TAMPA BAY, Fla. – There are more delays, more questions and few answers coming from the Florida Turnpike Enterprise as the agency hits Day 16 in what was supposed to be a six-day Sunpass maintenance project.
The project is to consolidate billing across the state's multiple tolling authorities.
While the Sunpass website is finally back up and running, 10News viewers are still complaining of slow service online and trouble reaching customer service over the phone. 10Investigates broke the news Tuesday that tens of millions of toll transactions are going unprocessed, dating back to the beginning of June.
Questions to the turnpike have gone mostly unanswered this week. A page on the agency's website that detailed the planned maintenance, posted in May, has since been removed.
Last week, the agency sent an email to customers blaming the website problems on a "higher than expected...volume of customers trying to access the system." However, there was no reference to the transaction back-ups.
While drivers can once again add funds to their accounts, they have no way of seeing how many toll charges they've racked up the last three weeks, nor can they access receipts they may need to document the tolls.
A statement from the turnpike enterprise said tolls will begin processing "as early as the end of the week," but could take weeks to complete.
That means drivers who drive a lot, drive large trucks or live paycheck-to-paycheck could experience unpredictable auto-debits from their bank accounts once the tolls start processing.
10Investigates will continue to ask questions about when transactions will be posted and how it will affect Floridians.
Send your stories and complaints confidentially to 10Investigates' Noah Pransky on Facebook or email him at npransky@wtsp.com.
