Consumer complaint received 2020-10-07
Company: TOYOTA MOTOR CREDIT CORPORATION
State: OR
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Lease
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Problem extending the lease

Complaint:
To whom it may concern : I am writing to address our concerns with the negative credit marker that was placed on our credit by XXXX XXXX. The account number is XXXX for a XXXX XXXX XXXX. In XXXX we were notified by our credit reports that a 60 day delinquency was reported. I am hoping that after you complete your review of the events that occurred on our account file, that the credit marker will be withdrawn. I will start with the end of XXXX, as that is when the issues with XXXX XXXX began. XXXX is when my lease agreement was coming to an end. Then I will provide a timeline of the events. 
For three years I had perfect payments during the life of my lease agreement. At the end of XXXX the lease was coming to an end and on XX/XX/XXXX I called and was given information on my options to either purchase the vehicle or to return the vehicle. On that call I was advised that they would send me to the retention center to assist me in learning the next steps if I was interested in learning more about the purchase option. At the end of that call, I was advised that a formal letter with the payoff amount and documents to take to my bank would be sent to me, and that I would receive a call from XXXX to go over the details. On that call they advised me that they gave me a 10 day extension to allow for the paperwork to get to me. For the next few days I called multiple times and kept hitting long hold times and many times the calls would disconnect me after upwards of one hour wait times. I also left XXXX multiple messages with no return calls. I had been trying to call as I had not received any letters and my 10 day extension was about to end. On XX/XX/XXXX I finally was able to reach someone at XXXX XXXX   the representative did confirm that XXXX had been having phone issues and that they were aware of the long wait times and difficulty people were having getting through to them. On this call I advised that I had not received the paperwork and the representative advised she would make sure they were sent out, and again for me to wait for the documents. 
Mid XXXX I finally received a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX that included the documents I needed to process the purchase option. Then the issue I had, was not only was the letter outside of the 10 day extension but my name was misspelled. Also as I was waiting for this letter to arrive, my car loan approval with my bank was aging. As the letter included legal documents for purchase, I again began trying to calling XXXX XXXX to get the name corrected. I made multiple calls and then on XX/XX/XXXX I spoke with an agent named XXXX. Now if this agent had been more trained and educated on the process, I do not believe that we would have had the upcoming issues that follow after this call. On the call I expressed my concern with the late paperwork and that no payment had been made. At that point, XXXX advised me that we had the option to do a lease extension. This was the first I heard of this option. She advised this option would help gives us more time to get the paperwork corrected and allow me more time to make a decision on if I wanted to keep the car temporarily during this timeframe or decide on if I wanted to buy the car. I was nervous with all the mishaps I had run into during this lease end process thus far and thought I should be safe by extending the lease option so that some sort of action was taken on a car situation that I felt was in limbo. I did ask XXXX if she knew what the payment amount would be on the lease extension and she advised she would have to go recalculate the numbers and that she couldnt advise of the exact amount. I offered to make a payment with XXXX on the line as I didnt want there to be any payment defaults, she stated that she couldnt take the payment at the time as she was unaware of the amount due. She told me that there was no defaults at the time and that they have noted in the system that they were working with me on my lease end options. She did at that time state that she saw a late fee that she would waive and she advised that I should wait for a letter that will be sent to me for my lease extension, and that I would get a separate letter which would serve as my bill for my first payment due on the lease extension. She did advise me on the phone that I would be approved for the extension due to my perfect payment history. It is disheartening to later find out that the lease extension payment amount would be the same amount that I had been paying during my lease agreement. A simple solution would have been for XXXX to be able to take the payment during that call or to have been educated enough to have advised that the payment amount would be the same and provide a due date for payment. 
In subsequent calls to XXXX, I called to follow up on my lease extension and was advised that something was not entered correctly on the XX/XX/XXXX call and that my lease extension was finally processed over a week later on XX/XX/XXXX. I was also advised on another call with a representative XXXX that he stated that XXXX was in error as they had not sent me a XXXX statement and he also advised that we should of received a call on the 11th day if a payment was ever missing and he validated that XXXX did not make that outreach call to me. I also can vouch for the fact that I never received any calls about any late payments. I completely trusted XXXX when she advised me that my next steps would be to wait for the formal lease extension letter and to wait for my first bill before making a payment. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I received a credit notification from my credit card that my score had been lowered due to a late payment. I then called XXXX as it stated it was a hit by Toyota Financial and I assumed that it was tied to my XXXX lease. I spoke with XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX who advised he understood all the misguided information that I was provided and he advised he would reverse the second late charge on my account as I had made a generic payment of {$900.00} while I was waiting on letter that XXXX had promised. XXXX helped to send over a verbal dispute for me during the call and he was very helpful. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I called back to get an update on the dispute and was advised that a decision had been made on XX/XX/XXXX to not overturn but I did not get a call on this decision. Also on this call I asked for verification that payments were caught up until XXXX. The agent also explained that the next steps for me was to do a formal written complaint that would go to another department to do a thorough review. By this time I was very frustrated with the entire lease process and had decided that XXXX was not a company that I wanted to continue to support with my business and made the decision to turn in the lease on XX/XX/XXXX. 
On XXXX I received a letter from XXXX stating that they had not received the Odometer Disclosure Statement. As I already had little faith in XXXX I had the made sure to ask the representative, XXXX XXXX to make me copies of all the documents on my turn in date. So on XXXX I called and spoke with XXXX who verified that the error was on their part and that the form was turned in late but that they did have it now. XXXX was very helpful and was able to confirm what XXXX had advised me before that she also did not see that XXXX ever sent a XXXX Statement and that she does not see anywhere that they tried to contact me to advise of a needed payment during the months of XXXX and XXXX. At this point I am asking you to please consider all the facts presented during the window of XXXX and XXXX and to please remove the credit marker that was unfairly and incorrectly place on us. At this current time we were in the midst of purchasing a house, and dependent on our excellent credit standing to be able to provide for our family. We are not trying to ask for reimbursement or compensation for the two additional months I paid for the lease extension while I was waiting on paperwork, I am just requesting for you to reverse the damage to our credit that was caused by the processing delays from XXXX XXXX. 
At XXXX you state that you are committed to making your experience as seemless as possible but at this point my credit standing and financial security has been greatly affected by your companys inadequate customer service. I appreciate your time in this review and if you have any additional questions or need additional documentation please outreach to me at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX or send me an email at XXXX. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation