Toyota Financial Services - Inept

One more group found filled with inept people who are ineffective and whose customer service department is a roadblock to problem resolution rather than a solution to the problem.

As of today there have been over a half a dozen calls placed to not only TFS (Toyota Financial Services) and to Toyota Corporate on three occasions, the first call to my dealer, Keyes Toyota in Van Nuys.  At this point in time the problem remains.

To read the entire story click on "read more"

On July 26 2014 I received a letter in the mail from TFS telling me that they shared my information and I had to return the letter or log onto their website to opt out of some portions of their sharing of my personal information.

I logged onto the website which also was the place to set up my account so I could make payments.

The mail I received had my account number needed for setting up of the account as well as my name which was incorrect.  They had my first and middle name rather than my first and last name.  No problem I thought, I would set up my account and edit my name.

I started the process and all was going fine until I tried to change my "last name" to my real last name.  I received a message that my account number did not match my name.  I continued the process and it built my account using my incorrect name.  

Rather than continue with my financial information which may have caused problems as my bank has my actual name rather than my incorrect name I called Keyes Toyota in Van Nuys to talk to their finance department.

At 5:12PM on July 26 I talked to Wolfgang.  He said he was the finance manager.  He told me to call TFS even after I had explained the issue.  His reply was that Toyota and Toyota Financial Services had nothing to do with each other and he had no contact with them.  He could not help me.  He offered no suggestion other than to call them.  

I spent over two decades in Quality Assurance, Quality Control and Customer Service.  I told Wolfgang that both "sides" of the company were indeed called Toyota and a lack of customer service from any part of Toyota reflects on the company.  His reply was that there was nothing he could do.  He said he had NO contact with them.  On Monday I found out he had lied to to me when TFS and he were on the phone together during this debacle.

July 28 9:00am PST.  I called TFS.  My service rep was named Ashley.  She spoke very quickly and was hard to understand.  I suggested that when she talked to people in her line of work she speak more slowly and more articulately.  It was clear to me that she was not very well trained in either customer service or procedure.  She needed to send me to a supervisor.  After a long hold (Ashley said it would be a minute or two which it was not) I was speaking with Kim.

I could go on and on and on but to make this a bit more brief:

Kim said it would take at least 1-2 days to fix as they had no way to contact the right people on the phone. She said they needed an email from her side of TFS.  I said this was unacceptable and asked to speak to her supervisor.  She refused to escalate or honor my request.  She said I should call Toyota Customer Service at 1-800-331-4331 which I did.

At 9:30am PST I was on the phone with Tanya.  We had a dialogue as she had repeated what I had already heard.  There was nothing in my file.  I asked how did they get my first name, middle name, and address on the mail I received via USPS?  Her reply was that she does not know where they information comes from. Tanya said it would take a few days for the information to be put into the system as they have nothing in the system yet.  I asked again, how did they get my first, middle name and address?  She had no clue.

I asked why TFS even sends out a letter to the customer with an account number if there was no way to change data at this point. She did not know.  She gave me a incident reference number.  

From Corporate it was back to TFS where I was now on the phone with Carnita.  I had now been on the phone over an hour with Toyota.  

Carnita told me what I had heard before.  She had no idea where the information comes from and there was nothing in my file.  I suggested again that Toyota refrain from sending out letters to customers until they have data that can be corrected.

During these calls Chris at Corporate called me.  He and TFS were in contact with the dealer.  Yes, that Wolfgang joker that told me they had no way to contact each other.  

Chris and I had been talking on twitter.

Above are my first twitter posts.  Side note .... the mail message I sent to TFS through their website?  I never received a reply.

Twitter DMs followed on Monday 7/28.

Chris (TFS Corporate Customer Service) and I talked on the phone for a long time.  They had the dealer on the phone and TFS on the phone.  Chris appeared to have thing straightened out and told me that the dealer had faxed them my information which was just received by TFS. He said things would work tomorrow.

"Tomorrow" 7/29.

