RiverLink customers frustrated with issues following tolling provider change

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Since RiverLink's switch to a new tolling operator earlier this month, the list of complaints from some RiverLink customers is long.

Aiming to improve RiverLink billing and customer service, Indiana and Kentucky officials chose a Texas-based company to take over the Louisville area toll system's collection, invoicing and other back office work.

The new operator took over on Sept. 1.

"I just feel like they're scamming people and ripping people off," said Indiana resident Robert Merse.

Merse, and others, are bothered that the tolls even exist in the first place, and many of the customers say they've had issues since the change in operators.

The Frequent-User Discount that RiverLink offers stipulates that customers crossing the bridge more than 40 times a month will receive a discount.

Several customers say crossings aren't being reflected on their RiverLink account.

"I'd like to know why they programmed a site where the user/payer (remember, we prepay to have the transponder) can't keep track of our trips - but Riverlink obviously knows so they can charge us," Laura Lou said on Facebook. "There is no way they 'forgot' to include that info."

We asked RiverLink about the trips missing on accounts on customers with transponders.

RiverLink spokesperson Mindy Peterson provided this statement:

There are no issues with the frequent-user discount. Drivers with prepaid accounts and transponders are used to seeing their crossings post soon after crossing a tolled bridge. Our new toll service provider has been in place since September 1. As with any transition, we’ve been taking extra steps for quality control. Drivers will soon see September crossings reflected on their accounts. There’s no need for concern and no need to track their trips. The frequent-user discount will be available, as always, to drivers in passenger vehicles with accounts in good standing making at least 40 crossings in a calendar month. They’ll see that reflected later this month. They just need to give the new system time to catch up with transactions.

"It's very frustrating," said Merse. "Everybody I've talked to says the same thing, too. It shouldn't be happening."

Many of those customers with complaints say the solution is eliminating tolls. However, tolling was approved in a bistate effort between Kentucky and Indiana more than a decade ago to finance the $2.3 billion Ohio River Bridges Project after state officials determined that fuel taxes would not be enough to cover the costs.

The tolls, which began in late 2016, are set to remain until at least the 2050s.

It's not clear how long it would take for the new system to catch up.

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