Complaint Review: Illinois Tollway

In Jan. 2021 I had purchased an ipass and it was shipped to my house ready to use.  I was told to unwrap from the foil and to just place it in my window and make sure there was money on the transponder. I did so and had no issues. I did not realize that you must register the plate also on the website.  My car was temporarily out of service, and I used my mom’s car in May,  I placed the transponder in the window and continued refilling my money on the transponder. 

It was deducting money and I had no issues.  I then had an invoice from my mom in June 2021 of $78 for missing tolls for one week! The toll charge was roughly $25, they then charged me with an invoice fee of $53 I have the ipass so the tolls are $0.90, and they charged me the full amount of $1.80 also.  I called numerous times and was on hold an extremely long time to have this rude individual that worked there tell me how I should have read the owner’s manual (and ok I get it but being a single mom working 12 hours a day I really didn’t have time to, so that was my fault, but we are human, I also took the ladies word for “all I have to do is place it in the window.”),and that you must have the car license plate registered and refused to help reduce my bill.

She then said that the transponders do not always register at the toll booths.  I went back and forth trying to dispute and reported the rude employee to the upper management in charge because even the "supervisor" was rude. I understood where they were coming from but to an extent.  I paid the invoice and I also added both cars on the online page to defuse any further issues. Well….  Over the fourth of July weekend someone vandalized my car, I called the police officers to report. Later date I realized my transponder was gone and some change. 

I reported to customer service about the incident and how to proceed with canceling and me retrieving another transponder that Tuesday. In response they now tell my i have a $479.50 bill! What? how? even if I never paid it since I got an ipass it wouldn’t be that much in cost, it would be $324.00 if anything.  If that’s the case where is my money? Where is all my money i put on the ipass? Where are my money from the other invoice fees then?  Every time I contact them, they either call back while I’m working, or they are extremely rude. It's to the point where I can’t even deal with them to where I go into a panic attack, I already deal with my social anxiety and struggle but to add it to your day on purpose after being on hold during rush hour for an hour and to still not talk to someone again is nerve racking.

Then I finally get through after weeks and the lady is just snide, rude and loud for no reason is very unprofessional, ignorant, and stressful. I now question their management cause to me this is a scam! One of my coworkers had her car linked up to the ipass and had it for a year and suddenly just recently like myself she got double charged and they were rude to her also. Some one is getting a kick back knowing they are scamming us.  They know we have to get to work so you scam the lower middle class working our butts off through this pandemic.