Friday, July 10, 2009

GREEN PASS HAS LANDED


So after my first visit to New Jersey's EZPASS service center... I finally got the green pass this morning. On my first visit about 2 weeks ago.. I was first told the MINI-E didn't qualify since it wasn't a "hybrid"... I guess those attendants don't get paid very much. Anyway... after digging deeper with a very helpful supervisor, it turned out they identify cars via their VIN, and the service they use didn't have the VIN decoding info for the MINI-E.

Ed, via facebook, suggested I contact Richard Steinberg at MINI. Surprisingly, Richard responded very quickly. Here is his resonse:
We have already received a reply from the EZPass people that this is aclerical error on their side. From their perspective, the car qualifies and it should be in their database already (but its not). I hope its ok, but they asked for your info, and we shared your email with them. They may contact you directly.
RS
The next day, I got this email from Art Richardson at NJ EZPASS:

Mr. Bondorowsky,
After conducting Web research, we now understand why we could not validate your Mini Cooper by the VIN number as a qualified GREEN auto. Your car is a non -production car and is not listed as yet, but the car certainly qualifies for GREEN PLAN status in NJ. I request that you visit our Walk-in Center again and present the registration for the vehicle so that we can issue the appropriate GREEN E-Z Pass transponder to you. The tag will be specifically assigned just to your Cooper and will not be usable in any of your other vehicles.

Regards,
Art Richardson
Senior Supervisor
E-Z Pass Service Center
ACS Transportation Solutions

All in all, I'm very impressed and pleased that this was taken care of this quickly and very professionally! Yay team!

5 comments:

  1. I had not heard of the green EZpass. I had not gotten around to adding my Mini E (#458) to my regular EZpass since I don't take the Interstate much. I'll have to look it up. Maybe you could add to your post - what does the green EZpass do for you?

    ReplyDelete
  2. just faxed in my app on Friday (lets see if i have the same problem) you get a "deep" discount in off-peak hours but no discount during peak hours. but you do get to travel in the HOV lane.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sandy,
    I have had the same experience with the Green Pass for NY EZ Pass but not with the positive result! Does the NJ EZ Pass give you the $4 toll at the Port Authority bridges and tunnels?
    David Miller Mini E 276
    South Orange, NJ
    973-768-2956

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had a problem - an I believe that the issue is that your EZ pass has to be through Port Authority, not the NY Thruway or EZ pass itself... All pretty confusing, and I haven't yet succeeded, unfortunately. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I got mine at the EZ-Pass Service Center in Newark, NJ. They are all setup for the MINI-E now. You should have no trouble there at all.

    ReplyDelete