[gadadhar]

I had posted this in the Fastag thread, but thought of starting a new thread since I felt it might be the tip of a larger scam, and in that case would need to get attention of the larger user group.

I am an ICICI Fastag user since its inception, but was not prepared for this surprise. I had driven to Kollur during last weekend and had passed through 3 toll gates on Tumkur road. I realized on the way back that balance is in the low 100's, but it was sufficient to cover the trip with around 200 as balance. I completed the trip with no hassles on Sunday, 2nd June.

I got a text message today (4th June), 11.15 am which reads - My account has been debited with INR 355.0 for dispute on Trip No xyz. In case of discrepancy, please share RC and vehicle image and raise a complaint". The trip number corresponds to Karjeevanhally Toll Plaza (near Tumkur) crossing done on 1st June on the way to Mookambika and I have paid INR 80 through Fastag.

While trying to raise a complaint, I found that
- My tag had been blacklisted due to the negative balance
- I cannot raise a complaint under dispute for Rs 355 since the toll for that particular trip no is only Rs 80 (funny validation by the system)

I raised a ticket under a different category and contacted the customer care, and they agreed that it by a mistake, but said it will take 15 days to resolve the issue since that is there an SLA and they didn't have an answer on what I’d have to do if I have to travel today. After a lot of persuasion, they tried connecting me to an escalation authority which failed the first time. I again convinced the executive that I want to talk to the escalation contact, and I was connected after a long wait. This person said they will try (only try) to take this with High Priority though SLA is 15 days. I was informed I could remove the blacklisting by recharging the card to have a positive balance. She also said that she will do the necessary to modify my ticket with the right category .


After waiting for few days, I could there is nothing done to the ticket. Since there was no ICIC Fastag Tweeter ID, I tweeted to the ICICI support ID with details. https://twitter.com/GadadharBobby/st...67721498251264
They responded promptly, and assured that it will be settled with priority. After couple of days, they informed me that I have to raise a new ticket under the right category. I told him about the system issue and his suggestion was talk to fastag customer care which I had done on Day 1. He also mentioned that he is from banking team and there is nothing more he can do to help on this.

While talking to fastag helpdesk, first executives version was - the toll plaza has raised a dispute for non-payment for whatever reason though it was deducted from my account. But even then, charge for a car is on INR 80 (355 might be for a multi-axle truck or is it with a penalty?). Escalation person said it might be a system issue.

After posting in TeamBhp https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...using-227.html (FASTag: All you need to know about procuring & using it!) and through other connects, I got to know about 3 instances where people faced the same situation and one was in the same toll plaza. Another one was on Paytm Fastag (not isolated to ICICI) for INR 150 the message doesn’t state which trip or toll plaza, he had travelled Bangalore Kochi route on the mentioned time frame. There was no text message for Paytm (ICICI had), it came to notice while he checked the history on the website.

While fighting to get my money back, I have a larger concern if this is tip of a larger scam. I have never faced any similar issue with Fastag in the past, and all of sudden there are many who faced the same issue. Most of us won’t take the pain of tracking all the toll transactions and these things can easily go unnoticed. Are the toll guys trying to take us for a ride.


Please share your experience and thoughts.

[arvind71181]

Not a similar case but I had my tag debited by 345 rupees instead of 100 rupees on the Bangalore Goa route and I had raised a complaint under the type: Dispute transaction and sub type: Toll fare calculation error. The dispute was accepted and the money was credited back. Did you try raising a ticket under this category?

[gadadhar]

Originally Posted by arvind71181

Not a similar case but I had my tag debited by 345 rupees instead of 100 rupees on the Bangalore Goa route and I had raised a complaint under the type: Dispute transaction and sub type: Toll fare calculation error. The dispute was accepted and the money was credited back. Did you try raising a ticket under this category?

I am unable to raise a ticket under this category for the given trip no, reason being the toll paid for the trip is INR 80 and the amount under dispute is INR 355. There is a system validation that doesn't allow to raise a ticket with these details, Helpdesk said they will take care of this from back-end. Till yesterday, there is nothing done on the ticket, so I raised a new ticket under the mentioned category showing the Dispute Amount as INR 1 (yes one rupee) and details in the issue description. I may end up getting only INR 1

When did this happen, I am trying to identify whether it is a recent trick

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by gadadhar

I am unable to raise a ticket under this category for the given trip no, reason being the toll paid for the trip is INR 80 and the amount under dispute is INR 355. There is a system validation that doesn't allow to raise a ticket with these details, Helpdesk said they will take care of this from back-end. Till yesterday, there is nothing done on the ticket, so I raised a new ticket under the mentioned category showing the Dispute Amount as INR 1 (yes one rupee) and details in the issue description. I may end up getting only INR 1

When did this happen, I am trying to identify whether it is a recent trick

Try complaining on PGPortal, that should help speed things up a bit.
Though I have not faced any issue with ICICI Fastag, will be on guard for such issues.

[sanjaykk]

Maybe involve NHAI (Twitter: @NHAISocialmedia) to get their attention as well.

[gadadhar]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

Try complaining on PGPortal, that should help speed things up a bit.
Though I have not faced any issue with ICICI Fastag, will be on guard for such issues.

Thanks. Yet to do this, will keep as the last resort

Originally Posted by sanjaykk

Maybe involve NHAI (Twitter: @NHAISocialmedia) to get their attention as well.

I have retweeted including NHAI, Thanks

[Chetan_Rao]

What's the point of Fastag exactly? No dedicated lanes (most toll plazas have either hybrid lanes or don't enforce dedicated ones even if present), and now customers have to watch account balance like a hawk with no reliable redressal mechanism even if they catch an anomaly?

