A few times per year, one or the other of our family vehicles travels on our local toll road, and I get a ~$5 bill in the mail. Each time, I think about spending the money on transponders for the cars, and each time I read the Terms and Conditions of a transponder account and am reminded how inequitable they are. Among the absurdities presented is that as a transponder owner, I would be responsible to monitor my account on the web site to see whether my balance has fallen to a level that requires replenishment, with no responsibility on the toll operator to inform me, though they can charge me for failing to notice independently and replenish. That’s crazy stupid.

Does anybody read these things before signing up?

https://www.myncquickpass.com/en/about/terms_ind.shtml

NC Quick Pass

Kim Johnson May 16, 2016 08:25

I read this and wondered, why is the state sending us $5? Then I realized it was just a bill for 5 dollars…

David Christian May 16, 2016 12:37

How long does it take for the bill to show up? I traveled one of those roads for the first time the other week. Given that it’s been once in two years I think I’ll skip the transponder…

Michael K Johnson May 16, 2016 14:26

I think it was about a month in this case. I think they have a coordinated monthly sweep and then check the data; I think this was a bill for April that arrived in mid-May.

Daniel L. Johnson May 17, 2016 12:50

I have an Illinois tollway iPass transponder, which is wonderful. I’ve registered multiple cars, so it can be passed back & forth; the accounting system keeps a credit card on file, and automatically adds $20 when the credit balance falls below $10. No attention needed.

But you don’t see this convenience feature until an account has been established.

Michael K Johnson May 17, 2016 12:58

Yeah, it was the specific terms and conditions of the North Carolina program that bothered me.

Andy Grimm May 20, 2016 20:49

We have NC quick pass and it auto-replenishes. We’ve never had to think about it.

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