Problem with Toyota dealer, Thinking about filing BBB and Toyota Corp complaint

I haven't had to deal with Toyota in that matter, but I have had to deal with Honda, twice.... they are no better. Oh and I just went through this with Ford... damn they were worse that Honda (gave hope and then said to F-off and leave them alone).

Time to buy a Tesla, they are our last hope for customer support/care.

 

I'm not going to read all three pages, but if this was already stated, I apologize. the certification covers mechanical defects, not cosmetic. I understand being upset about the tail light being broken, but dents and scratches are not covered by the cert. It is up to the individual dealership when it comes to how they want the car to look. Certification means the car is in a mechanically, like new condition. Even the basic safety/lube/inspection should have caught the tail light being broken.

 

The best way to get a dealerships attention is to tell them that you will go on line and give them bad reviews, starting with Yelp. As we all should know, Yelp only likes to post bad reviews, unless the company has purchased their ad package. Dealerships live and die by online reviews these days. If they don't know that, then they don't know how to adjust with the times.

 

BamaToy1997 nailed it. Write to the Owner, President; CEO - whatever his/her title may be. I've yet to have this not work for me. Do not waste your time with service writers(trained chimps), service mgrs. or GMs. Go straight to the owner via mail. That's right - snail mail - registered - someone must sign. Dealership owners seldom have email addresses, but if they do, you can try it.

 

I have worked at several different dealerships and the GM/VP/Owners all deal differently with their customers. It all depends on how the owner treats his staff. It does not depend on the size of the dealership or how many the person owns, as I have seen all types. Most of the owners don't want to have to deal with this sort of a problem, and if the GM knows this, then they will usually try to handle it before it gets that far.

But I would like to see the results this far. Did they show you the old harness? Did the service writer tell you that the job had been completed? Did you talk to the Service Manager and tell him what happened, and show him the parts that were still damaged and not replaced?

You do have the right to take your vehicle to another dealership as well.

 

BBB ain't shit.

It's essentially a civic organization. They can't sanction the business, especially if the business isn't a member of the BBB, in which case neither party (BBB or the dealer) even remotely gives a shit.

Save your energy.

You got a very small bite of the shit sandwich, but ultimately you got the truck you wanted, the trade value you wanted, and the certified warranty.

The dealer sounds d-baggish but in the overall scheme of things, is it really worth wasting more time / effort on this?

 

Yup BBB doesn't do shit. All they will do for you is posting your complaint online and that's it. Now if the business is a member of BBB then they get a bad report card.... wow!

Here in California, we have two Consumer protection bureau. BAR aka Bureau of Automotive Repair. BAR deals with smog/smog stations, auto repair shops, etc... The other is Bureau of Consumer Affairs. They deal with online vendors, local/state/national businesses, fraudulent business practices & products, etc...

If the OP was in California I would point him to the Bureau of Consumer Affairs. I'm quite sure his state should have something similar.

 

I had a similar problem with my local dealer (green tree toyota in ct). Mine was more how they treated me and the vehicle I purchased. I know the vehicle I purchased was used 2010 tacoma crew cab or with 40k certified used. But when looking at the vehicle before they inspected it there was dents and dings covered up with touch up paint! The day I picked up the vehicle it still had the Same dents and dings even though the salesman promised me they will take care of it. First thing i did was file a complaint with corporate toyota. They really have your back and that made the dealer replace the front bumper and fix the dings. Besides the fact an ex girlfriends father worked there, I thought we were on good terms so I asked for help with the situation only to get treated like shit and asked at the time of the inspection of the vehicle "when are you gunna crash this one up like you did the last". And many other comments I dont even wanna mention. Completely unprofessional on so many levels. When it was said and done I receive an email asking about a review, that's where I spilled my beans on how unhappy I was.

Long story short call corporate toyota and atleast let them know what has happened and take it as a learning curve. I will never deal with green tree toyota ever again.

 

As I stated before, Toyota does not make the dealership repaint or repair body parts during the certification process, unless of course there is a safety issue. But then again, there is also a limit to the cost of repair if the vehicle has been in an accident.

 

That's just silly, Certification process is a joke. Right in the certification paper work it states vehicle is dent free. Bunch of crap

 

+1

They have about as much authority as the Cub Scouts. The BBB is little more than an Angie's List.

 

The NY Times did an article last year about how the BBB has lost most if not all of their credibility.

 

Part of the certification process is that there are no "abnormal and/or excessive dents, dings, scratches, or broken lenses. If there are, then it cannot properly pass a manufacturer certification. When doing GM and BMW certified inspections, I have had to deny certification for vehicles that did not have acceptable body damage. If there was a cracked or broken lens, and the vehicle was worth it, then they would replace the lens so that it would pass certification.

 

So knowing of a noticeable dent, maybe 3 inchs long right near the left tail light slathered with touch up paint. Also the frobt pumper with again 2 inch dents/ scrapes slathered again with touch up paint and a decent amount of rock chips on the front bumper be accepted for certification? I was told that it would all be taken care of and it wasn't.

 

Found it: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/y...ureau-and-its-rivals.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

This story took another turn. After them asking what I wanted for compensation, and me requesting one months truck payment, they broke all contact. Never heard from them again.

Until 3 weeks ago.

I got a voicemail from "katie" that introduced herself, and said she had a question about the vehicle I traded in. Thats it, said thanks we would appreciate it if you would call. I figured it was asking for help with a feature, maybe about service records, etc. No way in hell I'm helping out that dealership.

3 days later I get a call from the manager that went to voicemail, and he left a message saying that "Katie" said she had tried to contact me several times and I refused to return her calls, and that they had sold my Infiniti I traded in, and that I STILL HAD THE TITLE to it! But it got better. He says "you know it would be silly to have to get the authorities involved over this, but that's what is going to happen if you don't cooperate"!!!

I didn't have time to call him as I was at work, but my wife called and basically tore him down verbally. I've never seen her so angry over disrespect.

I check at home, and sure enough they sent the title to my trade in back home with me in all my paperwork. So being an honest person, I mailed it back to them, but I signed and dated the correct date which was April 5th.

I also printed an email they sent me when I was having trouble licensing my truck. It read along the lines "We are sorry about your difficulty licensing you tacoma. We usually have this down to an exact science and make the purchasing process as easy and pain free as possible." and more rambling. I took out a red pen and edited it, marked out "Tacoma" and put in "infiniti" marked out my name and put "new owners name".

Then I typed up a little note that said "looks like you've sold the Infiniti and ONCE AGAIN your customer can't title/license their new vehicle because you are incompetent as a dealership. I made things easier by printing this email and making edits so you can send it to your current unhappy customer. Feel free to make future edits and resend as needed.

0 for 2 Toyota, looks to be a long season!

 

........but they value you as a customer and look forward to future business too, right? Such BS patronizing and non-action. LAME as usual. The threats however, would make me want to get my lawyer to have a talk with them about threatening you when they were the fuck ups that lost the title by sending it back to you and pull some call records to prove how many times Katie did actually call vs. how many times she said she called to not get shit or get fired. This kind of dipshittery is industry wide common theme no matter the brand tho..............nowhere to escape that nonsense. Best of luck getting it all straightened out to your satisfaction vs. theirs.

 

It's illeagal for them to sell a vehicle without the title in there hand! I did not read all the posts but Toyota cannot certify a vehicle if it's had body damage. Sounds like a shady dealer. I investigate these types of issues in my state but I don't know your laws but in most cases they are similar when it comes to car sales.

 

Didn't read all the posts. But...

The BBB is basically worthless IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i30hNeJYX7g

 

Someone should call the BBB to report the BBB.