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Toyota Financial Services Complaint - READ THIS Before Co-signing with Toyota Financial Services - Auto Financing
Auto Financing - Complaint
KENTUCKY -- We co-signed a loan for our daughter to buy a Toyota Corolla.
After a series of unfortunate events, she filed bankruptcy, but wanted to reaffirm her loan with TFS. They refused to reaffirm, but said they would accept her payments until the car was paid off.
They stopped sending monthly billings altogether. She mistakenly believed that, like her student loans, payments were deferred until all legalities had been settled. She had saved back the payments to make when the billings were resumed.
As you can imagine, her ignorance resulted in repossession of the vehicle. She received no notice of this impending action. Apparently, they do not have to notify her. Oh, sure...they can accept monthly payments with interest on the money borrowed by the bankrupt person, but they will not reaffirm, bill or notify the buyer of delinquencies.
That's bad enough. However, we, as co-signers, were NEVER NOTIFIED by TFS by phone or mail of the bankruptcy, delinquent payments, impending repossession, etc. until AFTER the car had been impounded...then, only to notify us by mail, 6 days after the fact, that the car would be auctioned if not redeemed.
On top of that, when we called them, they told us that they could not talk with us about it...only our daughter. When SHE called, they could only talk with US about it.
Each conversation (approximately EIGHT To TEN different calls) resulted in MIS/DIS-information. When we asked to speak to a supervisor, we were questioned as to why we needed to talk to a supervisor when they would tell us the same thing. OUR RESPONSE: GREAT! Based on the different information we had been receiving, it would be good to hear the same story from two representatives. We were then transferred to the "supervisor" Deanna who, in fact, we were told later, was NOT a supervisor, who gave us MORE inaccurate information!
The REPO department personnel were uninformed, rude, and downright deceitful. We redeemed the car immediately upon receipt of the actual redemption letter, which included approximately $500 in repo/storage fees. Had we been notified about the default on the loan, we could have settled this matter LONG ago without involving repossession and the associated fees.
Perhaps this is all legally correct, but it is SO WRONG for the consumer! A POOR way to do business, and we will certainly remember this experience in the future. This was our FOURTH Toyota purchased in 15 years and it will also be our LAST! All were GREAT vehicles! However, TMC's affiliation with TFS has soured our opinion to the point that we will look elsewhere for our automotive needs and will advise others to do likewise.
After a series of unfortunate events, she filed bankruptcy, but wanted to reaffirm her loan with TFS. They refused to reaffirm, but said they would accept her payments until the car was paid off.
They stopped sending monthly billings altogether. She mistakenly believed that, like her student loans, payments were deferred until all legalities had been settled. She had saved back the payments to make when the billings were resumed.
As you can imagine, her ignorance resulted in repossession of the vehicle. She received no notice of this impending action. Apparently, they do not have to notify her. Oh, sure...they can accept monthly payments with interest on the money borrowed by the bankrupt person, but they will not reaffirm, bill or notify the buyer of delinquencies.
That's bad enough. However, we, as co-signers, were NEVER NOTIFIED by TFS by phone or mail of the bankruptcy, delinquent payments, impending repossession, etc. until AFTER the car had been impounded...then, only to notify us by mail, 6 days after the fact, that the car would be auctioned if not redeemed.
On top of that, when we called them, they told us that they could not talk with us about it...only our daughter. When SHE called, they could only talk with US about it.
Each conversation (approximately EIGHT To TEN different calls) resulted in MIS/DIS-information. When we asked to speak to a supervisor, we were questioned as to why we needed to talk to a supervisor when they would tell us the same thing. OUR RESPONSE: GREAT! Based on the different information we had been receiving, it would be good to hear the same story from two representatives. We were then transferred to the "supervisor" Deanna who, in fact, we were told later, was NOT a supervisor, who gave us MORE inaccurate information!
The REPO department personnel were uninformed, rude, and downright deceitful. We redeemed the car immediately upon receipt of the actual redemption letter, which included approximately $500 in repo/storage fees. Had we been notified about the default on the loan, we could have settled this matter LONG ago without involving repossession and the associated fees.
Perhaps this is all legally correct, but it is SO WRONG for the consumer! A POOR way to do business, and we will certainly remember this experience in the future. This was our FOURTH Toyota purchased in 15 years and it will also be our LAST! All were GREAT vehicles! However, TMC's affiliation with TFS has soured our opinion to the point that we will look elsewhere for our automotive needs and will advise others to do likewise.
Comments:
Posted by Toni I. on 2006-09-27:
It's a shame... Toyota makes great cars, but their sales and finacing departments are THE PITS!!! I was going to buy a Totota RAV 4 earlier this year, but after agreeing on a price, I read the contract and saw that they were trying to screw me with excessive, fees, charges, surcharges, and exorbitant finance charges. When I refused to sign the contract unless they stuck to the original deal, they refused. I got up and walked out of the dealership and wound up buying a Nissan. The dealbreaker revolved around the fact that my vehicle was going to be financed through Toyota Financial Services, and there were plenty of uneccesary hidden charges that would have increased my monthly payment by $65 a month over the negotiated monthly payment price! I suggest that you consider bying a Nissan, as I got the car I wanted for the price I was willing to pay, and I had none of the problems I experienced at the Toyota dealer!
Posted by Nannigan on 2006-09-27:
Toni I: Thanks for reporting your experience with TFS. We have recently acquired a Nissan Pathfinder and are very pleased with its performance thusfar.
It IS a shame that TMC would allow their reputation and credibility to be negatively affected by their affiliation with TFS. However, we as consumers, have no recourse but to protect one another by reporting/posting our intolerable experiences in forums such as these.
We would encourage other consumers to post their OWN negative experience with TFS, either here or with a new review. Hopefully, TMC/TFS is monitoring these forums and will use our input to make effective changes. If not, then they most certainly deserve any and all negative consequences of that decision.
It IS a shame that TMC would allow their reputation and credibility to be negatively affected by their affiliation with TFS. However, we as consumers, have no recourse but to protect one another by reporting/posting our intolerable experiences in forums such as these.
We would encourage other consumers to post their OWN negative experience with TFS, either here or with a new review. Hopefully, TMC/TFS is monitoring these forums and will use our input to make effective changes. If not, then they most certainly deserve any and all negative consequences of that decision.
Posted by rhondam718732 on 2006-09-27:
I must be missing something. Your daughter stopped making payments. Clearly no one from Toyota IN WRITING told her she should stop making payments. You say in your post that they told her they would still accept her payments but she decided not to make them....Sound slike your daughter needs to get her head straight and you need to stop making excuses for her.
Posted by dealerdirect on 2006-09-27:
Once a person files bankruptcy, the creditor is not allowed by law to contact the debtor. All communications must go through the attorney handling the case. As long as I can remember the co signers never get contacted until the bitter end, which seems like a dumb idea. I don't know why this is since co signers have the same financial responsibility as the borrower.
Posted by Nannigan on 2006-09-27:
Thank you Rhondam and JayD for your polite remarks. Please read the complaint again. As stated, our daughter DID, through her lawyer, make an honest attempt to reaffirm/reinstate the loan with TFS! She was WRONG in her assumptions, see above...NO DOUBT! Our daughter was guilty of ignorance, no excuses for that. Her head is now "straight!" She has been held accountable, let me assure you of that!
With that now CLEARLY STATED, let me reiterate that OUR complaint IS in regard to OUR experience as the CO-SIGNER with TFS and we WILL continue to BLAME them for their discourteous attitude, their deceptive behaviors, and their untrained representatives. The only notification we, the CO-SIGNERS received IN WRITING was after the fact demanding that we either redeem the car by paying it off completely, PLUS the additional $500 in fees or suffer the financial consequences of them auctioning it off and still having to pay the difference.
Dealerdirect thank you for your comment. You have a PERFECT understanding of our complaint. It is an amazing thing to us that CO-SIGNERS are left uninformed of delinquencies until AFTER the fact, yet held accountable for something of which they had no opportunity to correct!
With that now CLEARLY STATED, let me reiterate that OUR complaint IS in regard to OUR experience as the CO-SIGNER with TFS and we WILL continue to BLAME them for their discourteous attitude, their deceptive behaviors, and their untrained representatives. The only notification we, the CO-SIGNERS received IN WRITING was after the fact demanding that we either redeem the car by paying it off completely, PLUS the additional $500 in fees or suffer the financial consequences of them auctioning it off and still having to pay the difference.
Dealerdirect thank you for your comment. You have a PERFECT understanding of our complaint. It is an amazing thing to us that CO-SIGNERS are left uninformed of delinquencies until AFTER the fact, yet held accountable for something of which they had no opportunity to correct!
Posted by IHATETFS on 2006-09-29:
I fell into the same situation as her daughter except I continued making payments all the way up till I called TFS to get a payoff. I called 3 times to get a payoff amount. 3 times they gave me the same amount so I wrote them a check to cover the whole amount. 1 year later they came and repossed my truck saying that I still owe 1800 dollars. They will not take any blame for the wrong figures they gave me and TFS has been very rude and unhelpful. I will never buy a vehicle through Toyota ever again and I am making sure that I let everyone know how horrible they are.
Posted by CaptainSpaulding on 2006-09-30:
TFS stands for Terrible Fukking Service!
Posted by mike in scal on 2006-10-10:
I am not very happy with this company either. Perhaps this is common practice with car loans, but they never indicate your payoff balance on the statements. Other loans I've had from credit unions always provided that info. When I asked about this, they simply say it can't be done, that it's such a fluid number that it is already out of date by the time you get the statement. They certainly are able to show my late charges when I'm late on a payment. Hah!
It's the only loan I've ever had that didn't put this info on the statement.
I have many other complaints with this company that I may post separately, but suffice it to say, I will never give them my business again. While many of the customer service reps have been polite, I've had two that were downright hostile, and that is rare in any industry. They just don't get it. And complaining falls on deaf ears. The adage about the customer is always right doesn't apply ever with this outfit.
It is a damn shame too as Toyota automobiles are absolutely fantastic, but for my next vehicle, I will either finance elsewhere, save up the money and pay cash or buy from another manufacturer altogether.
Unfortunately Toyota quality has not spread to the financial end of their business.
It's the only loan I've ever had that didn't put this info on the statement.
I have many other complaints with this company that I may post separately, but suffice it to say, I will never give them my business again. While many of the customer service reps have been polite, I've had two that were downright hostile, and that is rare in any industry. They just don't get it. And complaining falls on deaf ears. The adage about the customer is always right doesn't apply ever with this outfit.
It is a damn shame too as Toyota automobiles are absolutely fantastic, but for my next vehicle, I will either finance elsewhere, save up the money and pay cash or buy from another manufacturer altogether.
Unfortunately Toyota quality has not spread to the financial end of their business.
Posted by Nic213 on 2008-06-12:
Toyota Financial does not know what customer service is! They are terrible. They have lost checks of mine. I have sent checks in, done online bill pay, done payments through their site, and they clear on my bank's end...but not at Toyota (according to them). I think they are in the business of stealing money...not of providing loans. They wrongfully reposessed my car earlier this year, and I had to borrow money from a family member since I didn't have the money...and now along with my car loan, I also technically have a loan with this family member...and Toyota still has not fixed their error. I have my state's consumer board investigating them...but it is taking forever. I hate Toyota Financial. They are terrible. I wish I could afford to just pay off the loan all today!
