SLEX RFID: 4 Ways to Avoid Incorrect Toll Rates

It was June 2015 when I converted my E-PASS to RFID. To be honest, there’s not much of a difference between the two, except the fact that the sensor couldn’t be transferred to your other car. Why? It’s because the RFID are placed and sticked upon your car’s headlight, unlike your detachable E-Pass which is only placed inside your windshield. Yeap, quite inconvenient.

Here are some reminders that SLEX RFID Users should know in order to make sure that you’re being billed properly:

1. Watch out on the “NO ENTRY POINT” note upon your exit.

Did you know that if you encounter this error and the teller didn’t ask for your point of entry, you might get charged for the farthest rate? Ex. Your point-of-entry is Alabang and your exit is Sucat, but at Sucat you got that “No Entry” note flashed at the LED screen. Automatically, you’ll be charged the rate from Calamba to Sucat. Not cool indeed! What to do: Upon seeing the “No Entry” note, make sure to call the attention of the toll attendant and inform him or her to manually record your point-of-entry, especially if he/she didn’t asked for it. Give him/her your RFID card so he/she can record your account number. After 3-5 days, request for your statement of accounts (SOA) and see if it was reflected as expected.

2. Your long-forgotten E-PASS bill will only reflect to your RFID SOA after several months.

Mine took 4 months, before it got reflected in my SOA. When I asked them why it took that long, they answered that those were manual E-PASS entries which were only finalized and recorded just 4 months after. I argued, how can I be even sure that those were mine if I couldn’t even remember my E-PASS usage 4 months ago. As a matter of fact, I was shocked at first because its description in my RFID SOA is just “DEBIT OTHER” not “E-PASS REMAINING BALANCE” or anything that has the word “E-PASS” in it. Just imagine, who wouldn’t be shocked if for example you just reloaded P1000 and after a few days with minimal usage of your RFID, you saw that your balance is already gone to negative, and when you checked your SOA, it just states “DEBIT OTHER”. I was really pissed off during that time, and because of that I headed to the nearest SLEX office the next day. What to do: If you surrendered your E-PASS upon converting to RFID and you’re pretty sure you have a negative balance. The best thing to do is just remember that negative amount for as long as you could or record it if you must. So that if gets reflected to your RFID SOA, you wouldn’t be shocked as I am because you know that it was indeed your balance and clearly you just have to pay for it. Now, if you haven’t converted to RFID yet, it is now up to you if you still want to surrender your E-PASS. If you decided to do it, it will just establish a clear link that states that you are the same individual who owns that E-PASS, which basically gives them the right to debit or credit any balance you may have from your E-PASS account to your newly installed RFID. NOTE: Apparently, some of SLEX officers in-charged for RFID installation advises that the surrendering of E-PASS should only be done for accounts which have a positive balance, not for negative ones.

3. Always check the amount indicated on the screen upon exit, it should match your toll fee rate.

Note: The indicated amount upon entrance is your current balance, and the indicated amount upon exit is your recent toll fee rate, not your after balance. If it didn’t match your supposedly toll fee rate, chances are you were billed incorrectly. Here is just one among many other instances, but might happen to you as well. Ex # 1. During the manual method, Mr. toll attendant has incorrectly assumed that your SUV car is VEHICLE TYPE 2, which is supposedly TYPE 1.What to do: call the attention of the toll attendant and ask for some explanation. After all, it is your right to ask why the value displayed in the screen is incorrect. If you wouldn’t want to cause much traffic, you can always ask at their nearest office or email them and request for your SOA, so you can double check if your usage rate for that day is correctly tagged.

4. Whenever there’s manual intervention by the toll attendant, just check your SOA.

FYI, some toll attendants use the by-pass method, if the sensor didn’t immediately detect your RFID tag. It happened to me once and for some reason, I noticed the amount was not my toll fee rate and definitely not my after balance. So, I called the attention of the toll attendant (following tip #3). She told me that she used their “by-pass” method in order to raise the barrier so I can pass through. She assured me that by using that method it will automatically display the farthest rate possible for that route, but that I shouldn’t worry because a FREE of charge rate will be applied to me. According to her, it’s as if I didn’t pass through the highway since no exit was recorded. Now, I’m not really sure if it did work as such, for I wasn’t able to check my SOA after this incident. Do me a favor, be better than me and follow TIP #4: recheck your SOA. Another instance, I experienced too is that the sensor has already detected my RFID tag but because of heavy traffic, I couldn’t move. After some time, the barrier closed again. The lady attendant used again the “by-pass” method, just so i can pass through. And, again I noticed that the rate indicated in there was the farthest rate possible.  What to do: Make it habit to check your SOA regularly, and especially if there are some hazy instances which you think you were billed incorrectly. I know it may be hassle considering that it should be automatically detected and accounted properly, but as you may have figured out from this article, that there are certain loopholes which may caused you an incorrect billing statement.

As of now, those were the only points I know which might lead to one’s incorrect RFID billing statement. If you have anything to add or share in relation to this post, hit up the comment section below. Let me know your experiences when using RFID too, may it be good or bad! So there, I hope this post will help you to be more cautious on your RFID usage. If you find this helpful, share away.