If your daily commute or weekend destination takes you along the Florida Turnpike you know about the major issues impacting SunPass.
Many viewers have emailed WPTV or sent us messages on Facebook that they were unable to pull up their SunPass records. People are also reporting a slow system, as well as the pass not working in some parking areas like Palm Beach International Airport.
The troubles started on June 3 when SunPass switched over to a new customer service system. The maintenance has caused glitches, which SunPass attributes to problems with their vendor.
In a statement to WPTV on Friday, a SunPass representative said the contract with our vendor includes a number of provisions related to performance and financial penalties for failing to meet obligations.
"We will be holding the vendor fully accountable for the delays that it has caused, and will be enforcing all penalty clauses of the contract to the maximum extent possible," the spokesperson said.
Right now, the glitch is affecting people who use their SunPass for work like Jaime Estrada, who drives a lot for her marketing job.
"Vero Beach all the way to Miami, and then on the west side of the state -- Sarasota down to Naples," she said.
She's already racked up 25,000 miles on the Florida turnpike so far this year.
"It's the easiest, most efficient way for me to get from point A to point B," she said.
Her job reimburses her the hundreds of dollars spent on tolls but with the SunPass system issues she's having trouble filling out her expense reports.
"We've not been able to go on and pull any activity for the month of June," she said.
And because her employer requires timely expense reports, there's a big chance she cannot get that money reimbursed.
"I'm usually expensing anywhere from $100 to $200 a month so it can get quite costly," she said.
Despite multiple complaints, Estrada can't get a straight answer on when it will be fixed.
"They told me, it's not just you and you're not special," she said.
SunPass explained the issue in a statement to WPTV:
The conversion to the Centralized Customer Service System (CCSS) represents a massive migration of account information and data to an entirely new platform. Over 6.5 million accounts are held by, and 4 million daily transactions pass through, the SunPass system, and the transfer to the new platform has come with unexpected challenges. At this time, there are tens of millions of transactions which will be processed over the next several weeks. In order to better serve the customer and avoid unintended consequences, individual account charges will be posted to accounts gradually over a number of weeks.
Like many others who use SunPass for business purposes, Estrada just hopes she can get her money back.
"I'm hoping I'll be able to reimburse myself for those expense, but I don't know whether or not that's going to happen," she said.
The Florida Department of Transportation said Thursday they will not be collecting late fees or penalties as it continues their system maintenance to its new SunPass Combined Customer Service Center.
In a press release issued late Thursday Mike Dew, Secretary of FDOT said, “We are committed to holding our vendor accountable and ensuring that our new system ultimately provides a premier customer service experience. I share the frustrations with our customers over the rollout of CCSC and find it unacceptable. Today, we are announcing that we will not be imposing late fees or penalties on SunPass accounts until the system is providing the benefits and ease of access that our customers deserve and expect.”
Customers who are still having problems should call a SunPass customer service representative at 1-888-TOLL-FLA.
SunPass is also adding a few additional walk-in centers across the state to help people with the issues.
The only center in our area is located at 7941 W. Glades Rd. in Boca Raton.