I've had trouble with Toyota Financial Services/Toyota for the last 6 months... Long story short:
-We leased a vehicle.
-We bought excess wear and tear insurance for about $500 based on the fact we lived in Brooklyn and get lots of bumper damage from idiots parallel parking. Seemed like a good investment since we had just paid to repaint the bumper on the care we turned in.
-3 years later we turn in the lease with no issues. It was a bit of spur of the moment thing as we bought a new car while we were turning in the lease. Thus I didn't have the tonneau cover in the car at the time.
-I dropped off the cover a day later, handed it directly to the guy I had worked with the day before who told me he'd go put it in the car.
-This was in April. In September we get a bill from Collections Corp or something (not TFS or Toyota). Figured it was a scam, but called in to confirm, found out they were a 3rd party company that TFS hires to deal with excess wear and tear claims. I provide them with our excess wear and tear waiver/policy number and ask for an itemized description of the damage.
-Don't hear anything back until March of 2014, from a collections company. We explain the situation and dispute the claim.
-I contact TFS directly to square it away. Rep is helpful, and I figure we're all good. I call back the next day to follow up and confirm it has been dealt with and get a supervisor who informs me it was our fault for not following up with the original company to confirm the claim was taken care of and that they won't remove the collections item.
-I call every day for a week with no success, but I do find out that the charge is for the missing tonneau cover...
-We were in the process of applying for home loans, so at this point I cave and pay the $450 (May).
-Home loan prequalified for, all good. Go to underwrite the loan on the house we're buying and TFS pops up again...
-Takes me literally 2.5 weeks of daily phone calls with TFS and the collections company so that they can figure out the glitch in their system that won't allow my payment to be transferred to TFS. In the process I sent them bank statements, copies of the honored check, a letter from my bank confirming the check was honored and etc. All said and done it took them 7 weeks with literally a half month of daily phone calls from me to them since they couldn't apparently talk directly to each other before they figured it out and credited the payment.
- It's done as of last week, but we're still waiting on the credit rescore for my wife, and loan underwriting is due tomorrow. (at which point the seller can walk if they have another offer). If we lose this house because of this fiasco, I'll probably pursue legal options... Once the loan is secured and we close on the house, I'll be disputing with the credit agencies, but frankly, the system is stacked in their favor. I was completely powerless despite rock solid documentation.