On Fri, 18 Nov 2016 09:18:06 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Friday, November 18, 2016 at 11:50:40 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Fri, 18 Nov 2016 06:14:04 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

Does anyone know what actually happens if you go through a "transponder only"
toll station in a rental car without a transponder?

On a recent vacation in CA, I found myself approaching the Golden Gate Bridge
in an Enterprise rental. There are no toll collectors on this bridge, only
transponder lanes.

After I got home, I read the rules found here but I was already well beyond
the "pay within 48 hours" time frame.

http://goldengate.org/tolls/rentalto...php#enterprise

I'm considering calling Enterprise discuss this, even though I am well
beyond the mailing of the violation letter that I assume went to Enterprise.
I just figured I'd run the question by the ng first to see if anyone has some
real life experience/advice for this type of situation.

Thanks.

You get a message from the rental car company but they have already
billed your credit card. There is a significant service fee. Happened
to me on the bypass in Denver. That little short cut to the airport
cost me over $30. (maybe more like $40) I know I was pretty unhappy
but what are you going to do?
"Toll by plate" costs you about 2.5x the price of the transponder toll
here in Florida too. I still do not use toll roads enough to justify a
transponder but I did escrow some money in a TBP account that cuts the
billing fee. I would be surprised that the rental company doesn't do
that and still charge you the whole fee, along with a service charge.
They are notorious for adding extra charges to that bargain rate they
advertise.

Well, that's not what happened. I should have checked my credit card
statement before I posted my question.

Enterprise charged me $11.45 for a $7.50 toll. i.e. $3.95 extra.

All they did was charge me the toll and the cost of a single day's
rental of the transponder. No penalty.

Their transponder rental fee is $3.95 per day from the first usage. Since
all other tolls while I was in CA were paid by cash or by using the
transponder of the folks we were visiting, the final trip to the airport
was the only time I was exposed. So in retrospect, it looks like they
"auto-rented" me a transponder for a single day since the "first usage"
occurred on the last day of the rental period.

The charge hit my card way outside the 48 hour window that the CA Toll
Authority states, but it doesn't look like Enterprise (or CA?) really cares.

Perhaps there will be a penalty accessed later if CA bills Enterprise. I'll
let you know if that happens.

Maybe the rental car companies are better equipped to deal with these
toll by plate charges these days. It was a pretty new concept when I
was in Colorado. Denver may also be harder to get along with.