Well, a bit of an update. I had a supervisor call a few hours ago to discuss the matter with me.
Her reasoning on the subject is that if I was to go to the supermarket and put a bunch of things in the cart, get to the checkout and all of them were malfunctioning I couldn’t just walk out of the store without paying could I. I agreed that in this case she was correct but my actual complaint was based on the fact that I had to use my time to correct a deficiency which existed on their end.
By entering the toll road I did in fact enter into a contract to pay for the service. But since the toll booth was out of order I was not able to make the payment. Legally I could have placed 3 $1 bills in the big basket drove off and argued my case in court if that is what it came to but instead I chose to call and find out why they would put a customer out like this. Her answer is that under California law they cannot offer a free toll to ANYONE and are obligated by law to collect the fee regardless of the circumstances.
At this point I didn’t want to give her any more problems because I could see that there was nothing more she could do under the circumstances if the law actually does require this. I suggested that they allow the machine to accept a credit card like a gas pump in case the coin slot or bill reader gets jammed up and possibly find another way to collect the cash on site if the machine is out of order.
She offered me a bunch of toll credits for my inconvenience but I always feel “dirty” if I take something for free like that. Its like hush money and my complaint looses its integrity. I then offered to pay the $2.50 cents by credit card.
While I didn’t agree with the supervisors reasoning and the companies policy in the end at least she was reasonable enough to agree to bring up my complaint to management as well as a couple of my suggestions. What else can you ask for.
PS I wanted to ask if the DMV in Mexico was equally cooperative as the California DMV in providing information when one of their citizens takes a trip on the road and does not pay. I can only imagine what the collect rate is from that process.
