Print the value of index0
HCTRA & TXTAG Harris County Toll Road Authority Most unfriendly organization I have ever spoken with Houston Texas
The HCTRA and TXTAG are the classic example of huge organizations with zero oversight and unlimited power to do whatever they want to the consumers that choose to utilize their roads.
Over the past year I have paid over 1000 in administrative fees to HCTRA because I had ordered TXTAGS for all 4 of my cars under the assumtion that I could drive hassle free on any toll road in the state of Texas.
TXTAG claims to have an interface with other Toll Agencies that allow me to drive on the HCTRA toll roads and the toll will be auto-magically deducted from my account. That statement is true with a few gotchas.
Here is what TXTAG conveniently leaves out. If there is a problem with the TXTAG and it's rejected then HCTRA or what ever Toll Agency will send me a bill for 30+ dollars in administrative fees plus tolls and I have to pay the fees.
To HCTRA's credit they will waive the fees once but if it happens again in your lifetime regardless of the reason you are screwed and guilty period, with no exceptions. I get that this is a business but greed makes good businesses go bad.
One of the tags on the car I drive the most was defective. It took me 8 months to figure that out; I have had a credit card on file with TXTAG for the last 4 years yet 5 or 6 times a month over the last 6-8 months I was getting tagged by the toll readers in Houston for toll violations. I have spent hours on the phone with TXTAG who says they will ask HCTRA to waive the fees and more time on the phone with HCTRA telling me it's not their problem TXTAG should pay the fees. HCTRA even went as far as to say if I had an HCTRA tag and not a TXTAG they would work with me but since it's not they won’t waive the fees so they sent me back to TXTAG who keeps telling me that's not their system that billed me so TXTAG can't waive the fees.
It's an endless cycle that just wastes the consumers time and as I went back and forth waiting for them to come up with a solution to help be bring my account current and resolve my issue the out of control fees kept compounding and my invoices got sent to the law office that handles HCTRA violations.
The toll roads are very helpful and yes there are people that fail to get tags and pay to use it but the way the system works it is setup to punish hardworking law abiding customers that are getting caught in the middle. We are automatically labeled as quilty without the hope of proving our case.
I wasted 6 weeks going back and forth between TXTAG and HCTRA trying to get them to waive some of the fees because TXTAG finally admitted that my tag may be faulty and sent me a new one. TXTAG sent me another tag and the result was another 417 dollars added to what I already owed HCTRA along with HCTRA banning my car from the toll roads until I paid my bill in full while TXTAG just shrugged it off and said there is nothing they could do, they submitted my case to HCTRA admitted my tag was faulty and HCTRA still denied the request to waive fees.
As much as I don't think Texas needs another agency, committee or state entity there needs to be some kind of Texas agency to oversee all of the toll roads in Texas that protects the consumer. If had deciced to not pay my toll bill while I continued to dispute the fact my tag was not working I was told that I could be taken to Jail the next time I was stopped.
Over 417.00 for one car and @295 for a second car and about 40.00 of that was actual tolls the rest were fees tacked on while I was disputing this whole mess.
TXTAG provided proof to HCTRA that I had an account in good standing, the report showed that I had a consistent positive balance and the account was on autopay. The report also showed toll road debits for my other cars on the same dates that HCTRA was charging me these outrageous fees for the car in question.
It does not take a rocket scientist to see that I was going to get nowhere with HCTRA except further in debt to them. At the end of the day I paid the bill because I saw no other alternative since the legal firm representing the HCTRA appears to have their hands so far in the HCTRA pockets that it was a no win situation.
At the end of the day the answer I got was the same as all of the others I read on this website.
"I'm sorry, we cannot waive the fees or help you in any way regardless of the proof. Your only option is to pay the amount due or you could go to jail."
So when did we go from innocent until proven guilty to you are guilty with no hope or option of proving your innocence?
I think the consumers using these toll roads need to understand that the toll authority even though it is a public entitiy has the ability to reach into your bank account or ruin your life as you know it if you decide you don't want to play by their rules which from my point of view are very one sided.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
FloridaNative
Palm Beach Gardens,Florida,
USA
Try reporting them to the CFPB
#2Consumer Comment
Fri, October 14, 2016
I'm not sure that is the right Federal government agency, but the CFPB is in place to protect consumers against financial harm. Seems to me, based on your post, that you have been harmed financially for something out of your control. Make a complaint. If the CFPB doesn't handle this area, it's possible they will be able to guide you to someone that can handle it. Good luck.