Automated tolls running amok

So I get home from vacation yesterday and am greeted with a notice of violation from the Port Authority of NY/NJ. They allege that I crossed the George Washington Bridge in the wee hours of the morning a couple weeks ago, based on a reading of my license plate. I haven't driven any car across the GWB in well over a decade, so clearly they need to clean the lenses on their cameras. Nonetheless, I now have a choice: pay the toll, or send it in with a statement that they got the plate read wrong. The problem with the latter course is that they will (based on what I've read in the myriad complaints littering the Interweb) ignore my statement, declare the violation valid, and tack on exhorbitant late fees to the tab. Short of hiring an attorney, there's not much hope of any positive outcome.

This problem seems to be pervasive - there are countless reports of similar problems, and an equal number of reports of a totally unresponsive PA bureaucracy. As the move to cashless tolls continues I can only imagine this getting worse. It's just extortion, plain and simple.

I had a parking violation notice from the little bum-berk university in town.  I was in the PRC (California) at the time.  It took several calls before someone actually looked at the picture of the license plate and realized they had the wrong plate number.

Any chance they sent a picture of the vehicle along with the license plate?  Several years back, my wife got dinged with a ticket from a speed camera in Cleveland.  We hadn’t been to Cleveland in years.  Took some phone calls, but the officer agreed that the car the plate was attached to was not a red CRX(our car), but a white Pontiac(not our car).

Send them a letter to dispute it. 

No photo included. Interweb scuttlebutt suggests that the only way they will even look at the photos is to take it to court. I will call and see if the rumors are untrue, but I have very little hope of anything helpful coming from the other end of the phone. Sending a dispute letter was my first instinct, but if they ignore it and add the late fees as seems is often the case, the cost goes up 300%. It's a catch-22 worthy of Heller and Orwell combined.

I got a parking ticket on Lake Shore Dr in Chicago when my car was in Virginia. I spent maybe 10 hours to get it cleared up, but in the end I didn't have to pay. Although, they never officially told me I was cleared, so I may still bea wanted man in IL. 

In reply to 02Pilot : This is among my favorite ways of screwing with the government.  Flood them with certified letters.  Not just the people who sent you the ticket but everyone in the government.  From the governor on down. Since it’s certified they legally can’t ignore it because you have a signature from some mail clerk.  

Be polite, be factual, be brief, Don’t try to be a lawyer or threaten them in any way ,  but tell them you expect action and want this matter to be handled legally and promptly.  

What actually happens is the governor refers it to the proper authority and the Governor etc doesn’t  simply  get ignored.  Do some research and find out who is in charge of the various departments.  Send each of them a certified letter.  Then your state representative and state senator plus your federal representative and federal senator. 

 You’ll probably need to look all those people up but try not to miss anybody.  Include local people as well, chief of police, mayor,  city representative etc.  you’ll need to spend enough for about 20 certified letters.  Depending on how long the lines are at the post office you might waste 10-15 minutes mailing everything.  But government officials will spend 20-30 manhours dealing with this. 

See it’s midterm election time, they will be jumping all over each other showing they really care.  

If by chance it’s ignored for 2 weeks send out new letters no need to certify this time and refer to your correspondence of —————-

wait a third week  and send another letter.  

Sqeaky wheel gets the grease.  And maybe they will stop trying to get free money from innocent citizens  

I got a ticket notice from City of Vancouver correct plate number, wrong description. I guess they checked on line said sorry the ticket is cancelled.

Update: I called and, after navigating the phone tree for several minutes, finally got to a person (didn't even have to wait). He took the violation number and my statement, put me on hold for a couple minutes, and came back to tell me it was dismissed. I'll believe it fully when I check the website and see the status reported as such (may take 48 hours to update, I'm told), but that's about the best resolution I could hope for. Fingers crossed.

Good luck!  It took talking to an actual human to deal with my wife’s ticket, too, as there was no response space on the violation of “wrong car”

Happened once to us.  Called the 800 number on the notice and explained it was a similar plate that they misread.  They agreed and waived the ticket.  Took maybe five minutes total.

It appears to have already been expunged from the system, as the violation number comes up as nonexistent. While there is a spot on the form for "Vehicle not present," I had zero confidence that this would be useful. Getting to an actual person - who was both helpful and efficient, which surprised me - was my first objective, and thankfully seems to have resolved the issue.

In reply to 02Pilot :

I've had to contact customer service for EZ Pass here in Virginia several times and always came away very impressed with their helpfulness, courtesy and efficiency.  Top notch.

I like the idea of automated tolls. I'd sooner have a little RFID thinger than the cameras, but its a good idea either way. 

What I'm not keen on is any type of enforcement via camera, as its creates "go zones" where speeders and what not go faster because they know there aren't cameras. Same thing happens with security cameras in downtown environments, the pan handlers, dealers and prostitutes go to where the cameras aren't.

I've been in the toll road three times in Austin and have yet to get a bill. 

Glad you got it worked out. 

I haven't heard of this being a big problem.

In reply to 02Pilot :

I've had it happen a couple times the last few years and they're pretty good about correcting it. 

Zombie thread, but I did work with an IT consultant a long time ago who told me he'd worked on automated toll projects before the project I worked on with him. 

Based on knowing him, I am surprised the systems are as good as they are!