Platepass Hertz rental car slip in platepass, in all rental cars without your knowledge, which are read even when inside the isolation box, Internet

     I rented a car from Hertz this month in Philadelphia. I was gonna drive thru New Jersey and New York back and forth, so I considered the platepass option they advertised on their website. But when I read that you have to pay $2.50 per day of rental (max of 10$ per rental) even on days you don't use the platepass, I decided I will just pay cash at the toll booths.

     What I didn't know was that Hertz, by default, has this platepass installed in all their cars, irrespective of whether you opt in or not. It was inside a small containment box behind the rear view mirror which you can hardly see. I noticed it only when I returned the car. It seems the containment box is supposed to prevent the platepass from being read by the wireless readers on top of the toll booth lanes. So if you keep the pass inside the box all the time, you should be fine (except for places where the car's license plate tag numbers are scanned and you are charged automatically based on that - I have read about that somewhere). 

     When I crossed this toll booth in Pascack Valley on the Garden State Parkway, the lady in the toll booth asked me if I had EZPass in my car and I obviously said no. So she just took the $1 cash from me and I passed thru. Two weeks later I found a charge of $11 on my credit card. I called Hertz and they said my car had a platepass in it and I should have pulled the pass out of the box.

     First, I didn't opt for plate pass, but they slip it in secretly. Second, I didn't even know it existed until I returned the car and now they tell me I pulled it out of the containment box. Anyways, they asked me to contact platepass. I called platepass and the lady at customer service casually told me it happens time to time and that she would go ahead and register a complaint. Their "investigation team" would investigate this (if cash was paid at the same time the platepass was read) and credit me back the money if they find it valid !!! Seems this is a very common event !!! I asked her why was the platepass read in the first place if it was inside the containment box and she said 'Well sometimes the reader signals are very strong'.

     So, this is not a foolproof system and yet they force it into customers who don't even know its existence !! Now we have to fight back and register complaints and wait for their "investigation team" to sort this out ??