Pieter Furstenberg of Culembeeck is a law-abiding citizen who to his peril chose to register for e-toll and get the tags for his two vehicles and for his daughter’s.
Little did he know of the nightmare that awaited him.
His first problem was being billed the same amount for activation three times while there was no activation, resulting in his paying the unregistered fees for three weeks as he waited for the mistake to be rectified.
Then he paid his R5 for an e-tag holder and the R60 delivery fee, and was promised it would be delivered within days. It never arrived and when he enquired about it at the Westgate e-toll outlet he was told that he could go and collect it. However, at the collection point he was charged R5 again regardless of having proof of payment. In the meanwhile it is three weeks later and the holder that was supposed to be mailed to him still has not arrived.
In January the statements started arriving thick and fast. The initial few stating amounts such as (pre-discount) R35 and R18 he accepted and understood but then out of the blue, for a period during which he and his daughter travelled very little, statements arrived for amounts such as R409 and R242.
Furstenberg went to query this at the e-toll outlet but according to him he arrogantly and rudely was told to pay the amount of R508. He questioned the bills and wanted to know where and when he past which gantries, but this they could not tell him. Furstenberg paid the amount but in the meanwhile was handed over for other “outstanding amounts”, which also could not be explained to him. Statements are still arriving, the one more baffling than the next. He also pointed out the fact that when statements are requested (although via email) he is charged R10 per request.
Furstenberg says he is angry that he did the right thing and now has all these problems, plus having to deal with inefficient, rude e-toll employees.
The Record also came across the following bizarre complaints that were directed to the DA at their request.
• A resident in the Western Cape who has not travelled on Gauteng’s roads since the implementation of e-tolling has received two invoices to date, one of which was for a motorcycle, when in fact her only vehicle is a Corsa Lite sedan
• A resident received an sms from Sanral stating that he owes R00.00 and has been handed over to the VPC (Violation Processing Centre)
• People who do not even own a vehicle or have a driver’s licence receive smses from Sanral about outstanding debt. One of these smses was for an amount of R1 362,63
• Many people have received a final sms warning without having received an official invoice
• Gauteng residents who do not travel on tolled roads are receiving smses for final pay notices from Sanral
The DA has asked motorists to send their complaints to them, who in turn will forward it to the National Consumer Commission (NCC). Complaints can be emailed to enocentn@da.org.za.
