As you'll recall, earlier this year, Virginia's legislature did away with the monthly fee for E-ZPass Flex accounts. Yaaaay! Oh, wait, not so fast.

Check out the new terms and conditions as of October 1.

https://www.ezpassva.com/

Don't take an HOV trip for six months? Enjoy your $10 "transponder functionality upgrade fee."

Don't use your transponder for tolls for six months? Enjoy having your account closed and having to send the ($35) transponder back.

So for those of us who can only occasionally summon up enough people for an HOV trip, or those who very seldom pay a toll, I guess we're going to be paying an effective monthly fee, and I guess that free HOV ride isn't so free.

WTF Virginia? It costs you NOTHING to have an idle account. You can even earn interest off the money just sitting there.

What a load of crap. Like everything else involved with the HOT lanes, a miserable failure for us, but a great way to send money from Virginia to the lane's foreign owners.

Thanks for putting this out there for info purposes.

So how can the T's & C's change on you midstream without you actually "Agreeing" to the T's & C's?

Also if you have 4 cars, but do not use one very often, codes the HOV/Toll trip have to be for "each" transponder or just a single transponder on the account.

So if I use it exclusively for HOV3 my account will be cancelled?!?

WTF?



P.S. I liked Janet better than Chrissy, but Mrs Roper was a hot sack of fuck.

What Gives Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for putting this out there for info
> purposes.
>
> So how can the T's & C's change on you midstream
> without you actually "Agreeing" to the T's & C's?
>
> Also if you have 4 cars, but do not use one very
> often, codes the HOV/Toll trip have to be for
> "each" transponder or just a single transponder on
> the account.

Dunno about the second question (which is excellent) but the answer to the first is that I'm sure the fine print says that they can change the Ts&Cs at any time. And by accepting the unit you've implicitly accepted the terms. Nice, huh?

Greybeard Wrote:

> Dunno about the second question (which is
> excellent) but the answer to the first is that I'm
> sure the fine print says that they can change the
> Ts&Cs at any time. And by accepting the unit
> you've implicitly accepted the terms. Nice, huh?

I would prefer to give up my first born when I actually "Agree" to the Ts&Cs.

HOT Sucks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As you'll recall, earlier this year, Virginia's
> legislature did away with the monthly fee for
> E-ZPass Flex accounts. Yaaaay! Oh, wait, not so
> fast.
>
> Check out the new terms and conditions as of
> October 1.
>
> https://www.ezpassva.com/
>
> Don't take an HOV trip for six months? Enjoy your
> $10 "transponder functionality upgrade fee."
>
> Don't use your transponder for tolls for six
> months? Enjoy having your account closed and
> having to send the ($35) transponder back.
>
> So for those of us who can only occasionally
> summon up enough people for an HOV trip, or those
> who very seldom pay a toll, I guess we're going to
> be paying an effective monthly fee, and I guess
> that free HOV ride isn't so free.
>
> WTF Virginia? It costs you NOTHING to have an idle
> account. You can even earn interest off the money
> just sitting there.
>
> What a load of crap. Like everything else involved
> with the HOT lanes, a miserable failure for us,
> but a great way to send money from Virginia to the
> lane's foreign owners.

If you already had a Flex as of 10/1/14, you are grandfathered in and won't be subject to the $10 fee. If you only use the Flex for HOV and never pay tolls with it, I doubt that would count as "Account Inactivity" and cause automatic closure but that isn't really clear in the T&C.

"e) Beginning on July 1st, 2015, users who have not used their Flex functionality for HOV
transactions on Express Lanes for any prior six month period will be required to exchange the
Flex transponder for a standard transponder (at no cost) or be subject to a one-time
transponder functionality upgrade charge of $10. Transponders obtained prior to October 1,
2014 will not be subject to this provision."

"ACCOUNT INACTIVITY
Users who do not use their account for toll payment for period of six months may be subject to
account closure. Users who fail to return their transponders shall be subject to the lost/stolen fee
and further collection procedures and legal action by the Commonwealth of Virginia to collect any
outstanding balance. Any unclaimed balances will be treated as unclaimed property in accordance
with the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia"

Lived Here Forever Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I doubt that would count as
> "Account Inactivity" and cause automatic closure
> but that isn't really clear in the T&C.
>
> "e) ...users who have not used their Flex functionality for HOV
> transactions on Express Lanes for any prior six
> month period will be required to exchange the
> Flex transponder for a standard transponder (at no
> cost) or be subject to a one-time
> transponder functionality upgrade charge of $10.
>
> "ACCOUNT INACTIVITY
> Users who do not use their account for toll
> payment for period of six months may be subject to
> account closure. Users who fail to return their
> transponders shall be subject to the lost/stolen
> fee and further collection procedures and legal action
> by the Commonwealth of Virginia


The T&C is pretty clear to me...

- If you use the HOT lanes ONLY for non-carpool, you have to trade your FLEX for a regular or get charged $10 to "upgrade" your account to what it was doing before. This is an example of "fleecing".

- If you use the HOT lanes ONLY for HOV, your account will be closed because you did not make a _payment_ using the transponder AND your Flex transponder is considered _stolen_ if you do not return it. This is an example of "reneging" on one of the promises made prior to HOT lane construction, that the lanes would be free for carpool users for the good of the commuting public.


I don't know why people are reading something into these that isn't there... go read stories on how Transurban treats its customers, which interpretation do you really think Transurban is going to go with? My money is on what the words actually say.

And my money went to Massachusetts a few years ago for all my E-ZPass needs, which works fine because I don't risk my livelihood on trips in the HOT lanes where Transurban can send collections after you whenever they want, for whatever made-up reason they want, and the only way a customer can fix it despite constant email and phone calls with them is to go to the press.

You left this out of the quote:

"Transponders obtained prior to October 1, 2014 will not be subject to this provision."

You are only "fleeced" if you got your xponder after 10/1.

I travel to work at 6 am. Traffic is light then so I do not need to use HOV. With the easy pass coming to 95 I was planning to get one to have in the car for emergency use or random trips north. Not now. I'm not going to worry about when I last used it and whether or not a collection agency will be after me simply for not using it.

YK Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You left this out of the quote:
>
> "Transponders obtained prior to October 1, 2014
> will not be subject to this provision."
>
> You are only "fleeced" if you got your xponder
> after 10/1.

It is a fleecing if you didn't read the notice until the first date of this thread and you bought one in October. And we all know it is just a matter of time before they phase out the grandfathered units.

This info was not widely broadcast to the public. If you are one of the thousands of people across the state who bought a Flex transponder in the last two weeks then yes, you have been fleeced.

The thing about giving them the right to cancel your account if you don't pay any tolls for six months has been part of the terms and conditions since the Smart Tag days. I got a letter about it back in the 2004 or 2005 timeframe. A call to the service center in Clifton Forge got it resolved and they didn't cancel my account, but that aspect of it is nothing new.

NoVA Commuter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't know why people are reading something into
> these that isn't there...

They need to manufacture more faux outrage. If their stocks of over-hyped, sensationalized nonsense get too low, they simply wither up and die.

Everybody will forget about this bullshit once they build a few more Lexus Lanes, continue to block all expansion of existing lanes, and convert more previously-free HOV lanes into Lexus Lanes.

Since when have changes ever benefited the unrepresented average person? Pay your fucking fees and STFU.