Man refunded after being charged toll while car was being towed
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — An Oklahoma man is now getting a refund for a toll charge he says he never should have had to pay in the first place.
"I wasn't driving my vehicle on the turnpike and I didn't feel I should be responsible for those toll bills," Hudson said.
A rough start to the day only got worse for Josh Hudson after his vehicle broke down at his home.
He called a tow company to come pick up his car so it could get fixed. After picking up Hudson's car, the tow truck driver took the Kilpatrick Turnpike to get to the mechanic shop.
Little did Hudson know, he would end up being charged for being on the Turnpike, prompting him to call the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority.
"I talked to seven people to be told by two of those agents that they saw the image of my vehicle on a flatbed tow truck as it went through the toll gate," Hudson said. "They were like, 'yes, I agree, you shouldn't be tolled for this this trip, but my manager said, no, that's against our practice.'"
That is when he decided to reach out to News 4 for help.
We contacted OTA about the charge. They said it shouldn't have happened and they worked with Hudson on getting him a refund.
We're sorry that Mr. Hudson had this experience. OTA, on average, sees about 17 million transactions per month on its system of 12 turnpikes across the state. While we have a low rate of transponder errors, issues or unusual situations like this one may happen from time to time. We encourage customers to always check their statements and invoices for turnpike travel much the same as they would review a bank or utility statement. If something is not right, OTA wants to know about it and remedy it for the traveling customer.
Oklahoma Turnpike Authority
"I literally thought it was going to be probably a less than five minute conversation on the phone being like, oh, you are not physically driving on the road and here's your refund of two bucks in total, have a great day, thank you for calling OTA," Hudson said. "That was not my experience."
Hudson said it was less about the money and more about the principle of what happened.
"It's like going to the grocery store, if you're only buying one loaf of bread, they shouldn't be charging it for two," Hudson said.
Hudson has been refunded.
The OTA says while an instance like this is rare, it does happen.
They also sent a list of preventative measures customers can take to make sure they don't get charged if they know their vehicle will be traveling on the turnpike, but they aren't driving.
In a situation like Hudson's, here are the options to avoid transponder reads:
- Remove the toll transponder sticker from the windshield before transportation.
- Go onto your online account and de-activate the toll transponder associated with the vehicle and license plate.
- Call in to 1-800-PIKEPASS and ask a Customer Service representative to deactivate the toll transponder from the account before the transport.