Officials blame software 'hiccup' for erroneous I-PASS charges

Software improvements backfired causing the Illinois tollway's computer system to turn on some I-PASS users last week, officials explained.

About 4,500 I-PASS customers found erroneous charges and refunds on their credit and bank accounts Friday morning.

The problem stemmed from a package of software enhancements, administrators said. The script for one of the enhancements that started Dec. 8 failed to update the master data file. Scripts are programs or procedures that move files from one place on a server's disk drives to another server, run programs and perform other tasks.

“When the automatic balance replenishment schedule began early Friday morning, it got caught in a ‘hiccup' of stops and starts that resulted in the cycle of charges and refunds we experienced for a few hours last Friday,” tollway spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said.

While this was an isolated incident, officials said the mishap was not surprising given that the I-PASS computer system is running at capacity and needs to be replaced.

“It functions but it's not the ideal system,” Executive Director Kristi Lafleur said.

For more information, call the tollway's customer service center at (800) 824-7277.