Complaint Review: Toyota - Parsippany New Jersey

I am filing this report on behalf of my son.  He sent this letter to Toyota management a month ago and no one has contacted him as of today (1/18/22). Here is a copy of the letter.

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The purpose of this letter is to register a complaint about the way my wife and I were treated by Toyota Financial Services (TFS). We intend to log a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau as well as express our outrage on several social media outlets. The incredible details of this case should garner considerable internet attention as it not only reflects contempt for customer loyalty and customer service but a total disregard for simple human kindness.

My wife and I have been Toyota customers since 2013 having leased three vehicles in that time period. Since we love the Toyota products, we would have continued with Toyota in the future. However, our lease with Toyota ends this coming March and since we were treated in this horrific manner by Toyota Financial Services, we have no intention of renewing with Toyota and will opt to go with Subaru instead.

 I cannot begin to express the utter frustration and outrage we experienced when Toyota repossessed our car on December 10, 2021. The entire repossession process was not only uncalled for but demonstrated a total lack of professionalism and a possible breach of New Jersey state law.  Upon reviewing the details of this incident, one can conclude that Toyota never intended for us to reclaim the car wanting rather to have the car proceed to auction.

 This letter records the painful consequences of your careless actions on my family. Here are the details of the incident.

 Our sorted story begins with an error that my wife and I made. We attempted to switch the payment process from manual bill pay through our bank to an auto-bill pay. However, we did not set it up properly and subsequently no payments were sent to Toyota Financial Services for a period of three months. We also did not notice the lack of payments to TFS believing that the auto-pay was set up properly.  We readily admit our error but state that we would have corrected the non payment immediately if we were notified as our actions in the past have demonstrated.  

 In this case, we received no written or oral notification from TFS (nor anyone else) about our lack of payments and our account being placed in a repossession status.

 Our car was repossessed at 4:37am on 10 December, 2021. The reason that we know the exact time was because I was at work. I am a Cinnaminson, NJ Police Officer and was on duty at that time. My home Ring system alerted me of the activity in front of my house so I witnessed the removal of my car. I could not get home in time to stop the car from being taken. The repossession agent left no note stating this was a repossession.

 The car was taken with our two child car seats still inside. With no car and no car seats, my wife was not able to take our two small children to day care that day. Subsequently, my wife was forced to stay home and lose a day of work.

 Later that morning, in haste I made a payment of $1500 to TFS as a knee jerk reaction to being notified that we were behind in our payments. I was told later on the phone that was not the proper process.

 That same morning, I also called Holman Toyota in Mount Laurel, NJ (where we obtained the vehicle) for help in resolving the issue. However, Holman just quickly transferred me to TFS.  I then spent the next 5 hours on the phone and was transferred no less than 8 times in that 5 hour span. In all that time on the phone with all the various groups I spoke to, NO ONE ever told me the proper process on how to get my car out of repossession status.  No one ever took the time to walk me through how it was to be done because as we found out later it wasn’t just a matter of paying TFS.

 When I asked about why we received no prior notification, the person told me that they attempted to call us a number of times but we failed to pick up. I asked if they left a voicemail and they said they “were not required to leave a voicemail”.  This makes no sense at all. This means that there was no way for us to differentiate a call from TFS from all the other spam calls that one gets these days on our cell phones. Proper business etiquette is to leave a voicemail so the person knows this is a legitimate issue and will return the call.

 TFS demonstrated this etiquette in the past. In 2016 right before our wedding, my wife fell behind in her payments. TFS called my wife’s cell phone, left a voicemail and my wife immediately called back.  Upon learning of her lack of payment, she immediately paid the outstanding balance to bring her account current. We would have done the exact same thing in this case, if we were ever properly notified. As of 10 December, 2021, we had received no written notification from Toyota on this issue.

 After those long hours on the phone, I was finally told that our payment was to be made via Western Union only.  I was told that the car would be “released” upon payment through Western Union. Upon calling Western Union, I attempted to make the payment. However, there was an issue with attempting to make the payment as the Western Union analyst told me that my account number was not valid. Only after several minutes of confusion, it was determined that I needed to instruct Western Union that this was for a “bill payment”. Again, no one told me that I needed to give such an instruction to Western Union.

