Need Help Fighting Toyota!

[shooter311]

So this is a very very long story, but I will do my best to shorten it up best I can.

I have a 2012 Tundra, I was towing my side-by-side on the interstate going 70mph (cruise control with Tow engaged). The check engine light comes on, but everything seems fine. I get to my destination, hit the trails come back and my truck doesn't have reverse. We drag it back, and It won't shit above 3rd gear. I drive it home (40 miles) on back roads going real slow. Drop it off at my local mechanics (super honest guy, and I know him well). He says transmission is shot. I go to Toyota buy a $4,000 remanufactured transmission (they no longer sell new) with a 1 year warranty. My local mechanic installs it. I drive about 10 miles and it slips gears and the check engine light comes on. I bring it to local mechanic who hooks the reader up to it and it says the internal shifter solenoid is shot. He tells me he doesn't want to touch it and void the warranty, take it straight to Toyota.

I take it to The Toyota service shop I bought the transmission from. After a month of them not answering or returning my calls I call cooperate, and the service department calls me 2 hours after that. They say the tranny fluid is glimmering which means there is metal in the fluid, and I need to pay $450 for a flush and that is the only problem. I fight it, but they insist, lots of back and fourth I give in because it has now been an entire summer without my truck. I go in to pay and they try to charge me for almost $1,900 for a new solenoid, wiring harness and other stuff that was bad. They said when my mechanic installed the tranny he didn't flush the cooler which caused these problems. I go to my mechanic, he shows me on my slip where I paid for two bottle of fluid flush and the service. Then he calls me the next day and produces his receipt of him purchasing the fluid the day before he charged me. I bring this to Toyota and tell them it was flushed. They agree it was installed correctly and it was a faulty transmission. They say they will warranty the solenoid, but I have to pay for the flush and labor.

I call Corporate and they agree I shouldn't have to pay, but then all they can do is complain to the service department and have them call me to work it out. The service department insists I pay for everything except the solenoid. I am already out almost $6,000 for a transmission now they want me to pay almost $1,500 more for their faulty transmission that is warrantied.

I have fought this hard! But I feel like I am at a brick wall. Anyone know what else I can do? I am out $6,000 already and have been without my truck for over 2 and a half months.

The only option I can think of now, is to pick my truck up with my spare set of keys, and wait until they take me to small claims court. I worry that if they messed something else up, I won't be able to get them to fix it and I will be really screwed. Especially if this new transmission is a ticking time bomb and it dies completely.

[Cyberpyr8]

I don't know about where you're at, but the local tv station's consumer reporters would be all over something like this in my area. You could go on Google and review the dealership and give it a 1 star review and tell your story. Google reviews seem to really be the pain point for businesses if they get bad reviews. I assume it hurts their search results status.

Other than hiring a lawyer and going after them, that's really all you can do. I don't know about picking it up without telling them. They will claim you were in the wrong and you lose any case you might have. You could call an attorney and see what they say. If they would think it's worth it to fight it. You're just over the limit of small claims court but not much over. You can pick it (telling them you are taking it back) and put it on a trailer and park across the street with a big sign saying they ripped you off. Or just drive up and down the street with it and there's nothing they really can do. It's bad PR for sure.

I've been not so politely given my money back and told not to come back to a few dealerships over the years. But this stuff does get results.

[shooter311]

I didn't think of the consumer advocate route. I don't ever see or hear them advertising but there must be someone around.

I plan on leaving reviews everywhere I can, but I want to wait until the whole situation is over so I can accurately sum it all up in review.

There isn't a public spot I could park my truck nearby, plus I don't have the time to drive around embarrassing them. I really wish I did! I am very pissed over this.

I worry hiring a lawyer would cost way more than the $1,400 I would win in court.

I think calling a consumer advocate would be my best course of action. It just means I will be going even longer without my truck...

[Cdn_Cuda]

Right now they appear to take the opinion it is easier to push the costs on to you and fight with you than to do the proper thing. You need to get things in writing from Toyota in regards to the warranty on the transmission. This is important if you go the small claims route.

