Consumer complaint received 2018-04-25
Company: TOYOTA MOTOR CREDIT CORPORATION
State: WA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Problem with personal statement of dispute

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I purchased a new XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, for {$28000.00}. My name is XXXX XXXX XXXX my account number is XXXX. I purchased it in XXXX, XXXX. The above account number is Financed through Toyota Financial Services. I was informed that my first payment would be until XX/XX/XXXX. To my surprise I received a bill dated XX/XX/XXXX informing me of my payment due date of XX/XX/XXXX and that it would be considered late if paid after XX/XX/XXXX. I was impressed and pleased that I was being financed through a company that had it together. I quickly went online and registered my account. I scheduled my payment and it posted to the account on XX/XX/XXXX. I then came back to my online account on XX/XX/XXXX and set up automatic payments through the link in the email they sent me XX/XX/XXXX confirming my payment. I added my XXXX XXXX XXXX  account and set up payments to happen on the XXXX of every month. 
I then received an email saying " Congratulations, XXXX. You did it! Your TFS account is running on all cylinders ''. Then bellow that it stated " You've done it! Your TFS account is fully optimized with online payments and paperless monthly billing. 
What else can we say except thanks for going places with us! ". At this point I was assured that everything was done and set up. At the time I was headed out of XXXX  to XXXX, XXXX. For a training and work event, I left XX/XX/XXXX and didn't return until XX/XX/XXXX. That was enough time and information overload for me to move on from worry of my payment or concern that something would go wrong. I did not know or was communicated anything until I called and set up an appointment to have my car serviced on XX/XX/XXXX. They advised me on my late payment because my agent was helping me check in on some info on my account for me. I then went to my bank and requested a search for my payments to TFS. They only came back with the one that was processed on XX/XX/XXXX. I was in the process of switching banks around and my finances were all over the place. I could not understand how I was kicked off of auto pay. I thought maybe there was an issue with my Credit union so I made a payment from my XXXX XXXX XXXX  account on XX/XX/XXXX for {$850.00} to cover XXXX and XXXX. I contacted TFS that same day and explained the situation and they said that I would be fine. They did not advise me of any issue to the action they took on my credit report at all. I was at peace thinking it was all taken care of. 
To my surprise I received an alert from XXXX today XX/XX/XXXX stating TFS had updated my status of 30 days late as of XX/XX/XXXX. I could not believe that I was not informed when I called them and that they reported me 30 days late. I contacted them and they said there was no record of my call and that it was valid with no way to remove it. They did not provide me any options or explain how my auto pay was deactivate and why I did not get a notification that it was stopped. After some research I noticed that auto pay issues with dropping the enrollment are common with TFS. I tried them again just in case I did not explain the situation and requested Toyota Financial Services that the " late payment '' for reported XX/XX/XXXX be removed as a courtesy. I was informed that I had disputed the late payment & that the results were a correct reporting for the late payment. I did not state I was disputing the late payment on my credit report, but I was asking for a courtesy removal for the late payment due to the auto pay error in their system. My credit report now shows I have disputed the late payment with XXXX because it is an issue. When talking to Toyota Financial Services I am told they are unable to have me communicate with the credit reporting team & that I will have to send a letter instead. It is my understanding that, according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act ( FCRA ), as the information furnisher, they are required to notify me of the insertion of negative listings. I am in complete frustration that this is happening when I am in the process of buying a business and they are causing extreme damage to the possibility of it happening due to their error. 

I have now received a response which simply states that because they can not see it in their system it never happened. They also went on to say that they could not find record of my auto pay. Well that is the problem the system dropped the auto pay or didnt accept it and I am being punished for a technology problem ( which has appears to happen often to other people and has been reported ) after receiving confirmation. They stated it was not confirmation for auto pay but confirmation for setting up my online account for payments ( which came after i selected my auto pay, put in my bank account, and selected my date of payment as the XXXX of every month ) that is what auto pay is a payment. They also stated that they attempted to contact me many times as of XX/XX/XXXX via phone. If the payment was due the XXXX of XXXX and considered late by the XXXX of the following month why did they wait until the XXXX to reach out? I am not available via phone and have email as my preferred method of contact. Why did I not receive any kind of notice? One one think that as a courtesy and having a new account they would take necessary steps to ensure the success of their agreements. They also stated dealerships are unaware the are able to issue goodwill adjustments. That was not told to me by a dealer but TFS customer service person because of the given the situation of the technology issue. Next they also went on to explain that it is stated in my contract the potential negative impacts of paying late. I am well aware and that is why I manage my payments. According to them they are reporting accurately and have confirmed that. Based off what their own records? How is that responsible and acceptable? It is a clear statement that they have a perfect technology with no room for error and that nothing has, can, or will go wrong. That is not a responsible thought process or way to conduct business. Technology is not perfect and errors have, are, and will continue to happen. If they are stating that they have a flawless system and can have a certified professional programmer, web designer, platform developer, server specialist, and provide the proof of 0 % margin of error then I will accept that negative mark. But if not then I can not simply accept " we can not find it so it didnt happen and you are responsible because it is in your contract '' is not morally right and a disservice to all us that trust in TFS 's ability to use reasoning and sound judgement when looking at the whole picture and doing what is right. Taking ownership of the possibility of an error and not using the situation as a power play to state the obvious implications of a late payment. That is a real passive aggressive move and extremely disrespectful. I would never treat any client the way they have treated me regardless of how long or little they have been a client. But i would evaluate the history they have with me and only me, see what happened, and then take the steps to correct what needs to be. If there is a history between us then that changes things but not when no negative history exists. A negative report can be withdrawn due to concurrent negligence because of a technology issue. Had that issue not happened then their would be no late payment therefor making it true and accurate reporting that an error was made and no late payment should have been reported. It comes down to doing what is right and logical based off the situation as a whole not just one side with the upper hand simply stating they checked and found nothing so it is valid. I have also provided a screen shot of one of the recent attempts at paying. It gave me an error saying it my request could not be completed at the time. So again I state there is more here than just a missed payment but a system issued that cause a late payment with no care from TFS but instead tossing me aside as though i am a habitual late payment offender.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation