What?!?!

I received a violation notice, today, for having ten violations of driving through tollways without paying. They are fining me $210.

Here's the kicker...I have an IPASS, which is an automated device where the reader on the highway is supposed to read it and deduct from it. It's attached to my debit card, and every time it gets below a certain dollar amount, it adds another forty dollars from my checking account.

It came with pretty stiff penalties. I have two weeks to pay up or ask for a review. After the two weeks is up, they charge me $50 per incident. That would be over $500. After another period of a couple of weeks without payment, then they suspend your license and potentially revoke your vehicle registration.

And did I mention that all ten of said violations are from 2007? I have had an IPASS since I moved to Chicago in 2002. Ridiculous. I started to have a minor panic, because that is $210 that will make my budget VERY tight for the next month if I have to pay it, if for some reason the State of IL decides to make my life difficult.

Did I also mention that IPASS is attached to your license plate number? So they could run the number and see I have an IPASS? Seriously irritated right now.

I googled, and found a guy who had exactly the same thing happen to him earlier this year. He didn't have to pay it, and also found a Chicago Tribune article that said the state discovered that tens of thousands of tollway violations had gone unpaid and not sent out to drivers...and it resulted in $10 million of lost revenue to the state. Icky Icky Poo.

** UPDATE
After four hours of trying to get through, I was able to talk to someone and get this straitened out. No fines for me!