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Happy Canada Day!
Jul. 1st, 2009 07:28 amTo all my friends north of the border.
Jul. 1st, 2009
Not as EZ as one would hope
Jul. 1st, 2009 10:24 amYears ago, I got frustrated with waiting in the lines at the toll plazas on I95 when traveling about. On a few occasions, it took 20 minutes to get through. To make things a bit quicker, I signed up for an EZPass. That helped a lot. I could scoot on through the EZPass lanes while those plebians had to wait in the lines.
When I started working in Northern Virginia, I ended up commuting on the Dulles toll road. Unfortunately, Virginia wasn't part of the EZPass system, so I ended up setting up an account with their system, SmartTag. It meant a separate transponder, but it wasn't too much of a hassle.
Not long back, VA decided to join in and switched their system over to EZPass. Suddenly, I didnt' have to remember to swap transponders when traveling from my new place in VA to points north. Yay! Since most of my time on toll roads is in VA, I just kept the VA one on the windshield while the old MD one sat at home. From time to time, I'd think "I really should close down the MD acct" but never got around to it.
On Monday, I received a notice from Maryland's EZPass system. Turns out that starting July 1, they're going to start charging a monthly fee just for having an account. Huh. Even though it's only $1.50/month, that's a buck fifty more than I want to pay for a transponder I don't even use any more. Now the letter was dated June 16, but I just received it on Monday the 29th. Eh. Whatever.
I dug up my old MD transponder and forgot to bring it into work yesterday. I remembered it today, though. Armed with that and my account number from the letter, I called the customer service number to see about canceling my account and returning the transponder. Looks like they're getting hammered on the phone lines today since there's a 16 minute queue time to reach an operator. Ouch. While I'd rather speak to someone to make sure the acct is canceled, I figured I'd see if I could do it on their website while I was on hold.
Now this account was set up years ago and I honestly don't remember creating a PIN for it in addition to a password. Heck, I don't remember any password. I'd done all the setup stuff over the phone way back when. There's a note on the site however, that says if you've never accessed your account over the web or forgotten your password or PIN to just click the 'Lost Password' link and answer the security question. Groovy.
So the security question turns out to be "What is the PIN Number"
So...if you don't know your PIN, you have to enter your PIN to get it.
I did finally get through on the phone. They won't do anything without the PIN either. No matter that I could provide any identifying information requested, they won't reset it or anything. They'll just mail it out in a physical letter sometime in the next few days. So maybe I'll get it sometime in the next two weeks. Bleah.
When I started working in Northern Virginia, I ended up commuting on the Dulles toll road. Unfortunately, Virginia wasn't part of the EZPass system, so I ended up setting up an account with their system, SmartTag. It meant a separate transponder, but it wasn't too much of a hassle.
Not long back, VA decided to join in and switched their system over to EZPass. Suddenly, I didnt' have to remember to swap transponders when traveling from my new place in VA to points north. Yay! Since most of my time on toll roads is in VA, I just kept the VA one on the windshield while the old MD one sat at home. From time to time, I'd think "I really should close down the MD acct" but never got around to it.
On Monday, I received a notice from Maryland's EZPass system. Turns out that starting July 1, they're going to start charging a monthly fee just for having an account. Huh. Even though it's only $1.50/month, that's a buck fifty more than I want to pay for a transponder I don't even use any more. Now the letter was dated June 16, but I just received it on Monday the 29th. Eh. Whatever.
I dug up my old MD transponder and forgot to bring it into work yesterday. I remembered it today, though. Armed with that and my account number from the letter, I called the customer service number to see about canceling my account and returning the transponder. Looks like they're getting hammered on the phone lines today since there's a 16 minute queue time to reach an operator. Ouch. While I'd rather speak to someone to make sure the acct is canceled, I figured I'd see if I could do it on their website while I was on hold.
Now this account was set up years ago and I honestly don't remember creating a PIN for it in addition to a password. Heck, I don't remember any password. I'd done all the setup stuff over the phone way back when. There's a note on the site however, that says if you've never accessed your account over the web or forgotten your password or PIN to just click the 'Lost Password' link and answer the security question. Groovy.
So the security question turns out to be "What is the PIN Number"
So...if you don't know your PIN, you have to enter your PIN to get it.
I did finally get through on the phone. They won't do anything without the PIN either. No matter that I could provide any identifying information requested, they won't reset it or anything. They'll just mail it out in a physical letter sometime in the next few days. So maybe I'll get it sometime in the next two weeks. Bleah.