Complaint Review: Illinois Tollway - Downers Grove Illinois

did you ever get this resolved with them ? if so what was the dollar amount.

I decided to break down your message again.

I am sorry that you think my information is wrong. Obviously you work for the Tollway. If a vehicle drives through a toll without paying where do the fine and notices go?  

The fines and notices are mailed to the address on file with the Secretary of State and are used to pay for damages and contruction to the tollway

  So what you are saying is that it is totally fine and legal for the Tollway to take advantage of people? I did have 2 working transponders at the time this happened.

 Now if you had a working transponder and it was an issue with the tollway I would agree you have a case, however you did openly admit in your original post that your account was insufficent.

I was not aware that my 2 transponders had 2 different accounts. So the point is when I did call to update the information they only updated one account. I always had auto replenish and I kept receiving emails daily from them saying that my CC was declined.

I do realize you have 2 transponders how ever you only made them aware of 1.  How were you retrieving the info on the account?  90% of people who call in pull it up with a transponder or account number.  If you simply kept giving them the same account this is the reason they kept checking that account.

Every time I called I had the e-mail from them directly in front of me they continued to tell me that my account was okay and said it must be a glitch in their system. So after this kept continuing they couldn't of checked if I had 2 accounts?

Your email does give you the last 4 of the account number that you could have verified with them.  Also like I mentioned earlier if you knew you had 2 accounts why did you continue to only give them the same 1 account?  Yes I realize that they could have attempted to do more research on the account but equally you could have informed them of your second account.

Instead they would rather ignore the problem and let the fines to continue to rack up. I never received any notices until they became a violation.

The email was your notice after that the next stage is violation notices.

When we asked they gave us the address of an address we haven't lived at. Wait I thought the notices and violation go to the address of where the plate is registered with the Sec of State?

The address they send the notices to is the address you have on file with the Secretary of State, if you had an issue with where it was being sent to that is a case you would need to take up with the SOS.  Regardless it sounds as if you still recieved the first notice because you were able to appeal the notice.

Then they continue to state that my husband never showed up to the hearing. Gee imagine that the they are the ones that can't get the story straight because as soon as I got the media involved to investigate they came back and said oh yes he did show up.

I'm wondering if this is a mix of wording.  You openly admit to the hearing not being attended by stating you (or your husband) left the toll administration building without paying.  This is considered a failure to appear and results in a defalt status on your notice.

They also told the investigators that we were suppose to have been offered a payment plan. According to the letter I have from the Tollway Authority it states that payment plans will not even be considered. 

Who ever worded this to you was incorrect, a payment plan on the tollways part will not be considered, it is called an economic hardship request.  It's simply for larger notices which if you're having trouble paying they can put on a hold for a set amount of time to help you gather the money together.  Basiclly you aren't on a payment plan you just have a new due date.  This isn't a requirement to make you aware of this but this info can be provided to you on the website and at the call center if asked.

The problem is they are corrupt and stealing from people. They are held accountable for any wrong doing. 

I am sorry that you agree with the tollway

Honest opinion is I don't feel you were stolen from or corrupted.  These fines are addressed publicly it's not as if they snuck them in on you.  The state does has a statute mandating the tollway charge a $20 fine for every unpaid toll, you didn't have sufficent funds in your account so you did violate the tolls.  In return the tollway did offer to have you pay for those tolls and they would waive the fines.  However they are at the cash rate of the tolls as per your IPASS agreement.  You willingly choose to waive your option to pay the tolls to appeal the notice with a netural party that oversees a case of you vs the Illinois Tollway.  Upon entering that case they spared you a chance by stating their was nothing they could do and to pay the cashier, you instead choose to leave the hearing and the notice had to either be paid or ruled upon.  They choose to rule because you left them with no choice.  I would encourage you to file for that hardship form to get some time to pay these fines before they increase more.  You really need to start working with the tollway to get the notice handled.  You are also entitled to request a second hearing by filing a case with the Dupage county court house.

I am sorry that you think my information is wrong. Obviously you work for the Tollway. If a vehicle drives through a toll without paying where do the fine and notices go? 

 So what you are saying is that it is totally fine and legal for the Tollway to take advantage of people? I did have 2 working transponders at the time this happened. I was not aware that my 2 transponders had 2 different accounts. So the point is when I did call to update the information they only updated one account. I always had auto replenish and I kept receiving emails daily from them saying that my CC was declined. Every time I called I had the e-mail from them directly in front of me they continued to tell me that my account was okay and said it must be a glitch in their system. So after this kept continuing they couldn't of checked if I had 2 accounts? Instead they would rather ignore the problem and let the fines to continue to rack up. I never received any notices until they became a violation. When we asked they gave us the address of an address we haven't lived at. Wait I thought the notices and violation go to the address of where the plate is registered with the Sec of State? Then they continue to state that my husband never showed up to the hearing. Gee imagine that the they are the ones that can't get the story straight because as soon as I got the media involved to investigate they came back and said oh yes he did show up. They also told the investigators that we were suppose to have been offered a payment plan. According to the letter I have from the Tollway Authority it states that payment plans will not even be considered.

The problem is they are corrupt and stealing from people. They are held accountable for any wrong doing.

I am sorry that you agree with the tollway

Ok, it seems that either you were given incorrect information or you are not sharing the whole truth of what you were told.
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"June of 2008 I had to report our bankcard stolen. Our bankcard was linked to our I-Pass account. I contacted I-Pass over the phone to make sure our accounts were updated. The tollway advised us that everything was updated and thanked us for the call. A few days later we started to receive e-mails stating our account was low. We again contacted I-pass
to inquire why the auto-replenish was not taking affect. They replied that we had sufficient funds, and that we should not be receiving anymore e-mails.  This trend continued for a few weeks. I continued to contact I-pass, and they would give the same response. Soon a person at the Illinois Tollway advised us to disregard the e-mails.