 We then made the payment of $2839.46 around 2pm that same day (10 December). The payment included a $97 fee for Western Union.  

 Later that same day, I had to drive to the repossession lot in Sewell, NJ (40 minutes away from my home in Delran, NJ) to pick up our personal belongings, which included our two children’s car seats. On the way to the repo yard, I called TFS. I gave them the tracking number I received from Western Union after the payment was made. TFS assured me that they would “release” the car immediately.  I was also told by TFS that the repossession lot was only open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12pm to 4pm and that you needed to make an appointment to get the car. I arrived at the repossession lot at 3:40pm and was told that they had not received the release notice yet. Since it was nearly 4pm, we would then need to resolve the issue on Monday.

 I then had to leave town on a business trip on Sunday evening, 12 December. My wife was then left to attempt to get the car back that next business week.

On Monday, 13 December, my wife called the number for the repo yard given to us by TFS. My wife left a voicemail, stating that she wanted to make an appointment to get our car.  No one from the repo yard called her back on Monday nor Tuesday. 

 Upon discussing our situation with my father on Tuesday evening, my father volunteered to go to the repo yard on Wednesday since he lives fairly close to the yard. My father went to the yard on Wednesday at noon and talked to the attendant.  My father explained the situation and that my wife and I had made a payment the prior Friday (10 December) the day the car was repossessed. The attendant upon hearing those details, said that the car should have been “released” and that we could come down and get the car.

 My father then drove 40 minutes to get my wife and then returned with my wife to attempt to pick up the car. However, when my wife got to the yard, the attendant told her that that car had not yet been released and that we needed to call TFS to resolve the issue. He also instructed us that there was an order placed on the car by TFS that the car was to go to auction that Friday morning, 17 December.

 My wife immediately called TFS. The analyst there stated that he personally released the car the prior Friday after the payment was made. He stated that he would release the car again and then gave us a phone number to call to check that the release went through. Upon asking him who the group was for the phone number we were calling, he told us that it was for Loss Prevention. 

 My wife then called Loss Prevention and explained the situation.  The analyst there stated that we “should have called them first” to get the car released. Again, we were never told that this Loss Prevention group was involved and that we needed to call them.  The analyst then sent the release notice to the repo yard.

 Upon talking to the repo attendant, we then were told that we owed $135 for storage.  Again, no one at Toyota explained this fee to us and that we needed to pay in cash for the attendant could take no other form of payment. Since my wife and father did not have $135 in cash on them, they had to go to a local ATM to get $140 in cash to make the payment, allowing the attendant to keep the $5 for he did not have the ability to make change.

 The attendant then scraped off the white writing (for auction purposes) on the windshield and my wife was able to drive the car from the repo yard.

 Our story however, is not finished. On Wednesday, December 22, we received three letters from Toyota through the USPS.  All three letters were postmarked 14 December, 2021. One letter, dated 10 December, states that we reinstated our contract with TFS. The other two (both dated 14 December) were identical letters notifying both my wife and I of our rights under default of lease. These notices stated that we had up until 29 December, 2021 to pay the amounts listed for reinstatement.

 If my father had not volunteered to go to the repo yard on Wednesday, 15 December and bring my wife to retrieve the car that day but rather waited until we received a call back from the repo yard for an appointment, we would have never known that car was scheduled to go to auction just two days later.  No one from Toyota took the proper action to “release” the car in a timely manner. Subsequently, we would have never had the opportunity to reinstate the car by the state required reinstatement date for the car would have already been sent to auction and sold. I am not a lawyer but from what I’ve read, this would have been a violation of New Jersey state law.

However, even if this would not have been a violation of the law, it screams of a complete lack of professionalism, business etiquette and just plain care for your customer.  Your actions caused me and my family much pain and anguish not to mention financial loss.

 If you have any questions or would like to talk about any of this, you may contact me at xxxxxxx