Toll Charge Letter from Dollar

[Paulo]

Hi everyone,

I visited Florida last November for a week cruising the Caribbean and a week in Orlando. I booked the cars pre and post cruise through Roger and recd great service and a great price - Dollar even upgraded me to a Durango on both legs of my stay.

Fast forward to Feb 08 and I recieve a letter from a lady from the Operations Administration Dept at Dollar.

" Dear Mr Paulo

Our records indicate that you rented a vehicle from Dollar Rent A Car with licence plate blah blah blah....we have recieved a toll charge that occured during your rental.

As a result, when you signed that rental agreement from our MIA location, it became your responsibility to pay for all the toll charges incurred during the rental period. The charge has been paid on your behalf. The toll charge of $6.65 plus a $25 violation admin fee has been assessed and charged to your CC.

If you have any queries......etc etc"

Now this was a shock to me, especially since the nice bloke at MCO sold me the Sun Pass due to the fact we'd be driving down to Miami and back over the coming fortnight.

I emailed the address given in the letter, stating my surprise at receiving the fine and also explaining as far as I was concerned I'd purchased the Sun Pass. I received nothing back.

Fast forward again to present day and I'm heading back out to Florida on 26th Sept for another cruise and Orlando stay. My concern is having problems when I land at MCO with immigration? Has anyone else had this kind of problem?

All comments welcomed, thanks in advance.

Paul.

[ShirleyD]

Like many people I have read stories in the papers, but I cannot imagine the re will be any problem at all. Dollar have made a mistake, you pointed it out to them and they realised their mistake, so matter sorted, which is why they didn't get back to you. They wouldn't take the matter further without telling you a after all, their aim was to get the money they thought you owed.

[Shirley G]

If you have registered you SunPass online you will also be able to see exactly what dates and how much toll you have paid.

[blott]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Shirley G
If you have registered you SunPass online you will also be able to see exactly what dates and how much toll you have paid.[/quote]I might be wrong but I don't think Paul purchased his own transponder, just that it was already in the rental car and he signed for its use.

Paul, check out your credit card statement and, if it has been debited, that you get a refund as Dollar have obviously made an error.

[Paulo]

Absolutley Mr Blott, the transponder was in the car already. Dollar just rented the use of it out to me for the duration of my stay. I'll get onto my CC statements and see what I can find out.

Thanks to everyone who replied, I can relax a little now and look forward to my upcoming holiday!!

[DaveL]

There was a case in the local courts recently that set a president involving the use of transponders.

It seems that if the battery in the transponder fails you don't always know or get a warning. At this point every toll you go through shows up as a violation. Now if you have money in your account or have prepaid then this suggests that you are not trying to avoid payment.

The judge decided that SUN PASS should stop issuing fines where their transponder had failed and the customer had funds in their account. This may have happened to you or it could be some other mistake. However if your card has been charged and not credited back then you need to tell Dollar that you purchased the SUN PASS option and you need a credit ASAP.

Dave

[Frosty]

We have a transponder in each of our cars.

They beep once when a toll is paid.

They make a series of short beeps when a toll is paid but the battery is running low.

Shortly after you notice your transponder making the battery low noise you get a nice letter from Epass warning you that your battery is low and needs replacing.

As to what happens when your battery is flat, i guess it doesn't make any noise at all.......because its dead
It has never got to that with us, so i'm guessing, but either way you should know if a toll did or didn't register.

[rdoh]

I'm a bit worried now! I hired a car from Budget in Florida a few weeks ago and since I noticed that it said it had E-Pass installed, used this on a few occasions (it said the charge was $1.50/day + the tolls so used it on some long trips).

But I never heard any beeps. I just assumed it was working...

[blott]

The fact is that the ones installed in rental cars may well work differently to the transponders that you can purchase, the latter being the ones that beep. Maybe the rental car ready installed systems doesn't make any noises at all.

[canarypam]

Did you pay extra for this? If you did you should be ok if not I would imagine it wasn't activated.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by rdoh
I'm a bit worried now! I hired a car from Budget in Florida a few weeks ago and since I noticed that it said it had E-Pass installed, used this on a few occasions (it said the charge was $1.50/day + the tolls so used it on some long trips).

But I never heard any beeps. I just assumed it was working...
[/quote]