FasTrak Customer Service Center — Local services in San Francisco

Just to start off I want to say I worked for fastrak and also a user so I get how it works. I have now been employed to another company so in no way what I’m saying will benefit me or the company I just want to explain things from the inside. To start off 99.8% of errors are user error mean the customer made the mistake. I will admit that fastrak does make mistakes in the sense of taking a photo of a similar license plate and sending it to you in error. What’s happening is the camera takes the photo then the system asks the dmv for the info of that LP. It could be if your LP is “1ABC123” and the image is showing “1ABD123” since the C and the D look similar the camera picked it up as a C that’s why it got sent to you. You can dispute those in 30 seconds by just calling or going online. The proof is in the photo, you don’t have to provide anything else just tell the rep to look at the photos. If the photo is black on your notice, you can go online and they provide 4 different angels. One of those angels have to show the LP cause that’s how it was picked up. For all the people that say “they said I was there and I wasn’t” it could be the image error like I stated. If the image is your vehicle and you’re still saying you didn’t go thru then someone took your car or someone stole your LP. I worked for fastrak the past 10 years and never have I had a dispute where someone proved they weren’t at the toll at that time and we have a photo of it. People have to remember more then a MILLION people drive the bridges yearly. The people who get those “image errors” probably make up that percentage by .2%. Fastrak isn’t perfect obviously but they are not out to get you and scam you like everyone states. Of corse tolls are annoying but living in the Bay Area it’s expected and nothing new. Fastrak has been around almost 25+ years.Everyone is so quick to say I’m getting charged for tolls I’m not doing or I already paid, no, you just don’t realize how much it’s costing or how much you are using it. So for all the people saying fastrak is going to get shut down cause there such a scam, there not. Again these reviews only make up a sliver of the population that uses fastrak. All of the people saying “I have an account and I’m getting violations or notices in the mail” it can only be for a few reasons, there is no money on the acct, or no money at the time of crossing on the acct, or the LP isn’t on the acct, or it wasn’t added at the time of crossing. Again very easy to dispute and explain to you on why your getting the notices. You will never get a notice if something was paid already UNLESS they sent it out before it was paid, if you called and that was the reason then it would show as paid and we wouldn’t ask for the payment again. Another thing if you get a notice and it’s not your LP and the image matches the LP in the notice then the DMV is stating the vehicle was in your possession at that time. It could be a rental vehicle, a loaner vehicle, if you co signed for someone, if you sold the vehicle and the new owner hasnt registered it yet or if you have someone in your family with the same name and address such as a father and son would have or if someone stole your identity and registered that vehicle under your name. Fastrak doesn’t pull things out of thin air and say it’s ur vehicle you have to pay. Again in the 10 years I’ve been with them never have I seen someone say no to all those scenarios and it been proven. Somehow that vehicle is linked to you. Another thing I read was how people were getting double charged. It’s physically impossible to get double charged UNLESS (again user error) you have 2 devices in the vehicle and it’s reading both. If your getting notices yet your still getting charged on your acct most likely it’s because it’s reading the device on your acct and when it doesn’t pick up device and it reads LP the LP isn’t on your acct. I have so much more to say but I reached the limit lol I’ll update this once more reviews come thru to try to answer the...

Well, 4.5 Stars. Their more recent brilliant move to having top-notch NICE understanding professional customer service reps answering their 877 number (far faster than you're lead to believe) is greatly appreciated, more than once! IMPRESSIVE! Even after reading their pamphlet carefully twice and checking online, FasTrak can be complicated! But I get that this system saves us from worse traffic issues, wasted time, and much higher costs in the big pic.

I'm sure some complaints are legit and frustrating, but I NEVER hear day-to-day Bay Area people I know (hundreds) complaining about FasTrak. LOTS of other things, but not FasTrak. So, I believe the low-rating online is not representative.

