Southeast Toyota Finance
Reviews and Complaints

I have had two new Corollas thru these people.I have always paid on time. Now unemployed for a few months, but always paid on time..Emailed and called more than once to let them know July payment would be late and I would pay as I could. Paid all my $450 payment but $150 and I let them know what day that would be paid, which it was...Then caught up again. I got numerous calls, letters, and a letter stating either pay the $150 plus your NEW bill that wasn't even due yet, in 10 days or they would start repossession..Are you kidding me? I was only $150 behind and paid it, and another $100 on my new Hill, and still getting harassing calls today!

I will NEVER buy from them again! No one to talk to about this either..their customer service people are worthless to help you...it's a holiday today and my payment hasn't processed, yet they are still constantly calling! This is happening and a fear tactic! I've paid my new bill! Going to call corporate and their parents company tomorrow!

Worst experience of my life. When lease was ending was told pre inspection was optional not required so I expected a turn in inspection. Outright lie was sent a bill for everything on pre inspection even after correcting everything, including charge for extra month saying I turned in late even though turn in had correct date. Have mailed and faxed in paperwork spoken to them over a dozen times and given the run around yet none of the charges are ever taken off. This includes a charge for missing key 100.00 which was not on my wife's key ring at inspection and was never asked for by inspector. Dealer even gave me a letter with the person at the dealerships name and phone number on it now they are saying I need to make a third trip to the dealership which is in another town because they did not print the letter on the correct letterhead. Have been a loyal toyota customer for over 20 years and pitched 9 different cars but if this is the way I am treated I will never finance with this company again.

I am quite elderly, 86 and a long time Toyota automobile consumer--going back to the late 1970s. when I purchased a used Corolla for my teen aged son. As soon as the Toyota added the automatic feature to the Celica, I bought it. Presently, I lease a Rav4 XLE. When I signed the leasing contract with Hendrickson's management, my wife and I were told that the XLE comes with a three year free maintenance feature and not the 24 months I was used to receiving. This is not a case of Customer remorse; but the result of two documents received a number of days ago. The first letter advised that even though I have 12 months to complete the lease agreement; I may or may not have reached the allotted 24, 000 miles and offering me the opportunity of adjusting my driving needs so I don't exceed the 36, 000 mile cap, or face additional leasing fees for excessive driving. The letter went on to talk about the great opportunity of considering several options to choose.
The very next day I received a promotional piece from Hendrickson Toyota, and a ToyotaGuard card stating that I have one oil change and two tire rotations left on my XLE Rav4 lease. The piece also noted that I missed my 15, 000 mile maintenance at the end of June 2018. Well, since I had less than 14, 000 miles on the car, I simply could call and explain to each of two entities my low mileage use on the RAV 4., as well as my understanding that the vehicle came with a three year, 36, 00o mile bumper to bumper coverage. However, chatting with the dealership on line a lady said she would make a note of what I was trying to accomplish. I asked what and to whom this note would go. She wouldn't tell me and ended the chat session.
I tried to find out how to reach Customer Care Director Laurie Harvey to detail my experience and to advise my low mileage use of the RAV4 XLE. Frustrated at not being able to reach her by phone at SE Toyota Finance, I am using this opportunity with the Complaint Board. Respectfully submitted, Friday, July 13, 2018.

My lease is not up until next year. My payments have never been late as I always pay through my bank's bill pay. This month I paid on the first but through the SE Toyota Finance web portal. I was charge $20 more than my normal payment. After waiting 40 minutes for customer service to answer, the woman told me it was probably a tax increase. When I said I had no recent statements, she said they were cut off over a year ago. I said I didn't request that and she said she would have them sent again. Meanwhile she has not access to my statements so doesn't know when the tax increase occurred. I have not received any notice that I wasn't paying enough as I had always paid the same amount. Then she said well it must have just started this month. She had no clue it was obvious. I just want an explanation of the demand for a higher payment or I want it refunded to me as I made my payment on the day it was due.

I requested a 2 month extension which was granted and payment debited from my account that day. 2 months later when I logged in to my account to make my new payment, my account showed as being 2 months past due. I called that day to discuss. was told SETF had no record of my payment, was advised to fax in proof of payment. I did this the next day. Since then I've had numerous calls telling me my account is past due and no acknowledgement of this ongoing issue. I've asked for managers to call me back and they never have.
This is completely frustrating and totally unacceptable.

On January 15, 2018, we were issued a lease termination notice indicating that were due a refund in the amount of $470.92. The letter clearly states that if we have not received the refund after thirty business days, please contact them. This says to us that within that 30 days, the refund should have been processed. After an initial call about this, we were told that the refund would not be processed until AFTER 30 business days! The 30 days had passed and still no refund. Another call was made and we were told the refund was processed on March 6th. It is now March 23 and the refund has still not been received. We were told it was issued out of Mobile, AL. It was being sent to Pensacola, FL - a little over an hour away. They had no answer but tried to tell us it was because of the weather? Then they told us it would take 15 days after the issue date before they could have the refund re-issued! They are quick to send late notices if they receive a late payment but God forbid they send money owed to a loyal customer. This treatment and lack of customer service is reprehensible.

