Floridians Rank SunPass # 1
Thursday June 16, 2005
When asked, most people would agree they would have a hard time doing without their cell phones or cable television; but, when polled, Floridians overwhelmingly agree... they can't give up their SunPass! Now there is one more reason to love it — you can pay your airport parking fees at Orlando International Airport with your SunPass... it doesn't get much better than this!
| Florida Driving Information |
| Florida Driving Information |
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Investigation uncovers more SunPass problems
By:
Mike DeesonTampa, Florida – It brings in $44 million a month, but there appears to be a recurring problem with the SunPass system overcharging customers.
Joe Pothier checked his and his wife’s bill after our first story and found overcharges on both. He showed us a bill that had the same day, same hour, same minute, same second and they charged $1.50 and then $12.
When he called SunPass to complain, Pothier says the agency told him it was his fault.
“She read off my vehicles listed online and she said, ‘You have a ten-axle vehicle,’” Pothier recalls. “And I said, ‘Ma’am, you just read off my three vehicles. I have a van, a Honda CRV and a Cavalier. You can’t even make 10 axles out of those vehicles.”
Christine Bennett is another SunPass customer who is having problems. Even though Bennett has a SunPass which has its account replenished by a credit card, the agency had her driver’s license suspended for non payment.
She didn’t know about it until she applied for a job and they did a background check.
According to SunPass, Bennett has 30 tickets for going through the lanes without paying, including one involving a Jeep in Broward County.
“I’ve never been to Broward County,” Bennett says. “I’ve never owned a Jeep, rented a Jeep or had anything to do with this Jeep ever.”
“We are diligent in tracking down any mistake we can find, because every customer is valuable to us,” says SunPass spokesperson Joanne Hurley.
While Hurley says the agency is service-oriented and catches most mistakes before customers do, don’t tell that to Eric Rosengren, who says, “Apparently it is not true in my case.”
Rosengren has had a SunPass for two years that replenishes itself whenever the balance is low. He received a ticket for failure to pay a toll. The agency didn’t record his Sunpass when he went through the Skyway toll booth.
“They want me to pay a $25 fine, because this has gone through the court system now, because I didn’t pay within 30 days.”
But Rosengren has a canceled check for one dollar which is dated less than three weeks after the agency didn’t record his SunPass. SunPass can’t even get the date of the ticket straight, first saying it was issued on April 28 and then sending a notification it was issued April 26.
The most complaints we’ve received and the biggest problems appear to be overcharges because of equipment failures.
“We have a Sun Watch program that is state of the art that can monitor any equipment failure, that can detect problems with any equipment and remotely fix those problems,” Hurley says.
While those who run the SunPass system admit there are sometimes discrepancies between the amount of cars the computers count going through the toll booths and the sensors called treadles count, they say when that happens they just send out a service person to look at the treadles.
The agency says it has never generated a report to see how often that is happening until we made our public records request.
“Any time we detect a machine failure, we go back and make corrections. We don’t have to wait for the customer to contact us,” Hurley explains.
But that doesn’t appear to be the case for the scores of people who have contacted us to say they have massive problems with SunPass that the agency — which is supposed up travel — is slow to respond to.
Mike Deeson, Tampa Bay’s 10 News
I had sunpass for 6 years, on January02 I move to California, change my address and I my wife stay in Miami driving my car for 2 month, sunpass should automatic charge my credit card every time it needs and on Jan25 they couldn’t charged( don’t really know why)because if was fine. Every time she went to sunpass, MDX got her a ticket which was about 2 to 4 times a day for a period of 4 weeks so went I got the first letter in CA by sunpass (NOT MDX) that I needed to update my account, It was on Mar05, I pay everything that was late about $40 and also said they were going to take care of a few violation that had on record and account was fine. The first week of June I receive by mail in CA a letter of Licence Suspension from the Court for 61 tickets that I fail to paid on Toll Violations by MDX. I took all the tickets to court.When I got my trial at the court I had to flight from CA lo Miami. MDX offer me to paid 30 tickets at $130 each and dismiss the rest minutes before the trial I told them NO. At the trial I explain the judge my situation and he say:
For the first ticket I find you guilty pay $212 and 3 points in your license, and now you got 2 options 1) Take MDX offer or 2) continue with 59 other tickets and by the end you will have 180 points in your license, your license suspended for LIFE and fines at $12,720. The judge was really rude like if I took advantage of the system. He say the Sunpass is not a credit card is a prepay system
I was force to take the offer with fine at $3950 and 3 point on first ticket.
Sunpass don’t know if MDX give tickets to their customer. If MDX give you a ticket you are support to call with in 30 day after receive a MDX letter ( WHICH I NEVER recieve) and tell them that I have a active sunpass account.
can I use my sun pass on two cars?
Yes, Dale, you may use your SunPass on two different cars. There is a place to register multiple cars in your account online.