if someone doesn't know when the restricted hours are for school speed limits to be in effect is it OK if they go 35 MPH through them?

If you don't know what FasTrak is should a rental car company have to realize the admin expense of tracking down who it was that broke the law?

Scarlet_Buckeye;954881 wrote:I was in California. I'm not from there. I didn't know what FasTrak was. I *thought* it was a synonym for "car pool" lane.

Ignorance is not an excuse to break the law. Nor is it a reason to have someone else foot the bill for your misdeeds. Fucking toll-jumper.

enigmaax;954910 wrote:Ignorance is not an excuse to break the law. Nor is it a reason to have someone else foot the bill for your misdeeds. Fucking toll-jumper.

The $15 wasn't the ticket (the ticket was $70), the $15 was for National to send him the ticket as an 'admin fee'. If you read the thread, you'd understand that.

Basically, National acted as a middle man and made a tidy $15 profit for about 30sec of work.

Con_Alma;954903 wrote:if someone doesn't know when the restricted hours are for school speed limits to be in effect is it OK if they go 35 MPH through them?

If you don't know what FasTrak is should a rental car company have to realize the admin expense of tracking down who it was that broke the law?

Christ, it's called a mistake. Someday, you might make one.

Con_Alma;954903 wrote:if someone doesn't know when the restricted hours are for school speed limits to be in effect is it OK if they go 35 MPH through them?

If you don't know what FasTrak is should a rental car company have to realize the admin expense of tracking down who it was that broke the law?

People know what a school is / looks like. People can typically assume that the restricted hours for school are somewhere between 8am - 4pm M - F. There are flashing lights that warn when entering a school zone. If you happen to be speeding thru a school zone, you can easily reduce your speed at any time and avoid a possible violation.

In my situation...

There was only one sign notifying warning of a toll and it was only a couple hundred yards from the toll (mind you traffic is traveling ~ 65 mph too). Once you missed the stop toll and proceeded thru the FasTrak, there is no turn around to correct the error that was made.

And what was the "admin expense"? Probably filling out a paper form that took a whole 5-10 minutes max? Please. It's called customer care. Look it up.

GoChiefs;954930 wrote:Christ, it's called a mistake. Someday, you might make one.

I made one earlier in this thread. I make them* all the time. There are costs to mistakes.

I asked if someone else should have to realize the cost in making a mistake.

Christ, is that a sensitive issue?

enigmaax;954910 wrote:Ignorance is not an excuse to break the law. Nor is it a reason to have someone else foot the bill for your misdeeds. ****ing toll-jumper.

I wasn't looking to "jump" the toll. I am perfectly willing to pay the $5.75 for the toll. Heck, I'm even willing to pay an additional $20 for stupid "admin" fees. I think it's a "crime", however to penalize me close to $100 for a stupid situation like this when I'm from out of the area and was not familiar with what FasTrak was/is and there was no chance for me to rectify what I had done. (i.e., back up and/or turn around and pay the toll that I had erroringly missed.

Sykotyk;954929 wrote:Basically, National acted as a middle man and made a tidy $15 profit for about 30sec of work.

Thank you

Scarlet_Buckeye;954939 wrote:I wasn't looking to "jump" the toll. I am perfectly willing to pay the $5.75 for the toll. Heck, I'm even willing to pay an additional $20 for stupid "admin" fees. I think it's a "crime", however to penalize me close to $100 for a stupid situation like this when I'm from out of the area and was not familiar with what FasTrak was/is and there was no chance for me to rectify what I had done. (i.e., back up and/or turn around and pay the toll that I had erroringly missed.

It's your responsibility to know the laws

GoChiefs;954930 wrote:Christ, it's called a mistake. Someday, you might make one.

Reps. And it's not like a vandalized or stole something or got in an accident or threatened anyone else's life like speeding. Heck... the fine that they are suggesting is just about the same dollar amount if I was driving over the speed limit by about 10 miles.

LJ;954943 wrote:It's your responsibility to know the laws

Yes, it is. So I will get right on it and read every single line/law for every single city, state, and country. That way I know... and knowing is half the battle. Thanks for the bright advice!

Sykotyk;954929 wrote:The $15 wasn't the ticket (the ticket was $70), the $15 was for National to send him the ticket as an 'admin fee'.
If you read the thread, you'd understand that.

No shit. What makes you think I don't understand?

Basically, National acted as a middle man and made a tidy $15 profit for about 30sec of work.

Yes, they rented a car and then had to deal with some external bullshit because of his irresponsibility. Why should he get a free ride for the time and energy they had to waste to let him know he's an idiot?

Scarlet_Buckeye;954933 wrote:People know what a school is / looks like. People can typically assume that the restricted hours for school are somewhere between 8am - 4pm M - F. There are flashing lights that warn when entering a school zone. If you happen to be speeding thru a school zone, you can easily reduce your speed at any time and avoid a possible violation.

In my situation...

There was only one sign notifying warning of a toll and it was only a couple hundred yards from the toll (mind you traffic is traveling ~ 65 mph too). Once you missed the stop toll and proceeded thru the FasTrak, there is no turn around to correct the error that was made.

And what was the "admin expense"? Probably filling out a paper form that took a whole 5-10 minutes max? Please. It's called customer care. Look it up.

Most school zone restrictions that I have seen are 7-9 and 2-4 as opposed to 8-4. Not all school zones have flashing lights in Ohio. Some simply have a sign stating the speed is 20MPH during restricted times.

The expense may be greater than just having someone complete 5-10 minutes of work. We don't know. Maybe they need to have people available to process fines that municipalities send to Enterprise. Maybe the $15 needs to cover just having those people available even when they are not processing fines. We don't know.

