How to avoid the runaround I went through to get a NY State Green Pass Discount

NY state offers this plan:
Green Pass Discount Plan - New York State Thruway.

It's an E-Z Pass device (colored green). When you use it on the Thruway you get a 10% discount on those tolls. Not a huge savings unless you frequently travel that route, but I now have a daughter in college upstate and wanted to get one of these passes. I thought this would be a simple process. It was not.

I had 2 E-Z passes that were MTA E-Z passes because of where I live (Long Island). Apparently there are also Port Authority E-Z passes, and most importantly, there are NY State Thruway E-Z Passes and you must have one of this type of E-Z Pass in order to get the Green Pass.

I first wrote the necessary letter requesting the Green Pass based on my MTA E-Z pass account and received a reply that my Prius was already registered to another account. It was actually more complicated than that, but I did not know that yet...

I called and spoke to E-Z Pass, got some incorrect advice and stopped at an E-Z Pass location off the NYS Thruway on my way back from visiting my daughter upstate thinking I could buy a Thruway E-Z Pass there. They told me I couldn't get a NYS Thruway E-Z Pass because of where I lived. They suggested I try to find someone who lives near the Thruway and falsely use that person's address! I had been on the road for many hours and had driven through a torrential rainstorm to get there. I was not happy and it turns out they (surprise!) did not know what they were talking about.

I later learned that the following is the way to get a Green Pass if you don't live in the vicinity of the Thruway.

First, you buy what is called an E-Z Pass On The Go. I stopped at a rest area off the Thruway to do this, figuring it would be the correct one. There is a list of other places to buy them here:
E-ZPass® New York - On-the-Go - Retail Locations

Next, after you have one of these passes (I went ahead and registered mine online and used it, but you can start using it immediately without registering it online), THEN you write a letter requesting the Green Pass and they send one to you!
To request the Green Discount, please send a letter and include a copy of the registration to:
E-ZPass New York Customer Service Center
Customer Account Correspondence
P.O. Box 15187
Albany, NY 12212-5187
What I did next (because I still had my 2 MTA devices) is call up and have the E-Z Pass On the Go unit associated with our other car. I will be mailing in our 2 original MTA devices and will enclose a letter to close that account. They are then supposed to refund the balance that is on that account.
I hope this post will spare others the frustration I experienced trying to accomplish these seeming straightforward goal.