I received the letter (which I’m not a fan of it saying that it was a violation in the letter and on the website. Should have an alternate one and rules for the ICC) and went to the ezpassmd.com website to make my payment.

I entered my license plate number and it also asks for a Violation Number. The example: “Example: T080800368609 (do not include dashes or numbers after the dash).”

Well I have a transaction number on my bill, an account number and a notice number but no violation number. My transaction number is V000898692009 and I entered that in and no dice. I gave up because I thought the system was down.

Well a couple weeks later (yes, you could see how eager I was to pay the $3.60) I try to pay again and it wasn’t working. Now, I had used the ICC before on March 9 and that transaction number is also listed as T081114045884 and I thought that’s what I entered when I successfully paid that toll, and it looks exactly like that example.

So it dawned on me maybe I should try this Notice Number which is T081101493855 and looks just like the transaction number. Not so magically, it works, and I’m in.

Here’s the kicker though. Once I’m on that payment page it says my violation number is V000898692009 — what I originally entered.

Well now I have to pay $28.60 because I was late. I didn’t immediately pay it and still haven’t somewhat out of spite.

Sure, I could have paid it through the mail or over the phone, but the option I wanted was online because it was best for me. It seems like the state has to do a better job of telling people how to pay a bill if they are giving the online option. Banks would take a serious by folks hit if this is how someone had to make a credit card payment. I don’t even know if this could be legally challenged, but at the least, it’s a customer service issue.

Now this is really dumb. It is not a violation of anything to use the ICC without an E-ZPass. It's a legitimate way to pay -- fully sanctioned by the state. So it shouldn't be using the word "violation" when it bills people for ICC tolls. It doesn't matter if it's easier to use the same form you use for E-ZPass lane violators. It's just insulting.

Fortunately, the toll authority agreed. Spokeswoman Kelly Melhem provided the following response:

You are correct. It is a perfectly legit way to pay on the ICC, as well as at our other facilities. Hence the new Video Toll rates in the tolling proposal. I am not aware of any ongoing issues with the E-ZPass MD web site.

We are transitioning away from the “violations” language and apologize for the confusion Mr. Schelle experienced when paying his Notice of Toll Due online. MDTA recently improved its Notice of Toll Due statement for all facilities to remove references to violations and help the customer more easily identify current and outstanding unpaid toll transactions and the total amount due.

Now we are in the process of updating the E-ZPass MD web site to reflect the same. Currently, the violation number referenced on the web is the same as the transaction number on the Notice of Toll Due.

A member of our E-ZPass Operations Team will be contacting Mr. Schelle to answer any questions he has about making an on-line payment and notify him that we will refund the $25 late fee he paid. If he encounters any difficulty in making future on-line payments, we encourage him to contact the Customer Service Center at 1-888-321-6824 to help him rectify the issue asap.

The authority's response, to me seems quite reasonable and admirably free of the reflexive defensiveness you see from many government agencies. The new toll-due notice is an improvement, though it would still be better to have a separate and more customer-friendly form for the ICC without the one-size fits-all wording. It might even say "thank you for using our toll road."

This incident does underscore that it is becoming increasingly counterproductive to remain an E-ZPass holdout. The fare increase proposal now pending includes a 10 percent discount for E-ZPass users. Later this year, that will mean all its takes is three round-trips to offset the $1.50-a-month service fee. Come 2013, it would only take two trips. Plus, you save on the hassle of dealing with a bill if you do use the ICC. On top of that, there's the pleasure of whizzing through a toll plaza while others line up to pay in cash. That's what it's really all about.