It is time to start checking your SunPass account for mistakes.                                                           

Very few SunPass customers received bills during the month of June.

Now the Florida Department of Transportation claims $137 million toll charges have been added to customer accounts since July 9.

U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D)-Fla. worries, given the past history of the company managing the SunPass upgrade, customers may get hit with charges they didn’t expect.

Nelson and Michigan Senator Gary Peters (D)-Mi. want the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.

“It shouldn’t take the Federal Trade Commission, the state of Florida ought to do this,” Senator Nelson said at a news conference from his office in the Tampa federal courthouse.

Nelson and Peters are asking the FTC to investigate Conduent State and Local Solutions, Inc., the company FDOT is paying $287 million to streamline and consolidate its SunPass services.  

Conduent has run into problems managing toll systems in other states, including Michigan and Texas.

Conduent’s upgrade was supposed to take a week, in June.  It extended beyond a month.

“In this case not only have they not done something to mitigate it, they’re still trying to deny eesponsibility,” Senator Nelson explained.  “The FDOT ought to crack down on them.”

Because the SunPass billing system was essentially down for a month, Nelson worries consumers are going to get hit with bills they didn’t expect and can’t afford.

He blamed the chaos on FDOT

“Of course at the end of the day you know who is responsible and if you want to talk about that, we can do that as well,” Nelson stated.

That would be Governor Scott, Nelson’s likely opponent in the upcoming battle for the senator’s seat in Congress.

Governor Scott’s Senate campaign Press Secretary Lauren Schenone responded that Scott finds the SunPass situation unacceptable and took steps to stop payment to the vendor.

“It’s typical for a career politician like Bill Nelson to think the only way to fix a problem is to write letter and point fingers,” Schenone stated.

Is Conduent erroneously billing Florida’s SunPass customers? 

Nelson doesn’t know, but he wants the -TC to investigate.  If they are, he wants to take action.

Check your SunPass account. It is important!

If you have something that you think should be investigated call our 8 On Your Side helpline at 1-800- 338-0808.

Contact Steve Andrews at sandrews@wfla.com.