So tell me what you think? Turned in a leased car back to Toyota – financed through Southeast Toyota Finance AKA World Omni Finance – red flag #1 the car was not inspected upon turn-in. Yeah, yeah we read all the fine print but still. So weeks later we get a letter claimin there was $500+ of “excessive wear & tear” to the front end of this 2000 Celica that had a little of 57,000 miles on it. Reaction – what the hell?!? So we called asking for a more detailed explaination – wanted to know why it took 14 days and 70+ more miles on the car before we got this “bill”. They couldn’t say – all we got was the car was inspected by a “certified” inspector. Uh huh – certified in what? So we continued to ask for a detailed “damage” report. $500 worth had to have been damage. We do this dance with World Omni for almost a month – there was no tranport report on the vehicle either. Okay – someone explain to me why would some go to all the trouble to put brand new tires on a car if they didn’t car about excessive wear and tear? Did a little Googling – found some references to lease turn ins and how certain companies will jack up the excessive wear and tear to recoup losses.
Well the phone call that was promised yesterday never came in – gee that’s not a shocker. So I called them – after some discussion prior to my call seems the supervisor still was not going to wave the “excessive wear & tear” charges BUT was willing to reduce it by 50%. So does the garbage stink yet?
Wish I could afford to take this one to court.