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UPDATE: The Fox Rent a Car Highway Toll Class Action Lawsuit was dismissed on August 24, 2011.
A class action lawsuit filed in Seattle, Washington claims Fox Rent a Car and Violation Management Services illegally scammed rental car customers by charging them as much as 16 times the amount of automatically collected highway tolls incurred during the course of their car rental.
Fox Rent a Car vehicles are equipped with automated equipment that records the vehicle’s passage through a highway toll so that drivers can proceed non-stop without having to pay the toll at the time of use. Fox is later billed for the toll by highway authorities.
According to the Fox Rent a Car class action lawsuit, Fox and other rental car companies have several options available to ensure they do not incur toll charges in the first place and/or that they are able to recoup the actual cost of toll charges incurred by customers during the course of the rental. This includes registering their fleets’ plates with “EXpress Toll” so that their renters’ tolls will be automatically applied to the rental agreement, paying the toll and then collecting the actual cost of the toll from the customer, or responding to toll bills by providing the issuing authority information regarding the rental so that the toll can be collected by the issuing authority directly from the customer.
Fox does not use any of these options, however, and has chosen instead to conspire with Violation Management Services “to turn Fox customers’ tolls into an illegal profit center for themselves,” the class action lawsuit says.
Rather than taking advantage of any of these collection options, “Fox has retained Violation Management Services to act as its alleged ‘administrator and processor’ of such tolls. Pursuant to this arrangement, VMS unilaterally charges customers’ credit cards for the amount of the tolls, plus an exorbitant ‘service fee’ – possibly varying in amount but sometimes exceeding 1600% of the actual toll. This ‘service fee’ is not authorized by customers, is not properly disclosed to customers, far exceeds any actual cost to Fox and/or VMS for the collection of the toll, is arbitrary and unreasonable, and is accompanied by numerous false and deceptive statements about the alleged right to collect the ‘service fee.’
“The ‘service fee’ is nothing other than an illegal scam to collect from customers amounts that they do not owe. Indeed, VMS makes no bones about its practices, having indicated on its website that its business is to turn the collection of such tolls ‘into a profitable customer service solution.’ VMS further shares the spoils of its illegally-collected ‘service fees’ with the rental car companies with whom it contracts, offering to pay them a kickback in the form of a ‘summons incentive . . . for each service fee collected’ from customers,” states the class action lawsuit.
The class action lawsuit is brought on behalf of all Washington residents or entities who, within the applicable limitations period, have been charged a “service fee” by VMS in connection with the incurrence or alleged incurrence of automatic highway tolls during the course of a vehicle rental from Fox. It is asking for damages to class members, including a full refund of any money they paid for “service fees” and tolls.
A copy of the Fox Rent a Car and Violation Management Services Class Action Lawsuit can be read here. The case is Averil Rothrock, et al. v. Violation Management Services, Inc. and Fox Rent a Car, Inc., Case No. 11-2-18292-4 SEA, Superior Court of Washington for King County, Seattle Division.
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63 thoughts onFox Rent a Car Highway Toll Class Action Lawsuit
(Fox rent a car Tampa Florida) I paid every toll in cash and got receipts for them all because I knew this was a possibility. I sent the information in to fox tolls and fox still attempted to debit my account for 63$ for tolls., more than once. I had to cancel my account and open a new one to stop this.
Same thing happened to me for one tool i pay 23.35$ this how to make money
They just tried to charge me a 90 dollar processing fee for tolls that were not even open scamming smammers
Same thing happened to me. I rented a car from fox in Florida and when I got home I got a bill for 33.55 for a 3.55 toll… what a racket!!
Same thing happened to me. I was told that the pay by plate would work if we needed it – living in south FL for years I knew the roads and tolls – however, all the tolls said “pay by plate” so I assumed that that is what would happen (as every other rental company I have used)
It did not turn out that way – for a $7.36 toll, I was charged $90.36 – outrageous!!! There is no way an admin fee should ever cost that much – I feel very taken advantage of as everyone else in this action suit.
This is not right to the customers that are renting a car and did not think that they had to go through tolls and if they had to, I am sure no one ever thought it would be that much of an admin fee for something that should be much much less – how could this be legal?
I was charged $170.00. Part of the Fox Renta Car balance due was for a toll $9.80 with “Administrative fee” of $90.00. The State of Florida charges $2.50 additional for FL drivers who don’t have a pass. This is exorbitant and fraudulent and I will be contacting the Attorney General.
I just received a bill for $32.41. The actual total for the tolls was $2.31 and was for a single day. The only plan they offered me was $6.99 a day for PlatePass for the entire rental period and and I rented the car for 10 days. Let’s just say I am extremely dissatisfied with their policy which takes advantage of customers – certainly not a good way to keep them
Enterprise Car Rental charges a fee of $3.95 p/day for the transponder (in Philadelphia), however, you still get a bill for tolls months later for tolls. They will NOT pay the fees for tolls they lead you to beleive. Their claim is that you rent the transponder as a “convince” for travel.
I rented a car in Colorado and they charged me $15 dollar processing fee four time totaling $120.00 plus toll charges totalling $132.00 that is insane to me I didn’t get a chance to pay them as I was never told or billed as I thought I should be..
How can I join this lawsuit?
Fox rent-a-car is charging me $15 on top of $4 toll (total $60 fee on top of $16 tall).
I’d like to join. I recently rented a car in Florida and all I needed was to get to the interstate from Orlando airport so it would be a minimum amount of tolls and not worth the $7.95 per day toll package they kept trying to sell me (we were there for 9 days). What further aggravates me about the situation is that I specifically asked the guy at the counter about the particular road I needed to take and if there were cash options. He seemed to deliberately withhold the fact that you could pay exact change in quarters. So I got stuck at several tolls without exact change probably amounting to a few dollars and this company is going to charge $15 for each toll passed through. I even tried to pay it directly to the tolling agency but they will not allow me to since the rental company already has that plate registered with a transponder and the tolling agency said that obligates them to bill the rental agency directly and I cannot pay it due to privacy issues. Please let me know how I can join in or start a new class action for Florida on behalf of everyone who is being hurt by the deceitful practices of this company.
I received two bills in the mail for the exact same situation. Total tolls amount that I was required to pay was $22 and the fees Fox Rental charged amounted to $135. Needless to say, I will never use Fox Rent a Car ever again and would like to be included in a class action suit for the Florida locations if one is started.
Same thing happened to me. I was initially charged $53 for toll charges then the next say i get another letter saying $113. If you figure out how to join the law suit i will definently join kt