There have been thousands of drivers leaving the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport that have been overcharged as a result of technical errors during the first two weeks of a new parking control system that costs $56 million, according to USA Today.
Some problems have resulted from scanners that have not been properly reading toll tags, which has led to overcharging when the wrong times for entry or exit from the parking lot are recorded.
All overcharges will be reimbursed to drivers within 10 business days, according to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
"We are very apologetic for the whole thing," David Magana, the airport spokesman, said on Thursday. There were as many as 300 to 400 drivers that have called the airport on a daily basis to complain about the billing errors that have resulted from the malfunctioning equipment.
The upgraded system began on September 4 when it began automatically registering vehicles driving into and out of the airport-parking complex. It enables drivers to process their own parking transactions with a North Texas TollTag or a credit card as they exit the complex.
Some of the drivers have complained about the overcharging after they had already left the airport facilities.
Bill Woster, a Dallas resident, received a parking bill for $108 on his TollTag account after spending approximately 10 minutes at the airport.
"I was shocked," Woster said. Officials think that the new system failed to read his TollTag when he exited, and then when he returned days later, the system based the parking charge on him having never left the facility.
"How many people didn't look at their toll charges every time," Woster said.
Airport officials have started going through their records to catch any missed billing mistakes.
"We're a customer-service business," Magana said. "You shouldn't treat your customers that way, and we certainly never meant to treat them that way.
"It's a mistake and we're fixing it," Magana continued.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
