Troubleshooters: Double billed tolls through RiverLink

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - RiverLink’s customer service is a regular complaint WAVE News receives through the Troubleshooter Hotline.

One complaint accused RiverLink of double billing.

RiverLink tells toll customers to file a dispute with them if they think they’ve been billed incorrectly.

WAVE News asked for that database for all of 2022.

It took the State of Indiana a couple of months to respond with the database, but what was given shows plenty of customers arguing they’re getting double billed.

“Every day, all day long,” said BestOne Kentuckiana Operations Manager Louis Roederer.

His company keeps professional drivers rolling.

“We’re delivering tires, we’re going out to help customers that are broke down on the side of the road, things like that,” Roederer said.

He said 15 to 20 trucks a day operate out of their facility at Brook and Hill in Louisville. They drive all over, and can’t rely on just the Second Street Bridge.

“We use the East End bridge, we use the Sherman Minton, we use the downtown bridges,” Roederer said.

Starting a couple of months ago, one of the clerks noticed a problem. Tolls they had paid for, were being billed again.

“We get billed for it in the first month, we pay the bill on time, and then we get billed again in the next month,” Roederer said.

He says he now has to spend a lot more time on the phone with RiverLink.

“They’ll fix them, sometimes it’ll take 45 minutes to an hour, sometimes you’re on hold for half an hour before you get a hold of anybody,” Roederer said.

He’s not alone. WAVE News asked the state of Indiana for RiverLink dispute data from 2022. It revealed more than 23,000 disputes had been filed with RiverLink for its three bridges, challenging nearly $1.4 million in tolls and fees.

2,300 disputes were classified as billing errors. Within that data, it was found RiverLink agents marked the tolls as paid at least 200 times.

“We’re a small business and we have thousands of these a month, I can’t even imagine a trucking company that has hundreds of trucks crossing all the time,” Roederer said.

“I took two days off, hours on the phone,” Tony Brigmon said.

He faced a huge problem. His license plates were expiring, but his renewal was held up because RiverLink said he owed a toll he paid.

“Mine are paid immediately from the minute I get the bill, the check is in the mail,” Brigmon said.

He filed a dispute, but RiverLink said it couldn’t find his $8 check, even though Brigmon’s bank showed it had cleared. He asked his bank to dig in. They found RiverLink deposited the check in a different account.

“They were depositing it into two different accounts, I had six invoices, five went into one account, the disputable went to a different account,” Brigmon said.

Brigmon called again with the two account numbers and finally got it fixed.

“After a couple of days of arguing they researched and said that’s true, we got you, you’re in good shape,” Brigmon said.

RiverLink declined to talk on camera. A spokesperson told WAVE News the number of disputes filed with them has remained consistent since 2018.

WAVE sent them a copy of Roederer’s two toll notices showing the tolls paid in October, and then put on a second notice in November.

The spokesperson said RiverLink didn’t find any evidence of double billing. Riverlink said a portion of the November payment Roederer showed WAVE was applied to older unpaid tolls and fees. Roederer disagrees.

“Same truck, same time stamp, same date stamp,” said Roederer.

Brigmon said he just avoids the toll bridges now.

“It’s not worth the hassle, for the five minutes extra it takes to go to the other bridge, it saves me hours on the phone,” said Brigmon.

Roederer said his drivers don’t have a choice.

“We have too much traffic to take the Second Street Bridge,” said Roederer.

Roederer said since he was interviewed, the double billing has stopped.

The data also shows RiverLink resolves disputes 68% of the time.

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