[coriollis]

Guys, I have a noob question.
I recently purchased a Innova Crysta. I have not yet attached the fastag issued to me to the window. The vehicle is just a few days old.
Yesterday night while I was returning from Mumbai, I paid cash for the toll amount of Rs 230/- at Khalapur toll plaza. I showed my toll slip of E-way to the toll attendant at Talegaon exit and he let me pass.
To my astonishment, I was charged for Rs138/-
What should I do now. There is no one answering my phone on the helpline no provided. How do they charge the amount if my fastag sticker is not scanned?
Do they use the vehicle registration no instead? What exactly would be the issue?

Cheers,
AB

[NPV]

Originally Posted by coriollis

I recently purchased a Innova Crysta. I have not yet attached the fastag issued to me to the window.
...
Do they use the vehicle registration no instead? What exactly would be the issue?

If I understood correctly, though you paid cash, your tag was charged despite it not being stuck to the windshield ? If so, I'm guessing that your tag must have been in the car on the dashboard or elsewhere and hence it would have got scanned at the toll plaza.

If this is the case, you need to raise a dispute with your tag provider (the dispute process for ICICI Fastag has been discussed few times on this thread so you can search and read up on that), but do hold on to the cash receipt since you will need that as proof for a reversal once the dispute is resolved.

Who is your tag provider ?

[coriollis]

Originally Posted by NPV

If I understood correctly, though you paid cash, your tag was charged despite it not being stuck to the windshield ? If so, I'm guessing that your tag must have been in the car on the dashboard or elsewhere and hence it would have got scanned at the toll plaza.
Who is your tag provider ?

Yes. You got it, despite how confusing I made it sound

The tag is in the service booklet pouch and the pouch is stored in the front glovebox. That's what puzzled me.
My provider is ICICI.
And I have the toll receipt in case I need it for the reversal process.
I will indeed go through all the posts to find some clue to my problem.
Cheers.
AB

[rogercharlie]

Went from Bangalore to Belgaum and back last week. Had a pathetic experience with FasTag lanes.

The dedicated FasTag lanes had long queues of trucks as all trucks seem to have instaled FasTags.

Some tolls had most lanes FasTags enabled, the processing slowed down as even the FasTag lanes were collecting cash.

Everywhere the FasTag processing was taking normal than usual to recognize the tag.

At the Ashoka toll booth, they first said that the tag was blacklisted but after some dilly dallying they brought a hand held scanner and that worked. Overall - wasted a lot of time at toll booths despite haveing a FasTag.

[harry10]

Have applied for Paytm fasttag for one of our cars. Will update the experience as and when it arrives.

[GrandTourer]

Originally Posted by coriollis

Yes. You got it, despite how confusing I made it sound

The tag is in the service booklet pouch and the pouch is stored in the front glovebox. That's what puzzled me.
My provider is ICICI.
And I have the toll receipt in case I need it for the reversal process.
I will indeed go through all the posts to find some clue to my problem.
Cheers.
AB

Hey
I had a similar issue with my ICICI tag, when it was detected at the Pune expressway (the same toll coincidentally) while it was in my glovebox. You can go to the website and go to the helpdesk section and file a complaint there. However, you will need to follow up with them a few times.

I believe the service has improved recently, based on my very recent interaction with them.
As I had posted earlier on this thread, I had lost my tag and applied for a new one. Got it in two weeks time, without follow up!

OT for this question, but relevant to earlier posts on the thread:
The trick is to not report it stolen. Instead report it damaged or undetectable. In this scenario they'll process the request quicker, since there are more formalities for a stolen tag. The customer service exec suggested this when I applied for a replacement tag. This is for ICICI only. For other services, please talk to respective customer service execs.

[indranilmuk]

Originally Posted by rogercharlie

Went from Bangalore to Belgaum and back last week. Had a pathetic experience with FasTag lanes.

I am replying to your post. As similar experience I had during my recent travel to Hyderabad from Bangalore and back. Several toll plazas had made me take reverse after entering the Fastag lane during night and asked me to go to the normal lane, where I stood in queue for quite sometime. In one case surprisingly I was following a Volvo bus to save myself from the sudden appearing speed brakers, but in the toll plaza the bus was allowed through the Fastag lane whereas I was forced to reverse and take the other normal lane behind a number of trucks. I lost the sight of the bus. The people in the tolls were extremely arrogant and does not understand any other language except local. So, couldn't help much.

I made the onward journey on the 30th September night and the return journey on the 4th October night. On 3rd October at around 1:18 PM afternoon, suddenly received a message from ICICI bank that a dispute charge of RS 260 has been deducted which was raised during my Fastag swipe at the Marur toll plaza where the charges of RS 110 for onward journey was already deducted. I couldn't do much in Hyderabad. After returning back to Bangalore I called the ICICI Fastag customer care. They said this is because my vehicle number is not updated so I need to raise a chargeback refund complaint along with a photo of the RC book and photos of my vehicle. I have done that, still waiting for the refund. Overall experience as evident is indeed pathetic.

