calmasahinducow

We rented a car from National last week for a vacation in New England. We brought our own EZ Pass transponder which worked perfectly through the numerous Mass/Maine tolls. Obviously the windshield transponder provided by National was closed in its box. Today I received a toll receipt charging me for the last toll we passed through on the way back to BOS...it's the tunnel toll for those familiar with it. No other toll charges were on the receipt. No one touched that windshield transponder at all. Anyone ever have something like this happen?

AutoSlash

What probably happened was that your own EZ Pass transponder did not register and they matched the license plate to the EZ Pass transponder registered to the car so it debited from that account. It happens sometimes. Just double-check your own EZ Pass to make sure you weren't double charged.

Lyaec350

If your transponder paid it they’ll reverse the charge in the rental transponder

MADPhil

We had something like this some years back. Our transponder failed to register in the tunnel but worked fine elsewhere. This was before National had transponders and there was a significant fee added to the toll. National reversed this when I explained what happened and just charged the toll.

calmasahinducow

Interesting theory! A week turn around for matching the license plate to my rental info seems like a quick turnaround. I'll check my EZ Pass bill statement.

dwbf11

100% correct. If you can demonstrate it was paid, the second charge will drop off.

Pathfinder813

It's super easy too. I've emailed them and gotten the charges reversed within 24 hours (I actually think 12 hours to be honest) after emailing my own EZPass receipt to [email protected].

calmasahinducow

So this indeed turned out to be the case. I emailed them a screenshot of my EZ Pass statement showing other tolls in MA and ME charged during that same time period and hopefully they will reverse the $4.95 service fee like they said they would. Surprisingly good customer service for a car rental agency or maybe my expectations are just super low from dealing with Avis

MADPhil

That would be in line with my experience mentioned above, although the fee back then was a good bit higher. I hope they come through as promised, it is nice to hear of good service once in a while!

calmasahinducow

Well another week and another issue with another rental. This time I paid for the EZ Pass transponder from National and it was mounted on a windshield without a blocking box yet the toll receipt I received was for the pay by plate rate rather than the EZ Pass rate for the Elizabeth River Tunnels in Norfolk. In this case the pay by plate rate is almost 3 times the EZ Pass rate which is outrageous in its own right. https://www.driveert.com/#/about-tollrates

AutoSlash

Just because you pay for the toll service by National doesn’t mean you get the EZ Pass rate. Most, if not all of the rental companies charge you the cash rate. That’s one of the ways they get you.

calmasahinducow

How do they get away with this? This seems like a class action or FTC complaint waiting to happen.

AutoSlash

Only if they broke the law or it was an intentionally deceptive practice. It's not necessarily illegal to mark up the price on a service, and as long as the rates and fees are disclosed, it's probably not deceptive. We may not like it, but it doesn't mean they can't do it.

guv1976

Well, that's one of the ways they make a profit, and I expect that that's properly disclosed in the rental terms. If they charged you the lower transponder toll rate, then presumably they would charge you a higher daily rate for using the transponder.

If you rent cars often enough in places where E-Z Pass is accepted, it makes sense to get your own transponder -- even if you don't own a car. If they're not available where you live, Massachusetts will mail one to you at no extra charge.

I'm not sure why the OP -- who has an E-Z Pass transponder -- did not bring it along on the latest trip. If you have a read-prevention bag, you could just pull off the rental company's transponder, temporarily store it in the read-prevention bag, and mount your own transponder on the windshield for the duration of the rental.

calmasahinducow

There should be a meme for people who defend anti-consumer corporate practices because "it's in the terms bro". Making a profit from the difference of the posted EZ Pass rate and the highest toll rate is scammy if that's indeed what happens.

I think there's a market opportunity for a non-scammy rental car company that does take price transparency seriously similar to how Southwest Airlines disrupted the legacy carriers. One of the issues here is renters tend to be business travelers who are price insensitive so it doesn't really matter for them (which is why I didn't bring my EZ Pass transponder btw).