E-ZPass made even easier

Article and Photo by Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

E-ZPass problems got easier to resolve for a couple hundred customers on Monday and Tuesday. Solutions were on hand for motorists who stopped by an E-ZPass outreach event held at the Grand Island Welcome Center.

“We’re calling it an E-ZPass customer service pop-up,” said Jennifer Givner, chief media and government relations officer for the Thruway Authority.

Thruway staffers were on hand to provide personalized customer service for questions or issues with their E-ZPass and Toll by Mail accounts.

“The idea was to come out here for two days. We were here Monday from 1-7 p.m. and Tuesday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to try to cover before work, during work, after school – you name it – different times for everybody.”

Givner said the customer service representatives assisted with a range of issues.

“Some of them are very simple, such as, ‘Can I add a tag?’ ‘Can I take off a license plate?’ Some of them are just more complicated issues that have required more time and attention,” she said.

Givner explained they were able to provide lots of answers at the outreach.

“We have probably served close to 200 customers, It has been incredible,” she said.

Many, but not all of them were Islanders, Givner added.

“Overall, I would say that the tenor and the response has been really welcoming – fantastic,” she said. “People have been lovely; they’ve been appreciative to get the assistance they’ve wanted and needed. It’s been a great experience from our perspective.”

Given the volume of customers, NFP asked Givner if there was any chance of bringing back the E-ZPass offices that used to be located on Grand Island in the program’s early days.

“That’s not the model that we are looking to do. It’s very intensive on resources,” she said. “We moved away from it because it’s very costly. However, I would say, we’re open to coming back in the future” through another outreach. “It’s a good way to do it.”

She said Supervisor Peter Marston and several other elected officials stopped by the outreach: “We work with them regularly with customer issues.”

Givner said people can have confidence that the website is an easy way to resolve issues.

“We just went through a system transition,” she said. “The whole back end of the system was significantly updated. The website is new. It has a new look and feel. It combines Tolls by Mail and E-ZPass, so it’s one-stop shopping. There’s also an app that folks can download to pay their tolls.”

The E-ZPass website is: www.e-zpassny.com, and Tolls by Mail is www.tollsny.com. An app is available from the Android and Apple stores.

“The easiest way for customers to handle their accounts is online,” Givner said.