A few months passed and we realized that the auto replenish was still not taking money out of our account. We were in the holiday season, and my downfall was waiting a little to long to contact the tollway again. When I contacted the tollway they gave me the same response that I received back in June. I argued with them that something had to be wrong. I advised them they need to look at both accounts in my name. Problem found. My account showed that I had not paid a toll since June when the bankcard was reported stolen. I inquired why I had not received any notice from the tollway. They stated that the address they had on file was from my townhouse 5 years prior. I gave them my information so that they could send me the violations. I was told I have 30 days to pay $421.30 to avoid any violations."
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Ok first off based off what is written here you only advised the IPASS CSR of 1 account, you admit that you called in several times to check this account and it was updated, why did you wait multiple months before advising them of your second account, (also be aware you can combine these accounts in an effort to make things eaiser) at this point you are on on shared balance and one account to maintain.  Your tolls went unpaid for multiple months and you need to pay for those tolls at this time.


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"The Dollar amount didnt seem right to me. I researched the amount of times that I went through the tollbooths and found that the amount was doubled. I contacted the tollway again to ask why. I was told that since
my I-Pass had insufficient funds that the toll would be $1.00 as if I was a cash payer. I pleaded my case that the I-Pass having insufficient funds was a result of the Illinois Tollway not updating my account properly."
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Your IPASS terms and conditions states this exact scenario, Term 17--"If your I-PASS balance falls below $0.00 and a
Toll Violation Notice is issued for the unpaid tolls, you will be charged the cash rate for the toll transactions...." this issue is fully supported by your agreement.
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"Attorney Shelly Webb Jr. who was overseeing the hearing for the Illinois Tollway told me that the tollway used the Illinois Secretary of State to update addresses for notification. My current drivers license was issued on 12/14/07 so I know they should have had my current information."
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Shelly is absolutely correct, the Illinois Tollway uses your vehicle registration address to track you for notices, these are violations, NOT Ipass accounts.  TERM 5 of your IPASS subsection IV-"You agree to Promptly notify the Tollway of changes mailing address credit card number and/or expiration dates and/or any other information required to keep your I-PASS account in good standing.", better put It's your responsibility to update this, not the Tollways.
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"They said there was nothing they could do, and I should go talk to the cashier. I found that to be strange and so did the cashier. She was nice enough to direct me to a gentleman named Pete in the hallway. Pete was a supervisor and said the only course I had was to contact a supervisor via the Toll Ways 1-800 number."
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There is nothing strange about this issue, the hearing officer actually was attempting to spare you what you ultimately did anyway, Had you scheduled a hearing and proceeded you would have lost, the point of a hearing is to prove liability not fight for negotiation of amounts, it states on the notice and on the website that if you are deemed liable at a hearing you no longer are elgible for a settlement of any kind, the officer was trying to have you pay your tolls before your hearing placed you liable.
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"They told me that since I did not attend my hearing I needed to pay a $27,331.30 judgment that will be in collections. I did attend the hearing but they state they have no record of it"
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This price along side the $8,000 was the full amount because you failed to pay at your hearing, the reason it shows you didn't attend your hearing is because you didn't, you were given a chance to instead attend that ruling to pay the tolls and avoid being held liable, you instead admit to not paying but leaving the facility, you are then held liable by default and owe the amount of the tolls.  Show or no show you would have been liable. so the issue of what them stating you showed or not is irrelevant.
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"We would not be able to make payments, and if we declined the offer they would garnish our wages, suspend both our driver licenses, a judgment on our credit report and they would put a lien on our house."
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The tollway holds the right to suspend your license and vehicle registration and send a report to collections, typically they don't choose to do the suspensions unless it sits to long, Call the collections and work out a payment plan, in order to make this go away you must start working with the Tollway over your debt or your debt will continue to increase, also they can't garnish wages or place a lien on your house as far as I know.
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One other this you can attempt to do is file for a economic hardship with a non-standard settlement, it's a form avalible online http://www.illinoistollway.com/documents/10157/15874/SETTLEMENT_REQUEST.pdf click the link here for assistance, I can't say it will work but it's a push in the correct direction.

Has your attorney been negotiating this judgment? He also does not sound like he has been very effective for you as he has allowed the tollway authority to place a judgment against you, right? Has your attorney been involved from the beginning or has he just been retained to handle the matter once it got to a judgment status? If he was involved from the beginning, it sounds like you need a different attorney to help you.

I don't understand how this $421.30  debt can balloon to $27k in less than 3 years. I'm sure the media would be interested in hearing about how the tollway authority is tacking on thousands of dollars for an error made in June 2008. It just does not sound right.

Now, as to the tollway authority having the wrong address, isn't there a place right on their site to update your personal information? Usually there is a way to update your address, your auto registration, your auto tags, your credit card info etc right on the site. It takes about five minutes to keep your info current. IMO it is your responsibilty to make sure your contact info is kept current with the various state and federal agencies. 

HOWEVER, it also appears to me that the Illinois Tollway Authority has taken this small clerical error and blown it way out of proportion. If you get the media involved in an investigation and audit of the tollway authority, its possible they may accept your offer of the actual debt plus some reasonable amount for interest and penalties.  Its also possible that other abuses by the system will be found.