Team-BHP - FASTag: All you need to know about procuring & using it!

I have made a few trips after I purchased FASTag from PayTM last month.

My first experience was a disaster. Toll operator at the Devanahalli toll, Bangalore told me FASTag was not working and asked me to pay by cash. Few minutes after crossing the toll I got a message that the money was deducted from my PayTM wallet as well.
I filed a claim immediately but 30-35 days and several follow-ups later I still haven't got a refund.

After the initial bad experience I was sceptical about it, but after a trip to Horsley hills and Pondicherry and several trips to the KIA airport, I'm happy to report that I'm very pleased with it. All tolls that I have been to have a FASTag lane and time spent on toll plazas has drastically reduced.

Two points of improvement -
1) Refunds/Claims and support(This could be PayTM specific).
2) Implementation - Non FASTag vehicles should not be allowed in FASTag lane. This is plain annoying.

FasTag experience is getting horrific day by day.
This Saturday I had worst experience while driving from Bengaluru to Shimoga via Hiriyur through Bengaluru Pune Highway. In almost every toll booth FastTag line was way bigger than the usual one non FastTag one.
Having enough money in FastTag account I had to enter this long FastTag lane fearing double payment at random hybrid lanes. To the height of inconvenience, I had to wait for around 10 mins for my turn to show up at the toll booth. I seriously doubt truck drivers flooding the FasTag lane really have the tag. At one moment out of frustration I stepped down of the car to see a truck driver near the booth paying by cash!!:Frustrati The guard who was supposed to be checking the vehicles for tag before allowing them into the lane was busy chatting with one of the truck drivers near the booth itself. When asked about this inconvenience these guys nicely say talk to the manager. And this same experience continued for next 2 toll booths too.
What frustrates more is there is no direct and easy way where we can complain about the system.
While returning through the same booth, scanner showed my tag as blacklisted even after having sufficient money. I had to pay the full toll by cash then resulting in the loss for me. (If at all I would have taken 2 way ticket by paying in cash in the morning it would have saved me few bucks.)
I am planning to disable the FastTag after this inconvenient experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThilakNex (Post 4396876)

I seriously doubt truck drivers flooding the FasTag lane really have the tag. At one moment out of frustration I stepped down of the car to see a truck driver near the booth paying by cash!!:Frustrati

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThilakNex (Post 4396876)

While returning through the same booth, scanner showed my tag as blacklisted even after having sufficient money. I had to pay the full toll by cash then resulting in the loss for me.

May be the truck driver faced the same issue as you and hence had to pay in cash.

In my opinion Fastag'd truck traffic is increasing rapidly at tolls and its high time NHAI implements multiple dedicated Fastag lanes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arun_josie (Post 4396908)

In my opinion Fastag'd truck traffic is increasing rapidly at tolls and its high time NHAI implements multiple dedicated Fastag lanes.

In my recent trip towards salem, I saw that in the Attibele toll, all lanes were fast tag enabled. During the onward journey, i didn't know and waited in the lane with that overhead fastag board. Later on all toll booths, i saw this board stating "all lanes are fast tag enabled".
During the return journey, i went to the shortest lane and passed it without any hassles.

So i guess slowly but surely all lanes in all tolls will be fast tag enabled. Also now that all new vehicles now come with a fasttag, people will also start using it more and it'll help this cause.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThilakNex (Post 4396876)

...
While returning through the same booth, scanner showed my tag as blacklisted even after having sufficient money. I had to pay the full toll by cash then resulting in the loss for me.

Even i faced this issue to an extent. The display showed the message "invalid tag!". However it was scanned properly and amount deducted accordingly from the tag

Quote:

Originally Posted by arun_josie (Post 4396908)

May be the truck driver faced the same issue as you and hence had to pay in cash.

I agree. Even I tried to fit into his shoes. What really irritated me was the time taken by them to pay the cash and the slothy attitude of those drivers towards others waiting in the lane. He took nearly 10 mins to shell out the money. You know how it feels when non-Fastag'd vehicles move swiftly in the other lane while you are waiting between the trucks like a fool :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand (Post 4396912)

Later on all toll booths, i saw this board stating "all lanes are fast tag enabled".

True, this is one more nuisance at some toll booths. You will never know in which toll booths fastag is enabled. It happened to me at one of the tolls where I entered non FasTag lane and paid the toll by cash to later know that amount was deducted from wallet too. And it's almost impossible to get your money back from Paytm fastag in such instances.:Frustrati

Quote:

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand (Post 4396912)

In my recent trip towards salem, I saw that in the Attibele toll, all lanes were fast tag enabled.

