Diane Hjalseth is a courier of medical supplies who was the recipient of a surprise bill from Good to Go!
“I opened it up – $1,001 and change. And that’s where the heart attack came in,” exclaimed Hjalseth.
Out of nowhere Good to Go charged Hjalseth for nearly a year’s worth of trips on the 520 bridge. During all of this, she repeatedly tried to find out her account balance.
“The guy on the telephone told me, ‘I see that you have a zero balance, you owe nothing.’ I said, ‘I know I owe something because I’ve gone across the bridge,” said Hjalseth.
In total close to 8200 license plates involved in 126 thousand transactions are involved in the snafu. Good to Go blames this all on its vendor, Electronic Transaction Consultants Corporation. Good to Go said ETCC had a problem processing tolls in March of last year. Basically, accounts were not being charged. Last month the vendor discovered the issue and sent customers the previously uncharged tolls.
One of Good to Go most outspoken critics, state Representative Mark Harmsworth feels the whole tolling system needs an overhaul.
“This just shows the gross incompetence of this agency,” said Rep. Harmsworth.
Harmsworth said ETCC also should be jettisoned as the vendor. He said the legislature is taking those steps, asking for proposals to make that happen.
“It’s time, we need to put this out to bid, this is obviously not working for us, let’s find a vendor that will work,” said Harmsworth.
The glitch wasn’t limited to just 520; the Narrows Bridge and 405 express toll lanes were also part of the all part of the issue. The state is giving drivers six months to pay back its bills.
ETC issued the following statement regarding the error:
“ETC sincerely apologizes for the delay in invoicing and any inconvenience this has caused… We have implemented additional process monitoring and preventative measures to ensure this issue does not happen in the future.”
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