OP clearly doesn't want to be held responsible for a violation he committed.
OP went through EZ pass lane knowing he didn't have one.
OP thought he was badass doing it
OP got caught
OP now has to pay
Its that simple.
if you are a current paying customer and its an honest mistake, they may be willing to work with you and just charge it to your existing account. cant hurt to ask.
You call EZ Pass, tell them you had the transponder in the car with you but it must not have gone off as it wasnt mounted to the windshield since you were taking a new car for a test drive. Tell them to deduct it from your account.
Call your local authority over the subject. This is not new ground that you're hitting.
First off, based on your thread title, most people would assume that you went through the toll booth once while test driving a car. A test drive usually lasts no longer than 30 minutes, if that.
But in fact, you kept the car overnight, drove it through several booths and you don't want to pay the toll? How many booths did you go through??
And you are asking if you should pay the tolls that you rang up?
About a month ago I test drove a car and I guess I went through some ezpass tolls without thinking (since I have ezpass), now they just called me and want $101.
Do I have any obligation to pay it besides... karma? Think they'd come after me for 100 bucks?
Probably only one. My IPASS account ran out but did not get refilled. I was being hit for $80 in fines for each instance. But got it cleared up because I had an existing account. My guess is that the OP needs to talk with EZPASS people and try to see if they can waive the fines since he has an existing account.
There is a reason why you register license plate numbers with your account before using the toll booths.
Good question and not one I have been able to get answered. But, I suspect it has something to do with the fact that when you get the sticker, you have to have your checking account attached to it and they keep a minimum $40 (iirc) in "reserve" in their account. They obviously earn interest on that. So, anytime your eztag account goes under $40, they hit you up to get you back to that level. Two vehicles would give them $80 to earn interest on. You can see how that can escalate very quickly for them.
here in texas, your pass is affixed to the front window. You can't forget it. You also can't take it off and affix it to another vehicle. It will rip in half when you try to remove it.
I just got mine like 2 weeks ago and it comes with velcro also. There's the 3m sticky side and the transponder attaches with velcro. They have an option for a transponder that goes on your licence plate but I thought with this thing I could move it between vehicles. Now that I think about it, I probably could if I got some more velcro stickers.
we have one like that. we picked up the velcro at walmart for like $2 for 2-3 sets. they were pre-cut with the sticky tape on them.
Here in the Dallas area, if your toll account balance falls below $10, they charge $40 back to the credit card tied to the account.
I set my refill to $20 a time.
Me being new to the US and stupid.. took a rental around Chicago.. missed two booths.. because I did not have enough change(I hate those 89 cent booths). Fast forward two months.. I get a letter from the agency with $60 in fines. I called them.. and they said that the actual fine is ~ $10, but they add $25 for each ticket received and call it "administrative/processing charges."
I just STFU and paid all of it. OP should do the same.. unless there is any other way to negotiate.