Yes, towards Salem, attibele has all lanes with Fastag. Krishnagiri and Thouppur has 3-4 lanes each including the dedicated lane with fastag. Again the issues here is, there is no proper board to indicate nor there are is any specific standard order to find these lanes easily. And when it is crowded you will still lookout for the dedicated lanes only.

For people with some patience, this will work. For people who still think that Fastag will help to "Zip through", they will be frustrated.

For me, Fastag is more of cashless payment and nothing beyond that. To a certain extent, this helps to avoid the disappointment. :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand (Post 4396912)

So i guess slowly but surely all lanes in all tolls will be fast tag enabled. Also now that all new vehicles now come with a fasttag, people will also start using it more and it'll help this cause.

This was supposed to have happened a year back but it didn't happen. Now they are looking at some app based payment as well, so there is no clear direction for Fastag:Frustrati

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThilakNex (Post 4396928)

What really irritated me was the time taken by them to pay the cash and the slothy attitude of those drivers towards others waiting in the lane. He took nearly 10 mins to shell out the money.

Once when I was on the Hyderabad - Chennai highway, one of the toll had issues with Fastag. But still the truckers queued up in the Fastag lane and decided not to cross till the Fastag works. Basically for them the owner would have recharged their Fastag account leaving these drivers with less cash in hand. So, they will be very hesitant to pay in cash.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThilakNex (Post 4396928)

You know how it feels when non-Fastag'd vehicles move swiftly in the other lane while you are waiting between the trucks like a fool :D

You can check my experience here :D,
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...ml#post4379288

Quote:

Originally Posted by arun_josie (Post 4396976)

... For people who still think that Fastag will help to "Zip through", they will be frustrated.

For me, Fastag is more of cashless payment and nothing beyond that.

Summed it up pretty well. It got to be seen for how long the cashback and free recharge using UPI offers would stay. At some point the investors will want their returns and then this will also go the Ola & Uber way of passing on all expenses to the customer after they have a sizeable market penetration.

I've had quite a few experiences of taking longer to clear a FASTag booth than cash lanes. This is quite pronounced at odd hours - the worst kind was at Walayar, Palakkad. They made me reverse and drive up slowly 3 times at 3 o'clock in the morning. I had made up my mind to park the car in the lane, walk up to their office and make an entry in the complaint book if the third attempt too had not worked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arun_josie (Post 4396976)

You can check my experience here :D,
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...ml#post4379288

Mine was no lesser than this :D Was able to spot one or two unfortunate cars like mine tucked between trucks in the lane agree:

Quote:

Originally Posted by arun_josie (Post 4396976)

For people with some patience, this will work. For people who still think that Fastag will help to "Zip through", they will be frustrated.

For me, Fastag is more of cashless payment and nothing beyond that. To a certain extent, this helps to avoid the disappointment. :D

But isn't the whole idea of Fastag is to "Zip through" the lane and lessen the time spent at toll gates?:confused:

If it's all about cashless payment we could have used PayTm payment at the regular lane itself.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by silversteed (Post 4397113)

Summed it up pretty well. It got to be seen for how long the cashback and free recharge using UPI offers would stay.
==========
I had made up my mind to park the car in the lane, walk up to their office and make an entry in the complaint book if the third attempt too had not worked.

Cashback is provided by NHAI, not by fastag providers like PayTM. They have reduced cashback from 7.5% to 5% effectively from April 1, 2018

Saw plenty of FASTag lanes on the Kolhapur to Pune stretch of the highway. Seemed like it wasn't really effective as a time saver. Don't think the idea has come of age yet. The issue isn't that the technology doesn't work. It's just that user behaviour is yet to mature. Most trucks and cars happily block the lane. People see a toll booth appear in the distance, and it's like a bunch of panicked rats scurrying towards the nearest hole. No cheese on the other end, though...

Customer support does not seem to be the best department with ICICI Fastag. I had to change the windscreen of my car. I raised a ticket by calling ICICI FasTag helpdesk on 17th April. Since then the request is under process. Tried calling their toll free number couple of times, every time the response was that it is under process and is stuck with their sales department. I could also hear in the background another customer asking status of replacement tag, this seems to be an issue.

This time also helpdesk said 48 hours for response, fingers crossed. They were not able to commit anything on when the tag would actually be replaced.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RSimonS (Post 4397478)

I got my ICICI fastag changed yesterday after my windshield replacement. Visited the ICICI Bomanahalli branch and it was a 10 minute affair. Told them my windshield had changed and they noted my car number and issued a new tag promptly and took the old one. I think it's better to visit their office and get it changed.