Tens of thousands of drivers are getting TollTag bills for what was supposed to be a free ride, and the North Texas Tollway Authority is working to fix the problem.
Tens of thousands of drivers are getting TollTag bills for what was supposed to be a free ride, and the North Texas Tollway Authority is working to fix the problem.
"I start getting billed from May all the way through June," said Suzanne Kocurek, of Fort Worth.
Kocurek said she spotted nearly two dozen charges on this month's NTTA TollTag bill for the new DFW Connector TEXpress lanes at a time when using the just-opened express lanes was supposed to be free due to an initial grace period.
"Signs still say they're free," said Kocurek. "There's still one on 114 in Southlake that said tolls begin July 7."
Kocurek's bill for 23 trips totals $18.38, but the overall numbers are staggering.
From May 27 to July 6, a total of 41,362 TollTag customers were improperly billed for 192,000 trips, for a total of $171,000.
The NTTA processed the transactions, but TxDOT provided the actual information.
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"TxDOT regrets that this happened and once we identified the issue, we took immediate action with our partner to begin the credit reimbursement process of those affected," said TxDOT spokesman Tony Hartzel in a written statement.
The NTTA is now working to fix the problem.
"We do believe we've identified everybody who was mistakenly charged and refunded that, or we are in the process of refunding back to their account," said NTTA spokesman Michael Rey.
The NTTA expects to send out a letter this week informing customers that their accounts have been refunded.