Small claims is technically designed for people without lawyers. Gather all the paperwork, especially from your mechanic, get the mechanic to provide a written statement explaining what work he did, along with the invoices for the parts/fluids. That builds a pretty strong case. Now Toyota/ the dealership will have to shell out for a lawyer to defend the case. That will likely cost them more than just honouring their warranty, so they may suddenly become a lot more cooperative and you can always drop the small claims case.

Note: I’m in Canada so small claims is likely different in your jurisdiction.

[Shaftski]

How was the repair paid for? Talking to credit card companies about a business that provides a defective product or lousy service usually gets things rolling in my experience. Capital One usually bends over backwards for us on stuff like this since we've been such long time customers.

A lawyer would be a waste of time and money IMO.

[coyote]

Make a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission.

That's our national law enforcement for stuff like warranties. No corporate entity wants Joe Consumer to know this. Instead they want us to think they are judge, jury, and executioner. The FTC is our dog.

Also, some states have an agency that oversees auto shops. The mechanic that did your install should be able to point you in their direction.

Dispute all the charges if you used a card. Do it soon, the typical window for that is 90 days.

There's always small claims court. You can probably easily document your entire timeline. I'm 3 for 3 in small claims cases.

[shooter311]

Super helpful, thanks man!

[punkncat]

Without getting into a shouda/coulda sort of thing...

IMO anything you do at this point is likely just to cost you more time and money and the stealership is counting on that being a hurdle. I think before taking this to a level of complaint or calling out publicly, it might be worthwhile to appeal to the management (service/dealership) and or the ownership and try to probe what they are willing to do for you on the other side of this poor experience. I would use some of the (great) advice given above as ammo in your can while negotiating an amiable solution.
Obviously, they don't want you starting a stink on the news or have some commission down their neck. I would figure (honestly) that the "get a lawyer" route is probably the least virile of your options because almost assuredly they have access to, and funds for teams of said just to tie you up and cost you.

[shooter311]

UPDATE: The manager called me and told me that they are unable to warranty the transmission. He said it would only be warrantied if they did the install. I told him when I bought it, I specifically asked if it was warrantied if my mechanic installed it, and he said as long as they install it to Toyota spec. He said that was accurate, I let him know he did. He then said, Well the problem is they didn't get the serial number off the old transmission so that is why they can't warranty it. I told him that didn't make any sense why would that even matter. He said they needed it and that was on me. I told them I gave them the old transmission to get my core charge back. He told me to wait for him to call back and see what he could do.

He said because they should have gotten the serial and they did not, they still can't warranty it, but they will take $375 off the parts charge and $375 off labor. So now I only owe them $1,044.50.

So I called Toyota Corporate again and they said that the Manager is the customer service rep and their decision is final. I explained the case and said I will just not pay it. So I sat on hold for an hour and a Senior Case manager accepted the case and will call me in one business day. We will see what happens now.

[Jonnydread]

Good luck man, I’ll make some popcorn 🍿

[shooter311]

I called my Credit card company. They said that they can't do anything because they sold me the transmission and it was good for 10 miles. If it didn't work right out of the box then they could dispute the charge. I told them it didn't work out of the box, but it completely failed at 10 miles. They said there was nothing they could do, and I had to take it up with the merchant.

Next stop, FTC, BBB, and Consumer Advocate...

[Toestr]

Ask Steve Lehto.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[Seajay]

...snip...

I call Corporate and they agree I shouldn't have to pay, but then all they can do is complain to the service department and have them call me to work it out. The service department insists I pay for everything except the solenoid. I am already out almost $6,000 for a transmission now they want me to pay almost $1,500 more for their faulty transmission that is warrantied.

I have fought this hard! But I feel like I am at a brick wall. Anyone know what else I can do? I am out $6,000 already and have been without my truck for over 2 and a half months.

The only option I can think of now, is to pick my truck up with my spare set of keys, and wait until they take me to small claims court. I worry that if they messed something else up, I won't be able to get them to fix it and I will be really screwed. Especially if this new transmission is a ticking time bomb and it dies completely.

File a small claims against them. That is the point of these courts and why you pay taxes for them. You've appeared to be very reasonable and you are still without a truck despite spending a lot of money, and not having access to your property for a significant amount of time.

