ToToyota Financial Services Toyota "lost" my car for one entire year when I voluntarily surrendered it and they want me to pay for the depreciation! Cedar Rapids Iowa

On Sept 2005, I moved out of the country, temporarily, and was not able to sell my Toyota or transfer over the account to someone else. I was forced to voluntarily surrender my vehicle back to Toyota, per their instructions. I followed all the rules.

When I surrendered my vehicle, my best friend was there with me because she needed to take me straight to the airport. I surrendered it on the very last day I spent in CA in 2005. To my surprise, my ex-sister in law contacted me stating that Toyota had contacted my ex husband because I have been defaulting on my payments. I contacted Toyota and told them that I had voluntarily surrendered my vehicle at one of their dealerships in Fremont, CA. They told me that they had "lost" my vehicle because it was not there.

As a responsible person, I kept in touch with Toyota, following up on their search and also contacting the dealership, which also claimed that they did not have the car! On August 2006, I called the dealership and Toyota once again. Up until that date, nothing! And then I decided to call them again in September of 2006 - actually 2 days after the one-year anniversary of this whole ordeal.

Toyota informed me that they had "found" my vehicle!!! When I asked her where did they "find" it, they said it was actually at the exact dealership I had left it a year earlier. I told her that it had been very convenient for the car to just appear out of the blue a year later exactly at the place where it had been all along, supposedly, and she stated that my assertion was correct. Stupid me, I was so upset, I forgot to get the name of that lady and all the people I dealt with.

Once they found the car, they proceeded to send me letters explaining how they were planning to proceed: sell my car at auction and that any depreciation charges were incurred by me and I had to pay. I sent them 3 letters dated Oct 2006, January 2007 and May 2007 stating that I was NEVER going to pay for a full year's depreciation on a car that I was certain had been used by the dealership staff or whoever, for an entire year! They have chosen to disregard my letters and my credit history is seriously affected by this.

First, it reflected that my vehicle was reposessed and I fought to have it changed to what it is - voluntarily surrendered; however, my credit report still reflects a past due balance of over $7,000.00! I claim that had they sold the vehicle a year earlier, without the depreciation, I certainly would not owe this amount of money. I have been ignored and fooled since 2005 and do not know what else to do.

Monica
BERKELEY, California
U.S.A.