I am writing to express my extreme disappointment with the leasing and maintenance process of my 2014 Avalon. I recently turned in the car. The entire process was miserable from the beginning of the lease through the end-of-lease turn-in. I have leased six cars of various makes, but Toyota has been the worst experience by far.

The vehicle turn-in process was a nightmare. Even though I had called SETF in advance and was told that I could return the car to any Toyota dealership, I was subsequently told by multiple dealerships that they would not accept my car. In fact, I had spoken to a representative at Toyota South Atlanta prior to driving there. The representative said to come in and ask for the Sales Manager, who would then handle my vehicle turn-in. However, when I went to that location, the dealership refused to handle it. I only had a small window of opportunity to turn the car in due to my job. My time was wasted, as well as the time of the person that I had to ask on multiple occasions to drive in a second car so I could attempt to turn the car in.

Now I have been assessed with excessive turn-in fees because I did not lease or purchase another Toyota. Let me tell you why I could not lease or purchase another Toyota. In addition to the horrible turn-in process, I also had the following issues:

• The finance employee at the time of lease was very nasty to deal with. He went so far as to call my mother a fool for no reason.
• The service center at Toyota South Atlanta in Morrow, GA, is in serious need of training. During the two times that I visited, they did not welcome me; I had to stand around hoping someone might finally help me. Even more egregious was the fact that they lied about having rotated my tires. The service manager was unresponsive to the multiple voicemails I left and never resolved the situation. Consequently I had to go to my credit card company for reimbursement.

I really enjoyed driving my Avalon, but due to these harrowing experiences, I strongly feel that my assessed charges of $590 need to be waived. Perhaps then I will feel like I am valued enough to be able to come back to Toyota in the future.

My lease contract states my end of lease purchase price is 34, 419.00 and a $350.00 Disposition Fee. However my Lease payoff document I just received shows Sales price of $35, 269 + sales tax of 2086.14 for a total of 37355.14
Here is the problem sales tax in the state of FL Lee County is 6% and should be on the price of the vehicle no tax on fees. Therefore tax should be 34, 419.00 X 6%=2065.14 + the 350.00 Disposition fee for a total of 36834.14! This leaves us a difference of $521 and that is were my dispute lies. They want to charge me a fee of $500.00 for title transfer (a fee they pay to an outside agency). In the state of FL I get a release of lien and have to go myself to tax collectors office to file for title and pay the fee. So why the $500 and where does the extra $21 come in?

Back on 9/6/17 I called setf for my non-English speaking parents to set up an extension for their 2013 Toyota Camry. They were offering this extension to their customers who were affected by Hurricane Irma. I called them an a young lady helped me out on the 6th. She charged my parents the $63.00 for interest and she said that they will re-instate the ach in October. I told my parents the situation they were happy until 12.10.2017 when they couldn't find their vehicle in the parking lot of their low income senior citizen apartment complex. They called me because they thought it was stolen, i then called the police and they told me it was reposed on Sunday.

I called setf on Sunday at 4:00 pm spoke to a young lady about why this happen and she told me that the extension was never applied in September although they paid $63.00 for interest. She said she was going to send her supervisor an email regarding the extension not being processed. Since im not in the account my father had to authorize them to talk to me about the account.

I called setf today at 8:13 am and spoke to Melody Cooper. She wanted to know why by parents fell behind on payments. I told her about the extension, she didn't pay any attention to it, then i asked her why my parents weren't communicated via mail instead of phone. She said that the number wasn't correct and it was their responsibility to call Toyota to set up ACH. However she did tell me that they were allowed to reinstate the loan (which is good a thing) but they will have to wait 24-48 business hours (according to the young lady i spoke to on Sunday) to find out what is the total charge of past due plus repo fees. Once we find out what the charge is we have to wait another 48-72 business hours for toyota to get confirmation that the funds are deposited. By that time it is possible that my parents vehicle will be moved to another location and they will have to pay an additional fee to get the car back.

Its disheartening that a company such as toyota does a complete 180 when natural disasters occur to their clients. In this day in age, social media is a huge driver in the decision process of purchases. With that in mind we would like for toyota to call either my parents (have a spanish rep please) or myself (toyota has my number as a primary) to try to get this resolved. By acknowledging they dropped the ball on the extension and to help us in the repo fees.