I attempted to log on to my account.  While I was in the process of seeing that this was not fixed a call came in from Chris who left a message saying it would not be fixed until tomorrow ... yes, another tomorrow.

I sent him a twitter DM and asked for him to call me.  

He told me that one update superseded another update or this update overwrote that update or whatever and said it would work tomorrow.

Well, the problem remains at this point in time and it is clear to me that internal communication within the Toyota organization is poor to say the least.  Customer service does not have the power or tools to follow through.  People pass problems down the line and even when you get to Corporate they just follow procedure even when the procedures fail.  As a point of interest for those who have read my pieces on ATT and other companies.  When you get to Corporate levels they resolve problems.  In this case I have been told "tomorrow" more than once.

I would like to say that Chris has been very good in keeping the communication going.  He has called me and has kept up with me via DMs on twitter.  I feel sorry for the man. It is clear he is trying to do a good job and is concerned for the customer.  Unfortunately he is working within an organization that is working against him.  I would also like to add that he is the only person at "Toyota" whether it be customer service, corporate, TFS or even the financial arm of my dealer (Wolfgang, Finance Manager at Keyes Toyota in Van Nuys) that was helpful.  

Update 7/29/14 12:30pst

I just received a call from Carnita from Toyota.  Yesterday she said she would call me today with updates and she did that as promised.  She informed me that things would be resolved tomorrow.  I told her that Chris had told me the same thing yesterday and again today.

I explained to Carnita that I had no intention of charging Toyota for doing QA/QC work for them.  You cannot resolve problems unless they are identified.  I asked her to please let me know when they identify the source of the bad data entry on my account.  I do not need to know who made the mistake, I just wish to know if Toyota knows who made the mistake.  They are the first link in a chain that has reached 6,251 people since 9:52am this morning when this piece was published.  Carnita assured me that when the fault for data entry was identified she would let me know.

This piece was published at 9:52am PST today.  In a few hours it has become the most read, popular and
shared piece for the last running seven days.

7/30/14 Update

I logged on this morning and saw that some of what I had been promised had been accomplished.  My name was correct on one part of my documentation, the account info.  This allowed me to perform some transactions.

This is a workable state of affairs.

Unfortunately, this made me feel even a bit worse about Toyota and their lack of attention to detail and lack of professionalism, especially after this problem has been brought to the attention of so many people at so many levels within the organization.

Even though the important information is now proper so my financial information is correct it seems my name is still listed and displayed incorrectly everywhere else on the TFS pages.  Here are just two examples.

On one page

On another page

I don't know what more I can say but will see how long this takes to get resolved, if it ever gets resolved.  If there is ANY CHANCE trying to fix my display name will cause ANY problems just leave things alone as there is no way I want to resurrect this problem.

7/31/14 Update

Just logging into to see if my payment was processed.  Unfortunately I found this:

Click on the image for the larger original size

I am starting to believe my initial experiences with TFS are the start of a very bad journey that will last many years.

8/1/14 Update

The problem has been resolved.
__________________________________________________________________________

This piece will be updated when there is something to add.  

Please feel to share the link to this piece and hash tag #toyota

My other consumer reports can be seen at http://la-economy.blogspot.com/search/label/consumer

4/9/17
New car, new lease, new Toyota problems.

Thanks for nothing other than referring me to somebody else.  Your dealers have no contact with TFS either.  Not a customer friendly organization.

Toyota Financial Services ..... Your dealer, Keyes Toyota in Van Nuys, made a deal.  We have a signed agreement.  If you want more money for a deal that was completed, signed, and done over a month ago, with nothing marked as due in the future, after the car was fully inspected, 2/3 less mileage on the car than allowed in the lease agreement, well then .... go collect from your dealer.  

The end for the moment.  Let's see how long this take to be "resolved" .... again.

4/10/17 .... continued ....

They just told me that they have no idea of what their dealers do and I have to call the dealer.

4/11/2017 - waiting for letter of paid in full and check on my overcharge.

4/22/2017 - still no letter and still no check as promised.