fees, but since they have not been paid (because I never received an invoice) the amount due was changed into a violation invoice and $825.00 in Administartive fees was added ! WTH? I told her that I did update my information, but she said that I also need to update my address with TX.GOV.NET! What? Really? Since when? She than asked me to hold the line...when she finally came back she told me that she spoke to her supervisor and she graciously knocked off 80% so I would then owe $152.73 and I would also need to get a tolltag! I feel completely bamboozled!

I just don't understand how NTTA can fine so much for such a small amount due? I recently bought a toll tag for me and my husband. I refused to do it till recently because I didn't see the reason why I should pay to drive on George Bush.

I bought the toll tag thinking their system would update and I could just pay whatever we used. Obviously their technology is not updated. Long story short somewhere out of the blue we get a fine for toll that was originally $11.00 the fine was $1200.00 and than we got another one for $900.00.

I called them and they stated that it didn't matter if I bought a toll tag the system doesn't update and I had to pay it.

Can you say extortion?

ALF

I was upset when I received my rediculous Violation Invoice, but after reading all of these stories and hearing nightmare stories from friends and family members about the NTTA...I am now furious. Something has got to be done! I know a young girl who actually owes $13, 000.00 to the NTTA, most of which was because of their faulty billing system...they will not make arrangements with her, but have instead issued warrants for her arrest. This is getting out of hand. Where are our elected officials? Where are the news media. This abuse of government and the NTTA should be reported nightly along with all of the other thefts taking place in our cities.
I have an account that includes my entire family and until recently had never had a problem. In June, my daughter who attends college in Dallas, renewed her registration and she received new plates for her car. She gave the plates to her boyfriend who put them on her car. Neither one of us realized that the plate number had changed. Thinking back on this, I should have realized it and checked it, so this oversite was due to my own error and I can take responsibility for that. However...that was in June and this is now December. I just NOW received a notice from NTTA for charges from June, July, August, September, October and November charging me for unpaid tolls due to the license plate change. The joke is that the notice says FINAL NOTICE. However, this was the very first notice I received and the first time I was informed that there was a problem. If I would have received this notice back in June when the violoations began, I would have taken care of my error right away. However, because they did not notify me of this until now, the $9.70 worth of tolls is now conveniently for the NTTA now $209.70. Oh...but they were so kind, and offered me a discount if I paid before 12/8/09 and I only had to pay $75.70, which I did. If I had received a notice in June, I would have only had to pay $1.00, oh and plus the $25.00 bogus administrative fee.
Isn't our government suppose to be protecting us and not stealing from us for a profit. SOMETHING HAS GOT TO BE DONE!

Same story for me: This is the first notice i've received. Toll charges are $11.25 (over half are from Oct.& Nov.) but w/ the $25 admin fee per charge (which had i known would be charged to me, i would've gone the long way around for certain), charges total: $225.
I am unemployed right now and am lucky if i'm able to pay my regular bills, much less something like this.

I'm boycotting.

This is B.S. and they know it. I bet the big ups at the NTTA are sitting pretty in their monster houses right now while the rest of us bend over and let them give it to us good.

The longer we keep just bending over and taking it, the more the NTTA will know they can keep getting our money by scaring us into it.

I have no problem paying my $11.25 tolls and even some small fees for the postage for not paying at the booth (even tho i wasn't able to because they were unmanned and since i'm from out of town, i didn't plan ahead with scads of quarters), but i refuse to pay these ungodly fees. This is not right and we need to collectively do something about it.

Okay I am totally peeved too! I received my FIRST bill ever from NTTA for using the Tollway and it was $441.95 based on a $16.95 charge in tolls. My main question is how can they access all the fees and never give the customer a notice in the first place? It was my understand that all toll roads were now under the zip cash policy...guess not. I had a charge all the way back from April that was never billed, until now...so I should have been able to pay but couldn't because I did not know I owed anything. Has anyone heard if we can do anything?

If a tollway fine is like a traffic ticket, why do they use a private collection agency? I'm filing bankruptcy and consider them just like any other creditor. Where is the law that includes the NTTA as a traffic fine?

MY TOLLS ARE 97.80 THE BILL 2, 597.80 THE DISCOUNT 347.80 DUE BY 11/13. i just got the bill last night. i feel that i do owe the tolls which date back to 2007 but talk about rape! these fees are just INSANE. how can they get away with even putting these numbers on paper?

