After being in an accident, my vehicle is in the shop being repaired.
I was provided with a free loan car.
During the time with this loan car; I have purchased 11x "Passes" from Citylink [10x Tulla & 1x 24hr]
As of my 7th purchase of a pass via Citylink online website; the online purchase did not go through.
It prompt something along the lines of "PASS COUNT EXCEEDED - your request to purchase a Citylink Pass has not been successful. No more passes can be purchased for this vehicle. For assistance, please contact Citylink on 132629"
[i purchased passes 7 to 10 with a quick phone call to citylink]
The 11x pass was purchased yesterday.
However, they gave me a real hard time before "doing me a favor" to take my payment and provide me a receipt for this 24hr Tulla pass ($5.94)
[phone call time approx 46mins]
The customer service rep said "A total of 16x passes has been purchased to this vehicle this year, I cannot process another pass for you. "
I explained that I am in a loan car; then he needed to, "speak to my supervisor; please hold."
- I can put notes on this registration number to waive the toll infringement notice that will get sent out to the loan car company.
*I cannot accept this as the loan company will charge a forwarding/ nomination fee of any Infringement notices during the vehicle in my possession.
"please hold again"
2. OK, as a favour to you; I will take your payment, please provide credit card details
*I obtained receipt number after payment over phone
Then, I followed up to ask, "how do I go about purchasing a pass for future travels in this vehicle?"
They advised me to set up a Citylink account linking it to this loan vehicle if I require to use Citylink.
I know for sure that the next person to try purchase a Citylink pass with this loan car under my current control will face this same issue I had with Citylink.
They are more than likely to refuse to sell you a pass; as numbers has exceeded for this vehicle.
I have been looking into the cost of a Citylink account VS 24hr passes.
Does Citylink cap the charges to your account to a max of $5.94 (Tulla pass cost) if you do only use Flemington to Moreland Rd Citylink checkpoint within a 24hour period?
[I have a feeling they charge a unit cost per Toll Checkpoint and does not align with costs offered with 24hour passes]
[I'd be better off using eTag if 2trips or less within 24hr; better off with Tulla pass if 3x or more trips within 24hr]
I have a sense that Citylink charges a higher cost for frequent users VS non-frequent users.
*recognition fees if no eTag (cheaper in other states)
*collect interest from your balance within Citylink account
Should Citylink eTag charges be capped at costs aligned to 24hour DayPasses?
(or does the existing current system do so already?)
There isn't any 24hr trip cap account holders, you will get charged every time you pass through a toll gantry. Citylink does offer a Trip Cap but that relates to a single-direction uninterrupted journey, a new Trip Cap would start if you changed direction for a return journey.
The majority of users are commuters and non-frequent trips to the airport who only pass through a specific toll gantry twice a day. Who would benefit from such a change? Taxi/Uber drivers and Skybus pass the cost on to passengers anyway, couriers would probably be the real winner in such a scenario and they probably expense their cost anyway.
I wouldn't be against the introduction of a 24hr cap but it wouldn't really give me or the majority of users any real benefit, I'd rather see cheaper prices if the company ever felt they wanted to give back in some way.