Mitsubishi Motors And SST/ Diamond Advantage Terrible Business Practices ripoff, inefficient, Mitsubishi, SST, diamond advantage, Nationwide Nationwide

In response to the Mitsubishi D-Advantage "lease" program for consumers, I am in the Orlando Florida territory and I am looking at these issues in a totally bias formation. We did a research concerning this Mitsubishi L program, our research concerns two Mitsubishi dealerships, we interviewed 21 Mitsubishi customers that have purchased into the DA program and seventeen of them were unaware of their Purchase - Lease situation, they contacted Mitsubishi Credit and the help they received was, I am sorry to hear that but you need to comply with the contract you signed". After we interviewed these people we also posted as customer in twelve different occasions, six in on dealership and six in the other, ten out of twelve of the sales representatives did not know or understand the Mitsubishi program stated above, they were more interested in selling the SUV or car at any cost regardless of the customers understanding of their financial agreement. This research was conducted for educational purposes only as an assignment because of the controversies this program has caused; we find that when there are more than a dozen complaints on one specific issue there is always a one street communication that only benefits one side of the street. Many consumers trust brand names as Mitsubishi, Toyota, Honda and many others, and when it comes to signing papers they do it in complete trust of the companies reputation, however we find that this program only truly benefits the company's, and the customers are left out in the cold at the end of the trip. We also feel as research demonstrates, Mitsubishi will suffer the results of this program when times come to purchase a new car from the same people on the DA program. From a marketing stand point it will destroy the LTV retail program contradicting Mitsubishi's customer satisfaction policy.

Jeff,

I am an SST employee, and have a few interesting tidbits of info for you! First of all, mitsu severed their relationship with SST due to the very public financial troubles that they are having. It was costing them more than they could afford to have SST service their loans.

Second, the Diamond Advantage Plan is an elongated name for a lease. Mitsubishi sales people have been well trained to make sure that they avoid using that evil "L" word. In the end, it is more financially beneficial for a car company to sell a lease than it is a straight sale. Look at it this way, the Diamond Advantage Plan is a more expensive way of renting a car, you pay up the rear in order to borrow their car.

2nd, Mitsubishi didn't sell your loan to SST. Mitsu contracted with SST to service loans that ***THEY*** owned. Your car was still owned by Mitsu, they simply asked SST to do the "dirty" work of collecting payments, and trying to collect on past due accounts.

Now the painful part... Yes, with Mitsu, there may have been a 10 day grace period. However, when the loans came to SST for servicing, Mitsu allowed SST to collect on this portfolio by our guidelines. Do I agree with that, no. I think SST should've conformed to Mitsu policies regarding the 10 day grace period. HOWEVER, the powers that be were given permission to collect on SST's grounds, not Mitsu's. So... when your bill was due... IT WAS DUE!!! You should've received documentation regarding this, but apparently a lot of people didn't. About the constant calls, FDCPA guidelines have been carefully followed, however, the dialer system definately leaves a lot to be desired. It isn't perfect, and a lot of employees complain about it calling customers too much. I used to dread calling a customer that we realized has been called 3, 4, 5 or more times in a day. And when it is doing this, it is more employee error than it is SST error. Trust me, we don't have a vendetta against you, we are just doing what we're paid to do.

About rude cust service, I apologize about that. For the most part, the people that work at, and run SST are all very nice people. But like any company, you will have the nice people, and then you will have the people who have a chip on their shoulder the size of Texas, and look forward to taking it out on some poor customer. Be assured that people who are found to be rude to customers are dealt with on a 0 Tolerance level. I've heard of people mis-stepping their boundaries on a razer thin line, and being fired on the spot. I personally try to put myself in the customer's shoes, and try to help them find a solution to their problems. But some people try to get as much blood from the turnip as they can. So I'm sorry to hear that you've gotten the bad apples.

I'm sure that you'll be happy to know that with the mitsubishi deal going away, everything that SST is doing is trying to make sure that all of our customers are having much better experiences in their dealings with us. Like I said, we're a company that has its strong points, and its weak points. There are areas where we need to develop and grow and hopefully we will get better as time goes. I hope that the situation that you had got resolved, but if it didn't, I apologize.

Keep in mind, Caveat Emptor, or "Buyer Beware".

SST Employee