Frustrated motorists have taken to social media and consumer sites after receiving inaccurate e-toll bills via email and SMS.
A complainant on the consumer feedback website, Hello Peter, said that there were discrepancies between the amount that was owed in the bill received via SMS and the amount that a consultant said was owed when the user called the customer service centre for clarity.
Others said that they had received e-toll bills despite having not used e-tolled routes since the system commenced on 3 December 2013.
Facebook user Glen Borrill uploaded a screen grab of his cellphone, which displayed an SMS which he received on 6 December stating that he had an overdue e-toll balance of R432.34.
However, the caption which accompanied the picture read: “I got this SMS this morning. I have not used any e-toll roads yet. I’m in the Free State.”
Another Facebook user, Bronwynn Basson, said “I received an SMS stating I owe R657… I DON’T EVEN OWN A CAR!!!”
Roads agency spokesperson Vusi Mona, “We would like to assure members of the public that we take their concerns seriously and are making every effort to deal with those which are valid. We would also like to encourage members of the public to report their problems through our call centre, 0800 726 725, so as to enable Sanral to deal with them swiftly and effectively.”
Mona said e-toll customer services had been sending out SMS notifications of e-toll transactions that have been transferred to the Violations Processing Centre in order to ensure that motorists are informed about outstanding tolls due.
Mona said that SMSes and emails are not the agency’s only methods of billing motorists, adding that registered account holders receive their invoices in a 14-day cycle.
Mona explained that if the e-toll transaction is not paid within seven days, it is handed over to the processing centre: the user then becomes an alternate user and forfeits the available discounts.
However, he added that the road user would be given an opportunity to settle their e-toll transactions, but the debt collection process also commences during this time, which includes SMS, email and telephonic notifications.
“Once it appears that the debt collection process is unsuccessful, a final demand will be issued and the issue handed over to the prosecuting authority,” Mona said.
He said that motorists who dispute their e-toll transactions can use the nomination and representation processes that the agency has in place.
Nomination allows a person to redirect responsibility for the payment of the e-toll transaction to another party, while representation can be used when responsibility for the payment of the e-toll transaction is being denied.