[KrisTvpm]

Did a recent round trip Bengaluru <--> Guruvayoor, my ICICI Fastag worked well throughout the journey. Now the recharges seem to go directly to the tag - probably if one has just one tag, instead of earlier to the CUG wallet which was a hassle to transfer the money from wallet to tag account.

Only one grouse though - now with the mandatory fastag implementation from Dec'19, almost ALL lanes in MOST toll-booths are fastag-equipped / getting so.

With this, the exclusivity and more importantly the time I used to save in previous journeys is gone :-( Now, seems it's not illegal/punishable for a non-fastag vehicle paying by cash to clog a fastag lane, and take away precious time from me waiting 10 such cash-paying cars down the lane to get clearance
I am particularly bad / unfortunate in identifying an efficient lane, the one I choose will have the max no. of vehicles paying cash, and I haplessly watch other lanes getting clear in a jiffy!

Once ALL the vehicles across the country will have to get fastag as mandatory measure, hope this issue will go away.

[Santoshbhat]

Despite being a frequent highway user, I am a late adopter or FASTag. You can put that down to multiple negative reviews about difficulties in procurement of the tags, loading payment, double charging at booths etc... and of course, sheer laziness on my part. After constantly reading posters at every booth that say FAStag will be mandatory post Dec 2019, I decided to get going and order a tag. I've got an HDFC tag which I bought off Amazon of all places! Procurement and tagging of the tag with car was smooth and no issues there. I have stuck the tag on the windshield just behind the IRVM slightly towards the left as per instructions received with the tag.

First journey was towards Hyderabad and the tag was not detected at Devanahally fastag exclusive lane where the boom barrier is placed much before the regular gates. I was asked to move to regular lane where the operator had to come out and scan with his hand-held device. He struggled a bit and then flagged me off. I did not get any SMS and later realised that the tag wasn’t detected and he just let me go. At the next toll gate also the tag did not get detected and the operator had to come out with a handheld scanner who also struggled to get a proper detection. He then covered the factory fitted RFID sticker by hand which is right above my FASTag and seemed to get a reading. I also got an SMS this time. Return journey also same story. The tag never got detected automatically and the operators always seemed to struggle to get a proper reading. On more than a few occasions the operators would give up and just let me go without demanding cash payment.

Next journey was on Tumkur highway (up to Hiriyur only). At Parle G toll, no detection and was let go just like that. At Nelamangala toll I did not get into the dedicated lane as it was too long. At the regular gate my tag did not get detected and I just paid cash and moved on. At Karjeevanahally toll where the FASTag lane has a detection point much before the regular booths my tag did not get detected and I was asked to move to regular lane. Behind me other cars went through smoothly. But then the tag got detected this time at the other lane without the operator having to come out and manually and scan my tag.

I then came back and searched this thread as to what could be going wrong.
Two possibilities

• Factory fitted RFID tag which is right above FASTag is causing interference.
• BMW glass isn’t allowing proper communication with the tag.

There are a couple of Volvo car owners here who have reported that their tags have a lot of difficulty in being detected. I remember heat resistant factory fitted glass as one of the features on my X3.

So, first thing I decided was to block the factory fitted RFID. Tearing it up and removing it just like that did not seem like a good idea, so I decided to block it. Ordered a cheap RFID blocking sleeve like this. Cut it up and pasted it over the factory RFID sticker from the outside. It looks crude right now, but I had to eliminate this reason.

As luck would have it, I had a repeat of similar journeys like the last ones.

• Devanahally toll (towards Hyderabad): No automatic detection at the FASTag lane, nor at regular lane. But the lady operator was able to get a reading easily with handheld device. Return journey also same story.

Next journey on Tumkur road.

• Missed FASTag lane at Parle G point. Regular lane did not have fastag scanners, paid cash.
• At Nelamangala toll, tag got detected automatically at one of the regular lanes.
• Karjeevanahally – Tag did not get detected at pre entry gate point like last time. Moved to regular lane and tag got detected automatically.
• Then all the way towards Belgaum the tag got detected at most lanes automatically. Only at a couple of booths the operator had to scan manually. And the detection was quick there too.

So, the blocking of the factory RFID tag has surely helped for better detection, but still there are difficulties in detection at a few toll booths. The detection isn’t as smooth and seamless as I see it is with some other cars, trucks and buses.

Only positive I can see is that I don’t need to reach out for my wallet and my car is spared of toll ticket clutter. I don’t think I saved much time since most times I had to move to regular lanes. The good thing is that most lanes seem to be fastag enabled these days.

