Not so 'easy' E-ZPass!

We were among the first lot to jump in and get an E-Zpass when it was first introduced in the New Jersey tolls years ago and we loved it!

We loved the fact that we could breeze through the toll booth while others were hurriedly counting changes for exact cash after pulling up to the toll window only to realize they were few pennies short, others were waiting in looo..ng lines to pay cash.

For a while it was fun - until the authorized credit card expired! We started noticing that the red light would stay red and won't turn green and when we paused to try again we got honked at from behind. So we swept by only to receive toll violation notices with our vehicle's picture as proof. For a 35 cent toll we were fined $25, a couple of times :(

Online system wouldn't let us in as it required a pin which we forgot. When we request the pin online it would only be sent by mail - no not email, but by regular mail. It would be few days to receive it and when we received it we didn't immediately use it; so it was voided.

Our numerous calls to E-Zpass customer service only went to repeated mechanical answering service and finally when we got to talk to someone human, it was me calling but the account was on Israel's name and they wanted him to be calling. There it goes... Till date we haven't had the opportunity to get our records straight. After few years of trying their "helpful" customer service, we decided to return the E-ZPass and go back to manual ways.

Hoping for a better service this time called them up again recently only to find out that we have a 'locked account' because of our previous set up and can't move ahead without clearing it up. After days of follow ups and more mechanical voices, we have concluded that there is nothing easy about the E-ZPass!

I must add, these days we drive around paying toll with cash and truly love the laid back experience. But then it is not every day we pay toll...