Sacred Stories
Driving the hour-plus to their seasonal home, no toll lanes were manned when she came over the bridge!!!
She later learned since Covid the bridge does not have toll attendants. Drivers must either have a transponder for auto-pay or wait for an invoice to be sent.
She logged on to SunPass and saw the “pay toll by license plate number with no invoice” feature. Her license plate was not there but it said plates might not update for 10 days. Day after day after day she logged on and checked, hoping to avoid the service fee associated with processing of an invoice. Weeks later she wrote to customer service explaining the situation and received an email saying the case was closed.
There was nothing to do but wait. She finally received an in the mail — $2 toll plus a $3 service fee!
She called customer service to dispute the service fee.
“I do not live in Florida, I am just wintering here. I crossed the bridge on the way back from the hospital after my husband had a surprise open-heart surgery. I had no idea there would not be an attendant. I logged on to the website and it said there would be an option to pay without an invoice but that never happened. I filed a complaint but received an email saying the case was closed.”
“What website did you log on to?” he asked.
Somewhat indignant, she said she had no idea that bridge was operated by a local entity!
“You were driving and you noticed the one name but not the other. Please don’t call yourself ignorant. And you were under a lot of stress. How is your husband doing? That is the most important thing.” His voice was so kind.
“He is doing well, thank you.” She choked back tears.
“I am so glad for that. My father also had surprise open-heart surgery but he did not make it….”
He went on to tell her how she could come to the toll service office and they could wave the fee. She said it was not practical to drive that far to save such a small amount of money.
Suddenly recognizing that the error was never about money, tears came as compassion welled up in her heart for this man and his family.
Her husband who had overheard the phone conversation, commenting, “You paid $3 for a sacred story,” as they shared a few tears over this tender toll tale.
Knowing they were so very fortunate, with a grateful heart she wrote out the check.
