Driving home today, the FastLane toll (E-ZPass for the rest of you) flashes “Call FastLane”.
So I call and am prompted for entering my account number “from my statement”. There’s no option to bypass, but after three failed attempts, it gets through. Then I’m put on hold for a while, and then eventually it says “we’re closed”.
Unbelievable.
Truly great designs are hard, but rookie design mistakes are usually easy to avoid. In this case, most FastLane users will learn there’s an account problem when they get a “Call Us” flash at the toll lane. As such, it’s reasonable to assume that many (if not most) users will be calling from the car, without statements and without account numbers. Therefore, an IVR menu that requires an account number is an incredibly poor design.
This stuff drives me nuts. It’s so avoidable.
can’t argue your point
however, here’s a fastlane tip –
simply ignore any/all error messages
trust me, if they need you, they will contact you
I’ve not had good luck with that strategy. With past transponder problems, credit card expiration updates, etc., we’ve occasionally ended up with the FastLane folks filing violations against our cars.
They’ve been FastLane problems (sometimes compounded by their own internal processes), but it’s a PITA to get it cleaned up.
ouch
what is a “violation” ?