Each of these dealers and service centers are individual businesses as far as liability goes, and not "Toyota" so don't feel intimidated.

An attorney can help, but the verbal and paper trail is what you'll want to rely on.

[shooter311]

Final UPDATE!!!!

So this is super long, and I will try to keep it short.

So this whole time I was calling Toyota corporate, who would then have a "Case Manager/Customer Advocate" or a "Senior Case Manager/Senior Customer Advocate" investigate and make a decision. Every time they came back saying they would not warranty it. The reason was always the same "It was not installed to Toyota spec". I explained to the person it was and I had proof. Finally, I had a big blow out and instated to speak to one of the senior case managers. After a long hold and some headache, they got on the phone. Well to my surprise it was the manager at the service shop. Turns out he is the manager and the Case Manager. The Case manager is supposed to be neutral. I questioned this and he said the previous case manager for the dealership left so he stepped into the role so he does both jobs. UNBELIEVEABLE! That is why I never got anywhere...

I ended up calling the owner, GM, VP, etc of the dealership complaining to everyone. I also got the number of some Toyota execs in Boston, and left them all voicemails, but didn't hear back.

The VP of the dealership called me and said he looked into it personally and Toyota declined the warranty, but his dealership would cover everything but $500. I reluctantly agreed to get my truck back, and told him I would be in after work. Well it worked out that an hour after that call one of the Execs called me. He said he read through all the notes at the dealership and wanted my side of the story, which I gave. He said he would call the dealership and call me back with a decision. Sure enough, he called back in an hour and said he was appalled with what I was unfairly put through. He said he let the dealership have it. He made the dealership cover the entire expense and Toyota would not be paying for any of it out of principal. He also told me he made the shop inspect everything and ensure it was now at Toyota specs and that way if anything goes wrong with it from here the dealership would be responsible for warrantying it. He also made sure they took the truck on a minimum of 60 mile test drive. He also put a 12 month warranty on the transmission and if anything goes wrong with it I am to call him personally.

I got a call from the VP, who said it was all taken care of and I can pick up the truck. He said he would prefer if he gave the keys to my brother in law who works there, and I pick up the truck after hours. I found that to be very funny. So I went in after hours and I now have my truck!!!! YES!

Thank you all for the tips and suggestions. The only solution I had was calling the execs.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Well done! Glad you got a happy ending after all that.

[cougar20th]

Awesome, glad everything worked out. Most people would not have followed thru and the dealer knows it.

I'm guessing him asking you to pick it up after their employees are gone is that the manager likely got is ass handed to him. Likely he was trying to eliminate any chance or a confrontation between you and the manager.

Hopefully your brother in law doesn't get to much shit over it all. Sounds like the manager is enough of a asshole to possibly make his life miserable for awhile.

[shooter311]

So my brother in law is a mechanic in the shop, but I get the impression is is rather low level. He doesn't do troubleshooting or anything, he does a lot of simpler jobs. I never mentioned him at all during this whole ordeal as I didn't want to involve him. Well after talking with the VP, the VP went down and asked my BIL what he knew about it, and he told him he didn't know anything and wanted to be left out of it, and the VP told him it wouldn't effect him at all. That night my BIL called me, and I told him I intentionally left him out of everything, he was appreciative of that. I told him if it effected him in any way I would drop the whole thing and just pay. He said it is not effecting him, and to proceed how I wanted. I think the VP found out he was my BIL because my BIL actually ordered the transmission in his name at first for me since it was the last one Toyota had in stock in the States, and I went in after and switched it over to me and I paid. The parts manager knew I was his BIL. That is what I assume at least.

[Tarsun2]

that is awesome, the case manager and the senior case manager is the same person as the service shop manager. did he just sit in a room and talk to himself...? lol

[shooter311]

Lol, probably. There is actually so much more to the story. He told me and put in the notes that Toyota denied the warranty. However, when the exec inquired about it, he never submitted the warranty to Toyota. He told him he knew it would get denied so he just didn't submit it. That really pissed off the exec.

[Seajay]

Great outcome in the end, but the journey...

It's one thing to be overworked and not want to provide extra effort into a job, but to simply not do the job correctly by failing to file standard paperwork is appalling.