Gauteng’s diligent motorists who heeded the SA National Roads Agency Ltd’s call to buy e-tags for the highway tolling system are being penalised.
While the toll system is coming into effect only in two months’ time, billing and SMS costs are already being deducted from their accounts.
Customers have started purchasing e-tags to qualify for discounts when the tolls come into effect. But now they are being forced to pay R5 for account statements sent to them via post and 20c for each SMS they receive notifying them of their account balances.
And the deductions are happening without their knowledge or consent.
These costs have never been divulged by Sanral and come as a slap in the face to motorists who have simply tried to do the right thing. Nowhere has the tolling authority made it clear that they plan to charge people for the SMSes and statements they will receive when they sign up for discounted toll rates.
Sanral yesterday refused to comment on the deductions and the hidden costs, and did not want to divulge how many e-tags had been sold or how much money it had taken from e-tag buyers.
But operators at the Sanral call centre admitted there was a system problem that had generated statements for users who had signed up.
“We are aware of the problem. It’s only supposed to generate an initial statement, but some clients have received more than one statement already,” an operator said yesterday.
One furious motorist who was duped by the system is Westdene, Joburg, resident Anniemie Cramb.
At the end of last month, Cramb decided she would do her duty as a citizen and buy her e-tag.
“I thought ‘it’s going to happen anyway, so let me do it, then it’s done’. I hardly use the highway. In a month I pass it, maybe pass a gantry once. I thought ‘let me be legal’,” she explained.
Cramb chose the prepaid option, which was the cheapest one available at R50, and opted to receive SMSes to notify her when her account was low.
The R50 was loaded onto her account and she was told that the tariffs would be deducted from it when she started using it in February. She left her tag in its box and stored it in her house.
At midnight last week, much to Cramb’s surprise, she started getting SMSes notifying her that her account was low. She received 10 SMSes in one night.
One, received at 4.35am, reads: “Your e-toll account is reflecting a low balance. Please make payment or contact us on 0800 SANRAL.”
At 9 that morning, Cramb was on the phone to the call centre to lodge a complaint. But none of the assistants could tell her what her balance was or why she had received so many SMSes.
Cramb then went to the e-tag store at the Cresta shopping mall where she had bought the tag, only to discover her account had been deducted R5 for a statement that had been mailed to her. She still has not received it.
Cramb cancelled the service immediately.
“But not even two minutes after I had left the shop, I got another SMS saying ‘This is a reminder to make payment on your e-toll account to avoid violation action against you or contact Sanral’,” said Cramb.
“To me this is fraud. Legally, this thing is not even operational yet. It’s not about the R5, it’s about the principle. How many other people is this happening to?
“It can’t just be me. When I went to buy my e-tag, there were quite a few people in the shop. There could be people who have had the tag since September. What about them?
“What worries me is that if they are doing this now. What happens when the toll system is up and running?”
According to the Sanral website, users will receive a consolidated tax invoice and statements twice a month through their preferred method of contact.
If statements are sent via email, there is no fee charged. But when users choose the SMS option, statements are posted to them.
Sanral account director Ipelegeng Thibedi denied in a statement that the agency was experiencing system or capacity problems.
He said Sanral could not respond to media queries in detail as key personnel were on leave. - The Star