They are caring for the customers that didn't receive a traffic violation by not passing the costs along to everyone. Instead, they are asking those who create the infraction to cover it. That seems fair and is probably in the contract, I don't know.

Sykotyk;954929 wrote:The $15 wasn't the ticket (the ticket was $70), the $15 was for National to send him the ticket as an 'admin fee'. If you read the thread, you'd understand that.

Basically, National acted as a middle man and made a tidy $15 profit for about 30sec of work.

From the way I understand that it usually works, they aren't just acting like a middle man. They have to front the money up front and pay the ticket off because it is issued to them, not the driver. Then they bill the driver for the ticket. It's not just "30 seconds of work". I had a friend that did that exact job at BMW for their leases and courtesy cars. If it was a courtesy car ticket, I think she said it would take about 45 minutes to clear each ticket up, that's getting the money issued, figuring out who had it at the time the ticket was issued, working up the invoice, etc etc.

*Update*


I called the Toll Roads and informed them of my situation and they dropped the fee down from $65 to $37. Just FYI.

LJ;954955 wrote:From the way I understand that it usually works, they aren't just acting like a middle man. They have to front the money up front and pay the ticket off because it is issued to them, not the driver. Then they bill the driver for the ticket. It's not just "30 seconds of work". I had a friend that did that exact job at BMW for their leases and courtesy cars. If it was a courtesy car ticket, I think she said it would take about 45 minutes to clear each ticket up, that's getting the money issued, figuring out who had it at the time the ticket was issued, working up the invoice, etc etc.

They {National} did not do this. They simply filled out a form that said I was the driver and contacted the BMV to verify my residential address. I paid the bill to The Toll Roads.

Scarlet_Buckeye;954956 wrote:*Update*


I called the Toll Roads and informed them of my situation and they dropped the fee down from $65 to $37. Just FYI.

That's good to hear. Maybe if you call National they will do something similar with their fee.

Scarlet_Buckeye;954961 wrote:They {National} did not do this. They simply filled out a form that said I was the driver and contacted the BMV to verify my residential address. I paid the bill to The Toll Roads.

Sounds like $15 worth of work. Like I said, companies like BMW charge $75 for what they do.

Scarlet_Buckeye;954939 wrote:I wasn't looking to "jump" the toll. I am perfectly willing to pay the $5.75 for the toll. Heck, I'm even willing to pay an additional $20 for stupid "admin" fees. I think it's a "crime", however to penalize me close to $100 for a stupid situation like this when I'm from out of the area and was not familiar with what FasTrak was/is and there was no chance for me to rectify what I had done. (i.e., back up and/or turn around and pay the toll that I had erroringly missed.

Oh yes, the world should stop what it is doing because you made a mistake. You did have a chance to rectify it, by paying the ticket. But you left out one small detail - the $70 was because you didn't respond to the first notice.

The first notice requests payment for the toll amount and an additional $25 penalty. If you fail to respond to the instructions on the first notice, a second notice will be sent for the toll amount plus a $70 penalty ($25 penalty plus $45 late penalty).

Maybe this will help you out:

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are a first-time toll violator, and you are not currently a FasTrak customer, you can have your violation penalty dismissed by opening a new FasTrak account.

Con_Alma;954962 wrote:That's good to hear. Maybe if you call National they will do something similar with their fee.

I did. That lady was a bitch. I told her I won't be renting with National again.

GoChiefs;954930 wrote:Christ, it's called a mistake. Someday, you might make one.

Contrary to popular belief, Con Alma isn't Christ.

After listening to all of your story I am in agreement with you, you probably shouldn't rent with National anymore. They don't offer what you are looking to purchase.

Hope you find a rental company that matches you needs.

Con_Alma;954990 wrote:After listening to all of your story I am in agreement with you, you probably shouldn't rent with National anymore. They don't offer what you are looking to purchase.

Hope you find a rental company that matches you needs.

Looking to purchase?

I had/have zero problem with National. What I have a problem with is I've rented from them NUMEROUS times before... gave them several thousand dollars worth of business over the years... and now they are doing to "assess" me a $15 "admin fee"?! Really?! In my book, "customer care" means you provide service to your customers. Idk what "service" they provided me that was so great.

"... Idk what "service" they provided me that was so great."


That's my point. The service you are looking to purchase from National they apparently are not offering. I am agreeing with you. You shouldn't use them. You should look for someone that's going to offer the service that you would like to purchase.


They wish to "assess" associated fees. You would not like them to. That service you are looking for they are not offering.

Look elsewhere.

Well...

Update 2.0


[and I am fully aware that I am probably going to receive a bashing on here for this... but....]


Since this entire situation was boiling my blood to no end, I decided... what the heck... I will give National another call and see if I can get a different customer care representative and just see if perhaps they would be more inclined to help me than the last representative. So I gave them a call.... a wonderful woman by the name of "Mary" answered the phone... and she assured me that they are not allowed to do this, but for some reason she said she could sympathize with me and, as a result, she would go ahead and cancel out the $15. admin fee.


So...

I have successfully reduced this whole debacle from roughly $80 down to approx. $35. Am I happy about the $35? No. Do I feel this is more "respectable." Certainly. Again... I was not looking to get out of the toll ($5.something) at all, so I was willing to pay that. And since I did break a law, I was fine with paying some "administrative costs" or "extra penalty". I was hoping for $20 (so $25 total). I'll take ~$35 and go on with my life.

Boy do I feel better now. Thanks for listening to my rant.


Oh... and National won me back now as a customer (thanks to Mary) because they did the right thing and took care of the situation.

[now I'll sit back and listen to all the bashing happily ]