Now the question that is haunting me is: Is the BMW glass hampering detection in anyway? Would it advisable to order a replacement tag and get it laminated in some way and keep it in the small storage space next to the steering wheel. Maybe I can flash it manually by hand and hope to get a clean detection and quick exit that way. Is it permitted at all to have the tag not pasted on the windshield?

Sticker placement


Blocking factory RFID sticker. Crude but effective

[bejoy]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

The detection isn’t as smooth and seamless as I see it is with some other cars, trucks and buses.

My take: There cannot be a 100% RF blocking with the sleeve. The signals are just attenuated. So the stronger the probing signals (the device at the lane) the factory tag will still respond and picked up by the reader causing a conflict. The readers at each lanes may not be calibrated equally and there are many variations with respect to the placing of reader, so the tag may encounter different signal power at different lanes/toll booths.

The windshield will not cause much attenuation and the fact that the factory tag is placed inside, any tag would just work fine.

[SilentEngine]

In my recently purchased EcoSport, dealer had installed a FASTag from HDFC. I was able to login to the portal to recharge it, but what i noticed is that instead of actual registration number, VIN is specified as the registration number. Is this a common practice to issue tags on VIN instead of actual registration numbers for new cars?

Originally Posted by haisaikat

A quick update, 3 days back all the transactions that I had made from various accounts to HDFC FASTag UPI link (netc.car-no@hdfcbank) got refunded automatically. Probably HDFC has not kept this channel enabled by purpose even though the UPI gateway does recognise the handle as HDFC Ltd FASTag. So only option is to use the online HDFC portal for FASTag.

I am probably in same boat as you. One of the banners in HDFC netbanking portal claims that one can do UPI payments to the tag. I tried a test payment of Rs 50 yesterday (from Citibank UPI because i was unable to get HDFC bank's UPI to work), using VIN instead of reg-no because that's what is in the tag. Amount was debited form Citibank, but nothing shows up against the tag, so most likely it will come back to Citibank after few days.

About the HDFC bank's FASTag portal, less said the better. It looks like a website designed by some college interns.

Now coming to the actual FASTag experience.
1. Few days back on the drive from Bangalore to Mangalore, what i noticed is that the attendants at the toll booth make only one car go at a time through the FASTag lane. Other cars need to queue up good 15-20 meters behind. The person at the entry uses a metal barricade to stop other cars from entering. During my drive, there wasn't much traffic so it was ok but can't see how this would work during busy time.
2. Drive from Mangalore to Kundapur - this stretch has 3 places where toll is collected. I hardly saw anybody going through FASTag lanes. Even i used normal lane because i had run out of balance in my tag account.

So basically i am wondering how realistic is it to expect complete switchover to FASTag by December?

[vvrchandra]

Guys, Is there a way to cancel a Fastag account, if the vehicle is sold. Thanks.

[Mnjdnght]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

Now the question that is haunting me is: Is the BMW glass hampering detection in anyway?

I can provide an answer to this query. In my 2.5 years of highway trips in my X3 30D (bought some months after yours, same model year I think) I've only had very few instances (in low single digits) when my tag was not read automatically. I've done several trips on Chennai, Kochi, Madurai, Pune, Goa, Hassan highways and of course trips to KIAL. Only twice, on the Pune highway, manual scanner had to be used where the factory tag had to be covered for my tag to be read.

I've the factory fitted tag slightly to the left of my IRVM and I've stuck my tag slightly to the right (as viewed from inside) of IRVM (just after the black dotted area). Initially I wanted to test the location and hence had not stuck the tag directly on the windshield. I've stuck it on the two edges using regular tape. Idea was to move it around to get a consistent location before sticking permanently. But it worked from day 1 and I haven't bothered to remove the tape and stick it permanently yet.

One difference, besides the slight change in location, is that I've fast tag from ICICI.

[kavu75]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

In my recently purchased EcoSport, dealer had installed a FASTag from HDFC. I was able to login to the portal to recharge it, but what i noticed is that instead of actual registration number, VIN is specified as the registration number. Is this a common practice to issue tags on VIN instead of actual registration numbers for new cars?

Looks like this is common nowadays.
Before getting the registration number, they are activating the tag and providing the VIN number in place of actual registration number.
Same thing happened to me when I purchased Crysta last week. Later I logged into ICICI Fastag customer portal and updated the registration number. I have attached RC details from parivahan site as proof.

Originally Posted by vvrchandra

Guys, Is there a way to cancel a Fastag account, if the vehicle is sold. Thanks.

Recently did the same for my sold vehicle.
In the ICICI Fastag customer portal, there is a Help Desk Menu. In this you can place request to Cancel / Deactivate tag account. You need to attach a canceled cheque(for crediting back remaining amount), request letter and Pancard copy.

[harry10]

Paytm fastag got activated.
150 is the balance shown.
Just want to know what happens when this amount is over. Will further deductions happen automatically from Paytm Wallet or is there any means to add more to this balance as I can't find anything.