Illinois Tollway Toll Violation Fines for Paid Tolls Downers Grove Illinois

In May 2016 I used the Illinois tollway system and passed through 3 tolls. I do not have an i-pass and instead opted to pay my toll online as I had several times before. A couple weeks later I realized I had forgotten to pay for one of the tolls and awaited the inevitable notice of a toll violation. It wasn't until the start of July 2016 that I received notice of a toll violation. At this point I had relocated across the country to California with my partner for a new job she had accepted. To my shock I had been issued toll violations for all three tolls I had used in May rather than the single I knew I had missed. Living in California I was not able to appear for a hearing in person and rather instead opted to submit a request for a hearing by mail via the Tollway online submission form. I knew it took over a month for just the violation to be processed originally so I figured I would hear back after about a month. A month passed and I had not heard anything so I called the 800 number on the violation to inquire about it. I was upset hear them claim that they never received any request for a hearing from me and was told that I must have done something wrong. Furthermore I was informed that the violation had since been escalated and a request for a hearing could no longer be submitted. I am incredibly upset with the multiple failures of the Illinois Tollway systems that now insists I pay fines for tolls I had already paid and requested a hearing for. I know the fines aren't much but as I am currently unemployed and still attempting to find work, every penny counts. I can't help but think how many other people are getting ripped off in this fashion. Why is it that we must be responsible to pay the price due to failures in Illinois Tollway's systems? I feel at the very least others can be warned of this incredibly broken system