I'd rather spend the extra couple minutes transacting in cash than chasing random departments that have no clear escalation matrix to get my money back that they can apparently deduct at will.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

What's the point of Fastag exactly? No dedicated lanes (most toll plazas have either hybrid lanes or don't enforce dedicated ones even if present), and now customers have to watch account balance like a hawk with no reliable redressal mechanism even if they catch an anomaly?

I'd rather spend the extra couple minutes transacting in cash than chasing random departments that have no clear escalation matrix to get my money back that they can apparently deduct at will.

It depends. Personally on both our cars we have been using fastag regularly and till date after many hundreds of toll money I haven't had a single issue. Of course teething troubles are there but in the routes I frequent, the only Toll I hate is the Nelamangla toll booth. Rest all are in pretty good shape. The only instance of double deduction was sorted out as per their fifteen day timeline. I only had to raise a ticket quoting the trip number.

In this case it's more of a wrong claim raised by the toll operator. If the system was so poor lakhs of users would have been looted by now which isn't the case.

[gadadhar]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

What's the point of Fastag exactly? No dedicated lanes (most toll plazas have either hybrid lanes or don't enforce dedicated ones even if present), and now customers have to watch account balance like a hawk with no reliable redressal mechanism even if they catch an anomaly?

You are right, today's TOI has report on government plan to pilot alternate technology that enables users to just drive thru like in Singapore, London etc. Fastags I doubt is helping in reducing the waiting time, especially on crowded days. And now with most of the trucks using fastag, dedicated lane is getting longer queues (and the barrier may not work for some vehicle for whatsoever reason to add to your pain) .

Originally Posted by audioholic

It depends. Personally on both our cars we have been using fastag regularly and till date after many hundreds of toll money I haven't had a single issue.

Even I have been a user since inception and is hoping this is only a one-off instance. Many of us don't keep a track of these transactions, and might be losing money without being aware of it.

Is is not been there for too long to be called as teething issues

Update on my case, I am on the 14th calendar day after logging the issue with no change in the ticket status.

[1:1]

I have faced different type of fraud with Fast Tag. For our trip (Mumbai – Nashik), I had refilled enough to cover toll amount for our round trip. There were no issues while going to Nashik but on the way back these guys acted smart.

This took place at Ghoti Toll Plaza. I had 192 as balance in my wallet and the toll required was 110. On reaching the toll they were having difficulty reading the tag, one person came with portable reader. Then the collector said there is insufficient balance, which was not possible. But then he scanned it again and the led display prompted “insufficient balance” and asked me to pay in cash. Since no SMS came while waiting at the toll booth. The person collected cash and I moved on.

After reaching home I logged in to check and found that those guys had debited my account and then tried again to debit it. Basically double swipe, and also took cash from me.

There should be a system to disallow debit the same tag twice within a specified limit. I have raised raise a dispute for this but there is no response from anyone yet.

Have decided to let the balance run low and just pay cash when required. Cant trust the system as yet.

[TROOPER]

I maybe faced something similar. Got charged for a truck instead of a car. Cross posting from the Fastag thread.

Originally Posted by TROOPER

Drove from Mangalore to Mumbai in my Hexa on 8/11/20.

At Hirebagewadi Toll Plaza 95/- was deducted with no issues.

Last night during a trip via Bandra Worli Sea Link, the Tag read as blacklisted. I was surprised since there was supposed to be sufficient balance for the same.

Logged in, and to my horror 410/- was deducted in a single transaction towards Hirebagewadi Toll Plaza, on 11/11/20, with a note stating 'vehicle class mismatch, actual class is LCV'. This is in addition to the 95/- that was deducted. So in all, 505 bucks!

Contacted Union Bank, my fastag provider, and they said it's been deducted 'by default' !?!? They'd register a complain and a tech team would attend to it on a working day and then a refund should be processed. Hope things sort out smoothly.

Anyone else ever faced or heard about this before? There's nothing similar to this on Google. Some new tactic by toll plazas to scoop up some money? Or did I probably drive into a lane predominantly used by trucks and there was a in-line weigh and hence the vehicle mismatch? Considering our gross weight must have been north of 2.5 tons on that day.

Contacted UBI fastag helpline again today and now they say it'd take 3-30 working days to rectify and credit the amount.

[sinharishi]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

No dedicated lanes

.....

I'd rather spend the extra couple minutes transacting in cash

Beg to differ. Firstly, there are many toll plazas in West and North india which has dedicated toll lanes, I don't recall seeing a single toll plaza without dedicated fastag lane.

Secondly, its not couple of mins. Its much more, the queues are longer. The fines are in place, you have to pay twice the amount if you enter the fastag lane.

Not hearsay, I've been doing 25K kms on the highways every year since 2016. It sure is useful and indeed cuts down travel time.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by gadadhar

While fighting to get my money back, I have a larger concern if this is tip of a larger scam.

If possible, please do mail to these IDs also explaining the issue in general.

etc.nodal@ihmcl.com
nhaibangalore@gmail.com

[gadadhar]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

If possible, please do mail to these IDs also explaining the issue in general.

etc.nodal@ihmcl.com
nhaibangalore@gmail.com

Thanks for supporting, it is more than 1.5 years now and the refund was done by ICICI. I feel it might be late to chase this case unless there are similar incidents for others

[TROOPER]

Originally Posted by gadadhar

Thanks for supporting, it is more than 1.5 years now and the refund was done by ICICI. I feel it might be late to chase this case unless there are similar incidents for others

May I know exactly how long they took to refund post complaint?