Driver Charged For Tolls She Never Drove Through; 'Nobody Had Any Explanation'
CHICAGO (CBS)—Everyone has to pay tolls, but what would you do if you received a bill for tolls you didn't drive through?
Kelly Coglin had not driven on a tollway recently, so she was shocked to see replenishment charges for tolls on her bank statement.
"I woke up and checked my bank account and there were these three replenishment charges," Coglin said. "I immediately thought my car was stolen, or my I-PASS was stolen."
Coglin looked outside and saw her car parked where she had left it.
The toll charges were for a toll about 40 miles away in Portage, Indiana.
"Usually my tolls are 75 cents, 45 cents, 45 cents, then there's the one for 52.92," she said.
When she called I-PASS, she was told she was at the mercy of the Indiana toll system, and there was nothing she could do about it.
"I called in to follow up, and they said I'd have to continue to talk to Illinois since it was an I-PASS," she said. "Nobody had any explanation why this money was taken from me on a road that I don't even take in a state that I don't even live in."
The Illinois tollway eventually told her the claim was being processed, but said it could take up to eight weeks to resolve.
Coglin said the customer representative on the phone was rude.
"He was actually quite hostile on the phone," she said. "He kept saying, 'well if your account balance is low, it's going to replenish.' He didn't even want to hear my side of the story."
A tollway spokesperson said Coglin was being issued a refund—which has to come from Indiana.
They say sometimes transponder numbers are entered manually if the device doesn't work at a toll booth, so Coglin's issue was likely due to human error.
"They took money from me when I was asleep," Coglin said.
Coglin was charged $52, but semi-trucks traveling across the state of Indiana can rack up more than $100 in tolls.
The same distance would cost a passenger car about $11.