Posted by quitcherbichendebtor on 2008-07-17:
OK for one TFS are all in call centers, each rep you talk to may be working in a totally different time zone, they use different systems to get information on the customer, the main collection call center is not even part of the Better Business Bureau so you can whine all you want, you signed the contract, the economy is horrible, it is attacking people that have never had financial issues, bottom line, tfs does work above and beyond for their customers, how many financial institutions can you call and get 2 monthly payments extended to the end of your loan? and people who are at 4 months past due still have their vehicles, they take into account your complete history with the loan before a repossesion, you get a "warning" letter after 2 months late to cure the amount defaulted before further collection activity is taken and even after if you do not "cure" the amount you are in default for they setup payment arrangements for you. If your check was cashed by tfs & you call b/c it was not applied to your account they investigate, sometimes checks are mailed with no account number or various other reasons. Before your vehicle was out for repo you had sufficient time to make payment arrangements, if you did make arrangements and did not come thru on those then they see it as you avoiding the debt, and after the vehicle is repo'd you can make arrangements to pay and get it back before it goes out for auction, some vehicles have been held for over 5 months because the customer keeps making payment arrangements then calling back with different ones. Common knowledge as soon as you drive that car off the lot it drops in value, research before you buy, there are alot of programs to get your vehicle at close to kelly blue book value. yes the dealership does have to make some money, those dealers sometimes do not get paid for a month or more if they don't sell a car. and the total amount you owe to payoff is including your interest, you should get a copy of your credit report & credit score before you go to finance a vehicle so you can have a heads up on about how high your interest rate will be. On to another note, you are only venting because you know you owe and can't pay, why should it be sugar coated for you? If someone owed you money I bet you would not be offering as much as tfs does to their customers. If you don't like it go to one of those joe blow dealerships and really get screwed and when they get their people to come get the vehicle it won't be nice.
Posted by mistyified on 2010-03-13:
Thank you for posting this.. we had the same experience. TPS is a joke. WE filed chp 7 Toyota would not sign the reaffirm agreement we asked to meet with them to give them back our truck on serveral occassions.. same problem we cant talk to you because you are in BK.. after our BK was discharged we called them.. ASHLEY ( they will never give you their last names, call back number extensions nothing) told us that if we sent in $3600 we could keep our truck and they would give us a new loan.. we were told KEEP and PAY is illegal in California so I demanded a new loan.. several phone calls later as to why I dont get statements I was told I was in BK and they cannot talk to me.. I kept making payments never missing one.. no CONTACT FROM TPS NOTHING and one day someone took our truck.. we thought it had been stolen.. once the police traced it they told us it had been repoed we called Toytota the next series of lies began.. once again never getting any consistent information, never letting us speak to a supervisor and no agent is accountable for anything.. first we were told our payments were never made, as soon as I faxed in proof they got them, they were lost, and then finally they told us that "Ashley" gave us the wrong amount to catch up on our loan.. NEVER TELLING US BEFORE.. we couldnt get anyone to understand we were no longer in BK and they were to send us infor... they admitted they made a mistake but refused to correct it expecting us to pay an extra $1000 in repo fees.. after the drama and truama this caused our family, I was just going to let them keep the truck but one day..thanks LORD I saw that it is illegal for them to take our payments if they never signed the reaffirm agreement...in CALI I email the chain of command.. nothing.. I emailed the President of TPS within minutes his assistant was on it.. she's telling us we should have our truck back by Monday... this was our 3rd toyota truck.. we will never use TPS ever again!
Posted by notrich on 2011-07-27:
this company gives us a Courtesy call by demanding we pay our bill now , over the phone. I tell them it will be paid online and in time. they asked me "why not now?" I finally had to hang up because she wouldn't accept my answer. SO RUDE! do not use Toyota Finance
Posted by asylum23 on 2011-09-17:
Even tho the OP is from 5 years ago, I wanted to comment b/c I am still having the exact same problems from this horrible company. I loved my Toyota FJ, but TFS has been a nightmare.
I have been paying my monthly $480/month for 4 years now, thru varying times of having a job and also being unemployed, still made my payments.
In the summer of 2011, I was forced into declaring bankruptcy, for a variety of reasons, mainly job loss and my ex-husband refusing to take a joint home out of my name when we were divorced, then said house was foreclosed on.
I filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, I have no assets to speak of, I rent and own nothing free and clear. I called TFS to "reaffirm" my debt, they told me I could not reaffirm until the next payment was made, so it would be up to date. I also received a letter from them pretty immediately stating they would send me no statements and they were locking me out of my online access, hence I would not know exactly what I owed.
I made this next payment, called them back, I had 3 phone numbers, but when you are in BK, all calls re-route to some same dept., so you get the same person/people each time. On my 2nd call, got the same lady, wanted again to reaffirm, now she tells me I can not until the bankruptcy has been discharged. Fair enough, I keep making my payments. TFS refused to send me bills, receipts, or allow me to log into my online account. The reason for this, I have no idea, as I was still making the payments. She also stated, after my BK was discharged, I would receive a reaffirmation agreement.
Instead of receiving the reaffirmation agreement, within days of my bankruptcy being discharged and still being up to date on my payments, the repo man shows up and repo'd my car. Why? I have no idea. Yes I declared bankruptcy, but no I was not missing or late on payments. I could see that I could be a bad bet for future payments, but as of now I'd been paying them for over 4 years. And it was TFS who refused to reaffirm my loan, muchless send a bill, allow online access, or online payments. And paying by phone, my option since they heard of my filing BK, comes with a $5 fee each time, so I was paying that too.
At this point, I have no extra money, I had just paid TFS 2 weeks ago! They can keep the car. I guess they can sue me for the difference, which is what I understand that they do. But with financial companies acting like this, where is the consumer protection? Yes, get an attorney, well I do not have the money for that either. I think I still owed $19k on the car, I would not be surprised if they send me a bill, after auction, for $12k or so, I do not have that money. I will see if I can amend my bankruptcy to incude TFS, that costs $26.
I have been paying my monthly $480/month for 4 years now, thru varying times of having a job and also being unemployed, still made my payments.
In the summer of 2011, I was forced into declaring bankruptcy, for a variety of reasons, mainly job loss and my ex-husband refusing to take a joint home out of my name when we were divorced, then said house was foreclosed on.
I filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, I have no assets to speak of, I rent and own nothing free and clear. I called TFS to "reaffirm" my debt, they told me I could not reaffirm until the next payment was made, so it would be up to date. I also received a letter from them pretty immediately stating they would send me no statements and they were locking me out of my online access, hence I would not know exactly what I owed.
I made this next payment, called them back, I had 3 phone numbers, but when you are in BK, all calls re-route to some same dept., so you get the same person/people each time. On my 2nd call, got the same lady, wanted again to reaffirm, now she tells me I can not until the bankruptcy has been discharged. Fair enough, I keep making my payments. TFS refused to send me bills, receipts, or allow me to log into my online account. The reason for this, I have no idea, as I was still making the payments. She also stated, after my BK was discharged, I would receive a reaffirmation agreement.
Instead of receiving the reaffirmation agreement, within days of my bankruptcy being discharged and still being up to date on my payments, the repo man shows up and repo'd my car. Why? I have no idea. Yes I declared bankruptcy, but no I was not missing or late on payments. I could see that I could be a bad bet for future payments, but as of now I'd been paying them for over 4 years. And it was TFS who refused to reaffirm my loan, muchless send a bill, allow online access, or online payments. And paying by phone, my option since they heard of my filing BK, comes with a $5 fee each time, so I was paying that too.
At this point, I have no extra money, I had just paid TFS 2 weeks ago! They can keep the car. I guess they can sue me for the difference, which is what I understand that they do. But with financial companies acting like this, where is the consumer protection? Yes, get an attorney, well I do not have the money for that either. I think I still owed $19k on the car, I would not be surprised if they send me a bill, after auction, for $12k or so, I do not have that money. I will see if I can amend my bankruptcy to incude TFS, that costs $26.
Posted by trmn8r on 2011-09-17:
As I understand it, once bankruptcy is discharged, it is too late to reaffirm. If so, what TFS told you was not true. Perhaps they didn't want to so they pulled this stunt.
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