Just read your Viewpoint editorial “Enthusiastic about the 407ETR?” in the March/April issue regarding the problems in dealing with the toll road and thought I’d add my 2 cents worth. I have a transponder on both my cars and I gave the 407 people my credit card for autodebit. I wasn’t even looking at my bills when they came in thinking they were paid by credit card.

One day I got a call from a collection agency over a bill for about $28 – $25 of which was a service charge for non-payment.

I called Customer Service and sat on hold for almost an hour to straighten the problem up. They eventually admitted that it was their error and the bill should have been paid by credit card. Unfortunately they couldn’t reverse the $25 service charge for the supposed non-payment. Several supervisors later, I told them they could no longer use my credit card for payment and that hell would freeze over before I paid the $25. I sent in the full particulars by mail, thinking smarter people would be available to fix the problem. They responded by telling me they would have my license renewal blocked if I didn’t pay the $25.

In the meantime I was getting HOURLY calls at home from the collection agency. They left 16 messages on one day.

I paid the damn thing.

If I had any alternative I’d use it.

One other interesting thing about the highway – the OPP love it. One day I saw 6 speed traps on the way to work and 4 coming home. There is at least one trap virtually every day.

All this and it only costs me $180/month!

Back when they were building the highway I approached the management of the 407 and offered to put the application for a transponder online to make it easier for my carrier clients to sign up. They never even called back.

If I had a trucking company I wouldn’t go near the 407!

Rick Court, Chief Operating Officer, Link Logistics Inc.

Rick: A frustrating organization to work with, isn’t it? If there are others of you out there who encountered problems in dealing with 407ETR we would love to hear from you. We can be reached at:Motortruck, 1450 Don Mills Rd., Don Mills,ON, M3B 2X7 or by e-mail at lsmyrlis@businessinformationgroup.ca. — Editor