Toyota Financial Services Stole $4,000 from me and told me ,in short, to deal with it for now. Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

The following text is my complaint I sent to the Better Business Bureau regarding the theft of almost $4,000 from me by Toyota Financial Services.

The following complaint involves my 2006 Toyota Scion XB automobile. On February 27, 2008 I spoke with a customer service representative to make my February payment of $388.52.

The payment was manually entered by the customer service representative and NOT the computer system. On March 5, 2008 I received an "Insufficient Funds" notice from my bank for the amount of $3,888.52 coming from Toyota Financial. I IMMEDIATELY called Toyota Financial who admitted their error/mistake and I was told the money would be refunded.

On March 7, 2008 I attempted to pay my cell phone bill (of $76.00) only to find out my card was declined. When I logged onto my bank account, I was SHOCKED to see my account was more than $2700 overdrawn because of a debit of $3,888.52. I then called Toyota financial AGAIN and spoke with "Joy" who said they did not have access to my account and while they could take money from it, they couldn't refund money to it (complete contrast to what I was told on March 5th regarding the refund).

Toyota Financial told me I would need to get a letter from the bank on bank letterhead detailing the amount taken from my account and the Non Sufficient Funds fees associated because of it, after which Toyota would "overnight" a CHECK to me.

On March 7, 2008 I immediately went and got the letter (and bank statement) from the bank and faxed it to Toyota. After faxing the letter, I made several phone calls to confirm they received it. The first representative I spoke with could not contact "Joy" who initiated my complaint so she sent an "urgent" email to her to find out if "Joy" received the fax. I was told I would hear something within the hour. After an hour passed I called back and spoke with "Shirley" who informed me that she saw the "Authorization for overnight" in the system but wasn't sure if the check had been overnighted and couldn't contact "Joy" but sent another "urgent email" and told me the check should be cut by COB March 7th.

I called back approximately 3:15pm AZ time (5:15pm EST) and spoke with another representative who said they could not do ANYTHING about it so I asked to speak with a supervisor. I was transferred to "Adam". Adam confirmed what the other representative told me in that they understood my bank account was negative (-$2700) but it being a Friday, the earliest they could cut the check would be Monday(March 10, 2008) and overnight it (which contradicts what I was told by "Shirley" earlier with regards to the check being cut by COB Friday March 7). This meant I wouldn't receive it until (at the earliest) Tuesday March 11, 2008.

So I now have to deal with having absolutely NO money available to me with a family of seven(7) a wife and 5 kids (ages: 14, 10, 9 and 6 year old twins). My wife and I have no gas in our vehicles, no food in the house, no lunches for school, and no means whatsoever to alleviate the situation.

My wife is extremely distraught as she has been having migraines and hasn't gotten out of bed, she was in tears when we were trying to get Toyota to alleviate the situation. Toyota sent my finances into a downward spiral (after speaking with them and the initial fax, there have been even MORE overdraft fees).

This is absolutely unacceptable and I am extremely surprised and angry that a company would take almost $4000 from a family WITHOUT authorization then tell that family they have to deal with it for the next week or so (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday) because there's nothing they can do and it's a weekend. And if my bank puts a hold on the funds due to it being by check then I'll be looking at another 3-5 business days (possibly next week which puts me at two weeks of having absolutely no money for a family of 7).

Anonymous
Stephens City, Virginia
U.S.A.