I've been using FasTrak since it started, so almost two decades. I keep reading a plethora of horror stories posted online, reviews, Nextdoor. So I started monitoring my statements for errors, esp since FasTrak states errors need to be reported promptly (I believe within 30 days of charge), but they were never incorrect (so it became a waste of my time, and I can now guesstimate accuracy by how often I use tolling locations and how often I receive an email letting me know I'm being charged to replenish in order to have the minimum amount sitting in my FasTrak account). People tend not to read directions (me included), so fyi: pamphlet explains why they advise not using an ATM check or debit card due to inherent confusing potential billing delays. And all those times I thought I won the free carpool lane prize, I wasn't doing it right . . . so I probably got charged, dang.

If you throw your toll-tag transponder into a car (your "never-drives" elderly aunt lent to your visitor) with a license plate not registered at FasTrak, your elderly aunt might have a messy heart attack when she gets a big bill in her snail mail . . . so safer to register license plates of cars borrowing a transponder. Etc.

If your transponder is about 25 years old, they don't want it back. I tried to plot out how to park at the Beale St office in a nightmarish-busy area of SF yesterday with potentially 11-people lines, after reading horror stories about big charges for unaccounted-for (lost, one way or another) transponders--and read about certified or registered mail returns, etc. Glad I spoke with a nice fast very-helpful rep just before I went: they don't need the dinosaur unusable toll-tag transponders back! (The prior rep was amazingly knowledgeable, but I think didn't realize this; even the best continue to learn something new . . . FasTrak can be complicated!)

FasTrak could do a better job of providing info. There were years I had to drive a lot in busy Silicon Valley. Even longtime-resident academic professionals down there told me they don't use the FasTrak lanes because they can't figure out how. I tried reading the FasTrak signs while driving to figure it out . . . that's a (really) bad idea. That info (and more) is not in the pamphlet.

Thanks for being polite and understanding with our FasTrak reps, P.O. and SS employees, good PG&E people out in the field, short-staffed healthcare and first responders . . . we want to keep the good employees around so these challenged systems get better, not worse! The good ones have no trouble finding a...

I've been dealing with disputing bogus toll violations for over 5 months now. From August 1st- mid September of last year, my express lane usage were counted as "Violations" instead of getting charged to my active account. The service reps are mostly friendly and definitely mean well, but the vast majority of them seem like they don't know how to help with anything other than making a regular payment. Their outdated system has made this problem astronomically worse than it should have been. I believe it's purposely designed this way to take advantage of us regular people.

Get this. Violation notices are only sent by physical mail, even if you have an active account with this company. This means if your transponder stops working for whatever reason that may be, and you use the express lanes, you will not be notified via email or phone nor will it be displayed on your account page. The physical violation invoice letter is the only notification you could potentially receive. This letter will not be sent to the address you have on file with Fastrak, but will instead be sent to the vehicle's registration address.

In my case, when my transponder didn't work for a month, (Which is something else I'm very curious about...) they sent my Violation invoice letters to my vehicle's previous registration address, not the current one, so I had never been informed. Imagine my surprise when I go to the DMV to register my car in January this year only to find out I have over $1300 in fees from "Violations" and late penalties.

I thought a few phone calls would clear this up and that I'd be able to only pay the regular express lane rates without late fees/penalties. However, I was informed I am indeed responsible for the full amount and could only potentially reduce the total by submitting a DMV Hold Dispute through their website, which I sent out January 9th. I am still waiting for some kind of response.

Every time I've called and asked about the status of my Violation dispute, the typical response will be the rep putting me on hold while they "look into it", and after a few minutes pass they return to inform me there's nothing they can do about it and I should just resubmit the form and hope for the best this time. But if I call again and explain the same issue in the same manner to a different representative, then it turns out they actually can do something for me that doesn't require me to start the process all over again and keep the ball rolling on my current ticket.

TLDR; This company is attempting to bill me for over $1300 due to their equipment and their website programming both failing.

At risk of sounding rude, most of the representatives are friendly but are either too lazy or too ignorant on the processes to actually solve an issue you may be experiencing. I normally have to call at least 3 times before I luck out with someone who can actually assist me.

Stay away from this...