NTTA - North Texas Tollway Authority NTTA Violation Notice EXTREME FEES Plano, Texas

I am really upset. On 11/2/09 I received a "violation notice" from NTTA. This is the only notice I received. The "violation" letter states that I never paid the $17.80 in toll charges and now I owe them $492.80. How can they legally do this? Needless to say I immediately called them and explained that this is the first notice I have received regarding this amount. The lady asked me if I had a toll tag and I told her yes but I have not used it in a long time. She asked for the driver's license number associated with the toll tag and like an idiot I gave it to her. She came back after a long hold and said that the only thing they would do is take $174.55 by 12/4/2009. She said because my toll tag had been negative $0.05 (yes that is cents!) since 2008. I told her I had not used my toll tag in about a year because I had lost it in a move and had been paying cash until they started the Zipcash thing. I also told her this had nothing to do with my tolltag. She proceeded to tell me in a very nasty tone that if I had updated my license plate and toll tag I would not be having this problem. Once again I told her this had nothing to do with my toll tag and that I ws very sorry it was in a 5 cent negative that I was not aware of but that I had not used it for a long time because it lost and I just never replaced it (yes that part was me being lazy). I told her there is no way I am paying $475.00 in fees on a $17.80 bill that I never even received one notice for except the violation. I told her I had a sort of similar experience with them in August. On 8/
19/2008 I received a bill marked second notice (never received a 1st notice) and I immediately called to pay it. While I was on the phone I was informed I had another invoice that needed to be paid (I had not received any notice of that either). I went ahead and paid both of the invoices.
Is NTTA so hard up for money that they are scamming the people that use the roads. "Well let's just not send them a bill until its too late and then slam them with unreasonable fees."

NTTA should not be allowed to charge this much for "administrative fees" (it shows on my invoice that they charged $25.00 per toll went through, funny the 2 invoices I paid in August where only $20 combined not very many toll booths went through, but this bill on 11/2/09 had many, is that why they are doing this so they could get the $25.00 a pop?)!
NTTA should also check their billing and make sure it is working properly because something is obviously not right!

I refuse to use the tollway again. Even if I have to go 30 miles out of my way.
I wonder if it would help to contact an investigative reporter. This is ridiculous!