Through my misfortune and come to find out quite a few others in the military Id like to share a story to hopefully warn you all.
Two weeks ago on Monday morning I woke up at 0430 to go to base and work. Walk outside around 0500 to get in my car to deal with lovely traffic. One thing is missing. My car. My immediate thought was that my room mates moved it in the night behind the house. Nope, its gone. Okay my car is stolen. I call non emergency police number and talk to a nice lady on the phone. She said a police officer will be there in about 45 minutes. I call my supervisor and chief at work to let them know Ill be late and what happened. About 30 minutes later I get a call back from police. The lady tells me she is very sorry but my car was just posted as repocessed. I nearly have a heart attack. Soon I start doing collateral damage control and regain breathing to figure out what happened. I check my bank accounts online, I look though my paper statements from toyota to see if I had a brain fart of my life and missed something. Nope. I try calling toyota. No humans working until 9am. Great... wait for roommate to get home, take her car to work....
Get to work and let supervisor and chief know whats happening. At this point Im pretty worked up and seeing red. Finally 0901 rolls around and I call toyota and figure out what the heck is going on. They tell me I missed my car payments for the past 3 months so my car was repo'd. Really trying not to let my sailor mouth not get the best of me I ask the lady how does this happen when I have proof that it came from my bank account and into my loan account I have with them. She says it dosnt matter, they shut down the internet paying system they have three months ago. So they took my money out of my bank account, held onto it for the past three months and never updated their automated system for my paper statements to reflect me being late. Now Ive gone from seeing red to seeing nuclear explosions go off. I bite my tongue real hard and ask then why was I not informed. Heres on of the best parts. In the state of Virginia, a company does not legally have to inform a customer of changed to payment systems or that a item, in this case my car, will be reprocessed. Okay, Ive had enough before I snap. I get off the phone with this nice lady and immediately head for my chain of command. I need help. My chief and division officer and myself all get back on the phone with toyota. So far Im just screwed with whats happened so far. What do I need to to next to fix this? Toyota will no longer honor my loan with them. I cannot just pay the past balance. Mind you had the car for maybe 6 months now. I will have 15 days from the letter of redemption being generated to pay the WHOLE balance of my loan. Oh great, thats just $26,000 and some change due to paying off early, taxes, and repo fees. Another heart attack ensues. That will be easy to get that much in 15 days..... because thats what I make in a year.....
So a few days pass and Im trying to get a loan with my bank. I have my command backing me and multiple people, including my Commanding Officer, willing to co-sign on a new loan. Not approved because Toyota royally ...... my credit. Not to mention I have a loan already for a car I lost.
Now my command is worried. If I cant come up with the money I will have $26,000 of unsecured debt to my name. This will cause me to lose my security clearance, my rate, and in today wonderful Navy to downsizing, do not pass go I get kicked out at front gate and sent on my way.
So whats a 23 year old kid to do? I go to mom. Longer story short she comes through for me. I will now be making loan payments to her. She gets title to car. But its not over yet.
This morning I called my bank, Navy Federal Credit Union, to talk to a lady about money being transferred into my account today. She said all will be fine, even the large sum. Wrong! I get a call this afternoon from mom saying Navy Federal locked up my account and her bank locked up all of hers because her name wasnt on my account. I borrowed money from her a long time ago so it was there. Until we found out they removed her last month for no reason at all. From past experience last time I checked it pretty much needs a act of congress for me to remove someone from my accounts. Yet my bank did it without even giving me a call or letter.
So here I am, no car, and who knows how this will end. Probably have to pay out the ...... and just send the money western union to Toyota. Im currently paying $25 dollars a day in storage fees for the towing company. Thats another $350 I owe. So far my loan went from being about $22,000 to now being in the hole about $30,000. Not including my loss of credit, putting me in the spotlight, and making me ask for help from my mom.
The part that worries me the most/ I have bad luck. Its just a car, Im young and have plenty of time left in my life to fix things. But Im not the only one this is happening to. I know of three more sailors that work within walking distance of me that are going through the same exact thing. I know of two civilians that are going through the same thing. Its just amazes me how a company can ruin so many lives. Im lucky, I have my mom and command. One of those individuals bought a brand new truck 4 months ago. He is out atleast $50,000 as of now. He's retired Navy and is getting up there in age. This is going to ruin him. So my warning to you all is be careful when dealing with Toyota Financial. I suggest steer clear of them. Im sure most of you that have or are using them havnt had issues. But theres a group of people here that are really taking a whipping from this company. The only thing I can really suggest is really know where your money is going and make sure its making a difference. Id hate for anyone to go through this.
I apologize for the length and the poor grammar and spelling. It still gets me a little worked up. Thank you for your time. I hope yall have a wonderful night and week.
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Blue
