Back in June 2025, Alan Lieberman and his wife drove into New York City for an off-Broadway play.
They returned to the city two weeks later, this time to see a one-man comedy show.
Nearly a full year later, Lieberman saw some unexpected charges on his May 2026 E-ZPass statement.
There were three Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ) toll fees, commonly called “congestion pricing,” a controversial charge levied on those who drive south of 60th Street.
Controversial, at least, to Jersey drivers.
Two separate fees dated June 25, 2025, and one for July 8, 2025, caught his eye.
“I knew that something was wrong with the system,” he said.
He went back to his statements from last year, and saw he was charged — and had paid — the $9 fee for both dates.
And, he knew, the two charges on the same day were wrong. The fee can only be charged once per day.
He called New Jersey E-ZPass — his tag is based in Jersey — and it removed one of the duplicate charges. But the agency only processes the fees sent to it by New York, so it couldn’t remove the other charges, he was told.
So wrote to New York E-ZPass on June 1 with a dispute declaration and copies of the statements to prove he had already paid the fees. He received no response, so he wrote again on July 27. Again, no response.
“After my first two letters, I received only another violation notice, with a larger penalty, about a month later,” he said. “I sent my third letter by Certified Mail and received a reply, but they ignored my proof of payment and explanation and sent the violations to a collection agency.”
Now he owed $40.50 in fees and $150 in penalties, according to the Sept. 3 violation notice from the MTA and the subsequent letter he received from the collection agency.
Calls to New Jersey E-ZPass didn’t clear things up, he said.
“The customer service representative I spoke with was sympathetic but said they couldn’t do anything and that New York E-ZPass ignores explanations of their errors,” Lieberman said.
Concerned about the outstanding violations, which could lead to a vehicle registration suspension and damaged credit, he paid the $190.50 bill.
“I have done nothing wrong and am paying the price for an MTA error that they refuse to correct. I hope to recover my unnecessary payment of $190.50,” Lieberman said, and he asked Bamboozled for help.
We reviewed copies of Lieberman’s unanswered letters to MTA and his E-ZPass account statements, which confirmed he paid those fees a year ago.
Then we shared the letters and statements with MTA and asked it to review Lieberman’s account. We also requested it return Lieberman’s money and call off the collections dogs.
The next day, we had an answer.
“The MTA team looked into this customer’s case and we are in the process of rectifying the issue via Mr. Lieberman’s NY Tolls by Mail Account and NJ E-ZPass with a full credit back to the credit card used for the payment,” a spokesman said. “The customer will also be contacted directly to inform him of the review.”
We were glad to hear Lieberman is getting his money back, but we had a larger question.
Why did it happen? And importantly, is there some kind of larger, systemic issue that affected other drivers?
“The cause is under review,” a spokeswoman said.
Not exactly a satisfying answer, but we hope the case has indeed spurred MTA to take a closer look at what happened here to make sure other drivers were not wrongly charged.
Lieberman said didn’t receive a call, but there’s already a $190.50 refund on his credit card.
While he’s glad to get the money back, it never should have happened, he said.
“I am frustrated that the MTA ignored my three written replies to their violation notices,” he said. “I knew that the MTA made a processing error when I received the initial violation notice.”
If we ever find out what went wrong here, we will let you know, dear readers.
In the meantime, take Lieberman’s experience as another reminder to read all of your bills closely.
Alan Lieberman with his car in his driveway in Cranford, New Jersey on Thursday, October 8, 2026.
Chris Pedota | For NJ.com