Consumer complaint received 2024-10-09
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Lease
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease — Problem with paying off the loan
Company: TOYOTA MOTOR CREDIT CORPORATION (VA)

I am writing with a complaint about the unacceptable handling of a payoff for a leased vehicle through Toyota Financial. In XXXX, XXXX, we requested a payoff estimate in an effort to fully pay off our leased XXXX. In attempting to make that payoff, we have had an extremely stressful and demoralizing experience. 

ISSUE ONE : The root cause of this entire problem is the fact that XXXX sat on our very large check for over a month without cashing it. We are normal people and were understandably stressed about the concept of {$39000.00} worth of guaranteed funds being lost in the mail, and we took the reasonable action of requesting a stop payment so that we could reclaim our lost money and attempt again to get the money to XXXX ( not realizing they already had it ). 

ISSUE TWO : The secondary problem is that when XXXX finally cashed our original check, they did not observe any kind of pend timeframe to ensure that the funds would clear before 1. ) Issuing the title to us, and 2. ) Issuing us a credit balance refund. I understand that cashiers checks are typically guaranteed funds, but it is not our fault that Toyotas internal processes do not mitigate eventualities such as consumers stopping payment on a check they can only assume has been lost. 

ISSUE THREE : We have received no proactive communications from XXXX with the exception of letters demanding payment or the return of the title, which make us feel accused of deliberately causing this situation. When we were finally reimbursed for our funds and asked about making another payoff, we were advised that we could not be given a payoff estimate and that we need to call back weekly until our account reopens. 

We have spent hours investigating and attempting to resolve this issue. 


TIMELINE : XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX sent documents advising how to pay off lease and how much to pay XX/XX/XXXX : At our request, XXXX XXXX issued a cashiers check for {$39000.00} ( fee : {$20.00} ) XXXX : We sent cashiers check to XXXX ( postage : {$5.00} ) TN XXXX XXXX : XXXX received the check ( per conversation with representative on XX/XX/XXXX ), but DID NOT CASH THE CHECK XXXX : We remitted our regularly scheduled payment of {$710.00} Due the extended timeline during which XXXX had not cashed the cashiers check We contacted USPS, which had not alerted us that the check was delivered We were advised to stop payment on the lost check We initiated a stop payment process with XXXX  XXXX and were advised to go through the lost/stolen/fraud affidavit process at the bank Date unclear : XXXX must have finally processed the check during this time XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX refunded an overpayment of {$710.00} XX/XX/XXXX : Unaware that XXXX had attempted to cash the check, we had the XXXX  XXXX cashiers check lost/stolen/fraud affidavit notarized at UPS ( fee : {$10.00} ) XX/XX/XXXX : We sent the lost/stolen/fraud affidavit to XXXX  XXXX XX/XX/XXXX : We received and cashed the overpayment check of {$710.00} Sometime during this period, we received the title from XXXX Sometime during this period, we contacted XXXX  XXXX to ask them not to stop payment on the check, but it was too late ; when we called them originally the process was already initiated and could not be stopped XX/XX/XXXX : We spoke with XXXX XXXX asking about the return of our funds ; nothing could be done and we had to wait for 90 days for our funds to be returned Sometime during this period, we got a nastygram from XXXX advising us that because our payment had returned, we had to pay them immediately or return the title XX/XX/XXXX : We sent the title back to XXXX ( Tracking # : XXXX ) which cost us for shipping XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, we received the funds for our stopped cashiers check back into our bank account XXXX : Reached out to XXXX to ask about making another payoff ; were advised that we need to call them weekly to ask about the payoff and that it will take 2-4 weeks for our account to be reopened XXXX : Received another nastygram from XXXX advising us to pay immediately or return the title, which we already returned