I am struggling to provide for my daughter and I am 8 mo prego, due in 3 weeks. The last thing i want to do is concentrate on such a stupid ### bill but if i don't i could have my baby in jail right? thats what their scare tactic is. don't pay, go to collections, get a citation from DPS and go to jail.

this is soooo frustrating because why can't we just pay the money we rightfully owe in tolls plus ONE admin fee for their time to send the damn bill. This is the FIRST bill i ever got and it will be my last. I am going to try to find out who to contact to appeal the bill and admin fee before it goes to collections.

I HATE NTTA THEY ARE RAPIST HIDING BEHIND THE GOV. AND DPS TO SCARE PEOPLE INTO FORKING OUT THEIR RENT AND UTLITIY MONEY FOR [censored] FEES.

They are horrible. I, too, am a single mother busting my butt to take care of 4 kids. That makes me, um, kind of "busy" and because I am a week late paying tolls, $9.24 has ballooned to $300.00. I will definitely complain to my state representative. I heard Kay Bailey Hutchison wants to reform TXDOT, I hope she runs for governor.

I am so angry with the NTTA! I too have a bill for $6.40, and now that it was not paid 3 days ago my discounted rate to pay is $88.90! If i do not get that paid soon I have to pay $256.40! OUTRAGOUS how in the world are they getting away with this? They took all the cash machines out to save them money, whatever it was to make more money on the public by robbing them blind! I will avoid the George Bush at all times! The name says it all!

PLEASE, everyone needs to contact their representatives! Whether you have been billed like this or not, whether you went ahead and paid, or whether it is still pending! I drove (please note, PAST TENSE!) the George Bush tollway every day to go to work. I live 60 miles from my work, and have a family of 4 to support myself on little pay (however not nearly as little as I'd been offered closer to home!), therefore one toll each way was worth it to me for the convenience and the saving of time taking Bush gave me. Before they started saving a hell of a lot of money by canning all of the people in the toll booths (I have to assume this is what happened), and took away my option to pay right there, I paid EVERY DAY. Twice a day. WITHOUT FAIL. Since I work and my husband is not working (attempting to get on disability, for which some of us apparently have to be dead before we receive it), I leave the bills to him to pay. So, this particular bill (for $20) got missed, and a month or so later we receive another for $545! Imagine our surprise! If we were to pay within a WEEKS time, we would be GRACED with a "discounted amount" of almost $200. Well, frankly, I can't pull $200 out of my behind, much less $545, so my husband called, they said there was nothing they could do. A couple of days later I called myself, made it apparent I was unhappy about this, and the little gal on the phone says, "There isn't anything I can do, but do you want to talk to a supervisor?". "That would be great.", I say in my flattest voice. So, miraculously the supervisor was able to knock my charges down to $76. HOWEVER, when asked what those charges were for, good ol' Joe couldn't tell me! I said, so essentially you can cut out everything but three "administrative fees"? (This is what they are calling the $25 charge added to EACH toll for being late, so that tells me it takes a hell of a lot of money to print out ONE extra bill!) His response was, if you want to look at it that way, yes. ? Seriously? You might as well tell me, Joe, that you just want extra money, and quite a bit of it, just to print an extra bill! In the meantime, my husband had contacted our local representative, Phil King. His office lady there, after hearing there was no longer a way to pay daily as I'd done before, got this taken care of, and we were only made to pay the $20 that were rightful charges! Again, please contact your reps, maybe they can get your bills taken down to what is reasonable, and maybe if we all do our part we can get them to make a law against corporations raping people like this. How many people have gone without electricity, or unable to pay their rent because they were afraid they'd go to jail if they didn't pay $500 or more?! If you have been charged like this, I wish you all the luck, and pray you all contact your reps!

North Texas Tollway Authority

What a rip off! We have to do something about this, literal highway robbery. My tolls were a grand total of 25.70, but my bills are 900.70. Are you kidding? My "discounted" rate, is 321.10. A big cut but not right. I have no problem paying my tolls but not the extra fees. So driver beware when driving on the Texas tollways.

The NTTA sent me to collections for a charge I did not pay in 2007 when I never received the bill. The address they had on file is the address where I was living at the time. I moved later, but had all my mail forwarded by the Post Office, so if they sent a notice at any time during 2007, I would have received it.

When I called to resolve this, I found out I had another one where they said I had not paid a charge from May 2009 and by June 2009 it went from $1.50 to $154.00. They said they got the addresses from the DPS, but then later stated I had on file that I changed my address in April 2009, but the NTTA had not updated their files from the DPS. The only thing would do is reduce my charge to $34.50, even though that was completely their fault for not updating their files.

They kept saying they could not help me because I did not have a Tolltag account. I think this a scam.

I will never take the Tollway again.

What the NTTA is doing is criminal. I am being told that I have to pay over 1, 300 dollars for 10 dollars in tollway fees or I will go to jail? Is there no one who can help? I feel powerless.

***ACLU- PLEASE HELP THE NTTA HAS TAKEN AWAY MY CIVIL LIBERTY****

READ THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS TRANSPORTATION BLOG FOR MORE HORROR STORIES ABOUT THE NTTA ABUSE OF IT'S FORMER CUSTOMER'S . AND GET ACTIVE ! RESEARCH WHO WHERE THE STTAE AND LOCAL REPS. WHO ALLOWED TRANSPORTATION CODE 178 SECT. 306 AND VOTE THEM OUT!BETTER YET VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBANTS WHO HAVE BROUGHT DOWN OUR ONCE PROUD COUNTRY ARE NOW BROKE AND ATTEMPTING TO BLEED THE LAST REMAING DOLLARS FROM YOU AND ME.

****ATTN; AGRESSIVE GUNG-HO ATTORNEYS THE NTTA HAS 13MILLION FORMER CUSTOMERS THAT ARE BEING ABUSED BY SYSTEM THAT CREDIT CARD COMPANYS CAN ONLY ENVY****LOOK INTO THE OUTSTANDING AMTS. OWED THE COLLECTION METHODS BUT MAINLY THE FEES OF 25 TIMES THE ORIGIONAL AMT. OWED

*****GOOGLE CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT NTTA****READ VIEW BYRON HARRIS CHANNEL 8 STORY ON PEOPLE BEING LEAD OFF TO JAIL SEE DALLAS OBSERVER ARTICLE **THE AGE OF BIG HEAVY HANDED PUBLIC PRIVATE CORPORATIONS HAS ARRIVED***FOR YOUR READING PLESURE SEE THE E-MAIL SENT TO NTTA BOARD MEMBER AND OTHERS - This is a copy of an email sent to your board member Victor Vandergriff as well as congressman Kenny Marchant/Gov. Rick Perry?senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson/TX. house Shapiro and while i have just received their initial token response I am in the process of responding to each and every one that yes i require a response other than some form letter and will not go away until this has been addressed! How a private run politically connected organization can imprison one of their constituents for a debt not incurred by the debtor I WILL NOT CEASE! Even your own board member recognizes the consequences of such action. As I searched the web and read horror stories of single moms having to decide wether to pay ntta overcharges and face jail time or make their house pmt. I became enraged! I will call talk shows investigative reporters continue to hound my "representatives" but I WILL GET JUSTICE! I recently read your comments expressing your concern with the amazing fee structure of the NTTA. i very much appreciate your concern that " this type fee structure can not stand" I agree . My 21 yr. old son got a job cleaning carpets this summer using a veh. registered in my name. He incurred 30-50.00 worth of toll chg's which now we are receiving calls requesting approx. 1000.00.w/late fees. While my son is certainly obligated to pay what he owes plus some minimal slap on the wrist 20-30.00 I think should be sufficient.Now with further research I find that the debtor is not responsible for his debts, I am. How can this be. What is going on here? This "private co." not only has the power but the right to charge me for the debt incurred by another. And if he does not pay or appear I can have a warrant issued for my arrest! Well I will not pay and if you do not see the legal implications of such an action maybe my senators/congressmen/st reps will if not i will file personal bankruptcy as a last resort and await the class action that is sure to come. Please don't tread on me. I have nothing but time and I will demand a personal response from my "representatives" I always heard there was no debtors prison but I guess that is false. Is this what the country has to get prepared for in this age of public/private partnerships. We the people have been had and are getting mad! In your words "this cannot stand"

I WILL NEVER DRIVE ON THAT TOLLWAY AGAIN UNTIL SOMEBODY IN A HIGHER POWER CAN STOP THEM FROM DOING THIS TO THE PEOPLE.

THE NTTA TOLLWAY IS CHARGING ME $ 119.00 DOLLORS FOR $ 7.75 FEES, THIS SHOULD BE AGAINST THE LAW FOR THEM TO DO THAT. THIS IS TOTALLY BEING OVERCHARGED FOR A PETTY VIOLATION.

The NTTA TOLLWAY IS NOTHING BUT A TOTAL RIPOFF, AND IT SHOULD BE AGAINST THE LAW FOR THEM TO THAT TO THE HARD WORKING AMERICANS IN TODAYS ECONOMY.

When someone figures out how to stop the NTTA, please let me know