Crooks

So I broke down Friday and decided to buy an ipass.  All of a sudden it seems like I'm using the tollroads regularly so it just made sense.  I went to Jewel and coughed up my $52 then went home to activate it online since I needed it that afternoon.

Imagine my surprise when I was told that my account and transponder couldn't be activated because I had multiple violations against my license plate.  Umm...no.  I fucking hate tolls, hate the concept behind them but I always pay them.  I'm too tired and too broke to make social statements anymore so I just pay them and move on.

After waiting on hold with the toll authority I finally got to speak to a person.  Apparently there were 3 violations, all from the same plaza.  That would be the $2 plaza as you get on 355 north.  And they were all after 10pm.  Because the wonderful state of Illinois is broke, some genius decided that pulling the overnight staff on manual toll booths would save plenty of money for the State.  In reality it seems more likely, as my story will prove I believe, that they wanted to force/extort people into buying ipass.

When you go through the unmanned booth you'll see a sign telling you to pay online or to pay at the next manned booth, which is the 75th street plaza.  I prefer to take care of this right away so I drive to the plaza.  Normally I'll get off on Boughton before 75th (even though I live off 75th) because Boughton is only 50 cents as opposed to the full dollar at 75th.  Time-wise its about the same to get home from that point.  But like I said, when its after 10pm I make a point of driving to the manned booth to make sure I pay that $2 toll right away.  And it usually results in a long wait as there's only 1 manned booth there, so everyone else who wants to pay that toll is lined up.  The attendant has to get out of the booth, write down your plate, fill out a receipt for you, then its done.  I have been on the toll road 3 times after 10pm since they canceled their 3rd shift.  3 times I drove to 75th to pay the toll in person.  I have 3 violations on my plate.

I pleaded my case to the guy on the phone.  I was pissed, but I made a point of explaining that I wasn't mad at him because this wasn't his fault, so I wasn't intending to shoot the messenger.  But dammit this was wrong.  Not only do they hit you for the $2 they claim you owe but there's a $20 fine per incident.  They wanted $66.  Talk about generating revenue for the state.  So the guy was sympathetic and told me he could take 2 of the violations off my account but I'd have to pay the 3rd.  Still sucked but it was better than it started out, and I was in a hurry to leave so I needed that transponder activated.  Paid up the so-called violation and hit the road.

But this is not over.  No fucking way.  Got home from my jaunt to my sister's last night and immediately got to looking for those receipts.  Guess what?  I found 2 of them right off the bat.  HA!  After I get back from the gym Monday morning I'm going to make another call to the toll authority.  I simply will ask directions to their offices and make my way there.  When I get there I will demand a refund of my money and a letter of apology from them.  An apology for stealing my money after I made a point of being responsible to pay their extortion fees for using their roads, roads I pay for already with my taxes.  Hell I might even throw in a fine of my own.  And I may not worry about looking for that 3rd receipt.  They claimed I didn't pay any of those tolls and I can prove I paid 2 of them, I think at the point the preponderance of evidence swings to my favor.

And yeah, I'm going to do this.  If I hadn't paid those fines they probably would've voided my plates and license until they were paid, so they weren't going to play nice.  And oh yeah, fuck you State of Illinois.