'Have this worked out': Midwest City man frustrated with OTA after billing error

A Midwest City man told News 4 it took days to convince Oklahoma's Turnpike Authority (OTA) to let him off the hook for unpaid tolls he said he didn't owe.

MIDWEST CITY, Okla. (KFOR) – A Midwest City man told News 4 it took days to convince Oklahoma's Turnpike Authority (OTA) to let him off the hook for unpaid tolls he said he didn't owe.

Matthew Ford told News 4 the situation started with a text Wednesday from a debt collector saying that he owed $137.13 to the State of Oklahoma for unpaid tolls.

He said he immediately contacted OTA's customer service line, thinking the text message was a scam.

"They gave us the make and model of the car, a 2015 white Toyota Corolla, and they gave us the license tag number," said Ford.

Ford said the major problems with the information provided was that it was all wrong.

"Never owned that car, and we went back and looked several years and didn't ever own that tag either," said Ford.

Ford said he contacted a local tag agency to try to verify that was the case since he said he was told he'd be responsible for the bill otherwise.

"They were very helpful," said Ford. "She asked a number of questions to try to verify my identity and basically told me that it was a Matthew Ford tied back to that tag, but it was not me."

Ford said he communicated that information to the OTA, but it wasn't enough to satisfy a request for documentation proving he wasn't responsible for the bill.

"They kind of said that they would review it and then ultimately they came back and said that we still had to prove that wasn't us," said Ford.

Ford said that left him frustrated, and nearly out of options.

"It frustrated me and embarrassed me a little bit," said Ford. "We have an active PikePass account with three vehicles on it. This is not one of those vehicles, and my first question was, is if I had been on the turnpike, why would it not charge my bank account?"

Ford said his wife eventually reached out to the Midwest City Police Department, and they told her that her husband was not who the tag belonged to.

A report was also written up, that Ford provided to OTA.

Ford said that report was enough to get OTA to drop the bill.

News 4 isn't sharing the report here due to sensitive personal information, but the report said that the Ford's in question did not and have not ever owned the vehicle involved.

The report said the tag involved was replaced back in 2021 and should display a different tag number registered to a couple with different first and last names.

"It seems to me like if people are genuinely getting the wrong charges that the OTA needs to have this worked out to where they're verifying that they've got the right people that they're charging this money to," said Ford.

News 4 reached out to an OTA spokesperson late Friday morning for comment and clarity.

A spokesperson said OTA was still tracking down information, but offered the following statement in response to our inquiry:

• This appears to be an unusual situation that we are researching with our collections vendor to determine what happened.
• We are sorry for any confusion caused for the Ford family and we apologize for the error.
• OTA is working to complete its full cashless conversion of all turnpikes by the end of this year.
• Since 2019, OTA has processed 980 million transactions and OTA works to ensure a high percentage of accuracy in billing.
• A best practice for all Oklahomans traveling turnpikes, especially those that are converted to cashless tolling, is to make sure their license plates are added to their PIKEPASS account. This will ensure that they do not mistakenly receive a PlatePay invoice for their travel. Additionally, if an address change occurs, Oklahomans are encouraged to update their address with Service Oklahoma. OTA uses registered license plate information from Service Oklahoma for billing purposes.

Oklahoma Turnpike Authority