One Brit has vowed to never use a tunnel again after 103 unsuccessful attempts to pay the toll because the machine ‘didn’t recognise his accent’.
Ivor Rodgers had been heading out to enjoy a lovely holiday in Northumberland with his family, and on his way came to the Tyne Tunnel.
The route utilises an Interactive Voice Response (ICR) technology but Rogers claimed it nearly became the downfall of his holiday after it refused to recognise his accent, ChronicleLive reported.
The 81-year-old said he read out his number plate 103 times to try and pay the £1.90 toll over the phone.
Ivor said: "The first two days of my holiday were ruined by the thought of a £100 fine, as I tried 103 times to read out my registration plate. Needless to say, I will never use that route again."
The retired university lecturer, from Hull, travelled to Cresswell Towers Caravan Park on Wednesday, July 27, to begin his holiday with his wife, her daughter and two children who had arrived at the caravan park two days earlier.
When he arrived at the tunnel he called the telephone toll payment system because he couldn’t access Wi-Fi.
But he was greeted with an automated voice that “frustratingly” only responded with one or two errors.
That’s when he read out his number plate over 100 times before it was eventually correctly identified.
Ivor said: "My first attempt to carefully and clearly read out the car's registration was read back incorrectly by the automatic voice, so I tried again and again, actually another 49 times, but each time the automatic voice frustratingly responded with one or two errors.
"Hence, I gave up, only to start again the following morning, as failure would have cost me a £100 fine. Incredibly, after 25 further attempts, the 'system' still persisted in not responding accurately to my verbal efforts to register the five letters and two numbers, no matter how clearly I spoke.
"After lunch, after continued dogged persistence, the 28th attempt actually worked, and I was able to successfully pay the £1.90."
However, even after all his hard work, Ivor had unwittingly paid for a completely different car.
It wasn't until he received an unpaid fine notice that he realised something went wrong.
He said: "I was so willing everything to be right that I thought it was. I thought the whole thing had gone through correctly until I got this unpaid fine through.
“I spoke to someone on the phone who asked me for the date and approximate time and they pulled up all the cars going through and they asked me for the first six digits of my debit card and then we both realised what had happened."
After notifying TT2 of the mistake, Ivor said his fine was cancelled. However, following his struggles, Ivor said he avoided the tunnel on his journey home as he couldn't face experiencing any further difficulties navigating the system. He hopes his experience will help encourage TT2 to look at ways to make telephone payments simpler.
He added: "I humbly suggest should have their 'verbal' system replaced by a no-nonsense foolproof system, for example by physically inserting letters and numbers into boxes."
Customer service manager at TT2, Chris Ward, said: "We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused to Mr Rodgers. Our Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology is generally very good at recognising a range of different accents but, on this occasion, it appears to have caused Mr Rodgers some frustration, which is regrettable.
"If a customer does not have Wi-Fi or is unable to use IVR to pay their toll, we would advise them to visit a PayPoint to pay by card or cash. There are over 28,000 locations across the UK, including outlets near to the tunnel exits.
"If you are unsure where the PayPoints are, please give our customer contact centre a call and they will happily advise you of your nearest PayPoint.
"If customers are planning a journey through the tunnels, we also offer the option to pay for the journey in advance, either via opening a Pre-Paid account or using the Pay for Passage feature. Journeys can be purchased up to 12 months in advance, online or via a PayPoint."
