FRAUDscoop

Below is the sad story of a Florida teacher who attempted to right a wrong, and now pays the consequences of a broken system….

On March 27, 2008, I was pulled over after driving through a SunPass
lane. The officer told me that SunPass has canceled my account and gave
me a ticket. I had received three letters earlier (within
that week) saying I had ran a toll and to change the location of my
transponder. Before being issued a ticket by the police officer, I had
tried on several occasions to contact SunPass and met with a
recording to call back later, as all representatives were busy. As my
transponder was still making noises when I drove through tolls, I
assumed that it was still working.

I immediately went home and called SunPass. They said that they had
tried to contact me by phone March 25 and were unsuccessful and,
therefore, they had turned my account over to collections. The
referred to GRC, saying that I had to settle my bill by April 9 in
order not to incur any additional charges. I called GRC, who had no record
of my account. SunPass said they couldn’t do anything; I
had to wait for GRC to process my account, which could take a few
weeks.

After calls to GRC and SunPass got me nowhere, I finally spoke to a
representative at SunPass who seemed helpful. After explaining how I had
been trying to pay and had gotten nowhere, she said that
she put an explanation in the computer on my account and that SunPass
would contact me within a few days with another option so that this
could all be cleared up.

A few days came and went, with no one contacting me. So, once again, I
contacted SunPass and apparently there was no note on the computer. My
account still had not been processed by GRC and my April
9th deadline had expired. After a long conversation with SunPass, the
basically told me I was out of luck.

I finally was contacted by GRC and sent them a check for the amount
requested. They cashed it on April 23rd. In the meantime, I had also sent
in my payment for the ticket issued on March 27th.
SunPass had earlier informed me that, once GRC was paid, it would take
two weeks for it to get back into the SunPass system and then a
representative would contact me.

Apparently not. I just got home from work and found a letter stating
that my license is suspended as of May 27th. Furthermore, I received a
notice a few days ago that I had to go to court for the
ticket from March 27th, even though I had paid all fees and my check
for that has been cashed.

If I had knowingly done something wrong, I would have no problem. But
this is ridiculous. When I first spoke to SunPass, they said that my
transponder had been canceled but they couldn’t even tell me
why!

I seriously feel like a victim here. I have been working so hard to get
everything straightened out and no one seems to be very helpful. I am
a teacher and I won’t even be able to finish the school
year because I can’t drive to work! I’m also moving to Virginia in June and have no
way to move my belongings now!