2017 TOYOTA CAMRY
My payment of $500.00 is due every month on the 20th. On November 13th, I canceled auto pay and called the rep to take my payment before the 20th. Due to a fraud on my account I had to close my checking account, so I wanted to make a payment before I closed my checking account. Today is 12/8/2017 My last payment was for $500.00 on November 13. I Paid 7 days before the due date. Now as I logon to my account. It states my payment is 17 days past due. This amount may include late or service fees. They are charging me $6 dollars in fees towards my December payment of $506.00. Please make a payment now. Why am I being conned $6? Why am I show as delinquent status? I want my good status back I have never been late with my payments

At ltime of producing paperwork for 2017 Prius (#JTDKARFU6H3047483) I was told that my 2005 MB C230 (#WDBRF40J35A691661) with approximately 114, 000 miles would be credited a trade-in value of $3, 000 in consideration for the lease contract, At the time I was told that the Total down would be $3, 500. During the actual process on 09/18/17 I was also provided a maxed-out $3, 000 Toyota credit card as a courtesy to those who had suffered through the ravages of hurricane Irma. Unfortunately I was so excited by the Prius, that I accepted the lease package without reviewing the pink receipt. It was two months later, in fact that the pink document came by mail. On seeing the "consideration" portion, I was flabbergasted to see that my car had actually been valued at $500 and $3, 000 had been put on the "Irma relief-aid" Toyota credit card. I have spoken today to a Toyota customer rep who gave me a reference case number internal to Toyota (#[protected]) produced on the day of this writing, 11/28/17. AAnother customer service rep at Robert Lipton Dealership of Ft. Lauderdale said that I can expect forward movement after the phone from Mr. J.R. Merritt, the manager of the dealership when he calls tomorrow. I pray this moves in the desired outcome of withdrawing charges from the percentage producing Toyota credit card and going back to the conditions as stated on 09/18/17.

I have been calling SEFT for the past two days because I wanted to schedule a lease inspection. I was planning to get a new Toyota this weekend but I was told by the dealership that there were going to do the inspection after they got the car and I didn't want any surprises. I have spend altogether more than 3 hours on hold just waiting to speak to someone to schedule the inspection. After I mention to customer service that I had call 4 times holding about 40 minutes in each call they actually told me that they probably were about to answer by the time I hang up. My wife really love her car but I'm never will go trough this ridiculous situation again. In all my years I have never seen a company with so little disregard for their customers as SEFT. If you don't have enough staff hire some but no one should wait for hours, specially if they are interested on leasing a car from you. Never again I will buy a Toyota because I don't want to deal with this company again. Right now I'm on my 6 call an 33minutes in holding. Stay away from this people. I also have a GMC and they have never done anything this bad.

Like so many "Customers" did you hear that word SEFT its customers - the people that keep you in work I am disgusted by this company. I bought a car from Al Hendrickson they lied about the finance rates to push me into their own finance system. I had to go to Europe for business for 2 months during which time I tried 3-4 times to make payments online and the website / system failed. No phone calls or help form the company, they would not accept any blame and I came back to a credit score that has gone from 820 to 690. I will take legal action against them for failure to provide a platform for me to give them money. I've never missed any payments in my life mortgage or other and have perfect credit. They did not work with me to correct an issue that ultimately lays with their own flaws. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY and DO NOT USE TOYOTA IN HOUSE FINANCE.

We puchased a 2017 Camry SE in January. The payments were a little overwhelming (let alone we felt like we were pushed to purchase it) so my husband had some extra money so we wouldn't have to worry about a payment for a few months so he submitted a payment for $5, 000.00 on July 18th, 2017. I felt much more at ease that we didn't have to worry about a car payment for 8 months. They "returned" the payment 3 days ago and said it was the bank. Is that even legal? We even received payment confirmation and a statement in the mail. These people are crooks. Now they are saying that we owe 2 payments and late fees... Omg, this is some serious crap. I thought there was a certain time frame for these type of things to occur. I called them yesterday and they kept giving me the runaround even after I told them that our bank did not refuse to accept the transaction.

On 7/26/[protected]@9:15 am...I usually try not to complain about customer service but this time was so disappointing. I was recently on the phone with a rep regarding my payments and the the rep Reecia or Risia was very rude with me, lacked patience and made the whole establishment appear very low budget. I related to her that I was very disappointed in the way that she was speaking to me and I did not like her attitude and asked her to transfer me the customer survey and she abruptly hung up. I did call back again to explain to another rep who also hung up on me at the end our decent conversation. I am very aware that customer service is the epitome of business with the public and if southeast Toyota continues to employ people who have no regard for the customers they are servicing -that could cause grave issues for the business for the future. Please retrain your service reps to speak with respect and exhibit more patience when dealing with the public. I work in high stress circumstances and life threatening situations daily at my job and I would never speak to the public in that manner.

I purchase a 2017 Toyota corolla on 11/2016. On 04/01/2017 had a fatal accident in which the person that hit me took off and total my car. I was a bit concern since the airbags did not deploy and sustain injuries. My insurance paid off the car 3 days after the accident (04/03/2017) an total amount of $17, 645.26 and GAP paid a total of $981.95 within 45 days. Southeast Toyota is now claiming that I still owe them $236+ and every month they double this amount. My normal car note payments were due every month around the 17th - if my insurance paid $17, 645.26 before the 17th of April is it fair that they are charging me interest here? and for what? they already got their money, I had nothing but expenses for an accident that I am not responsible for. This is nothing but an injustice to me. In addition come to find out they added extended warranty on the card without my knowledge.. STAY AWAY FROM STADIUM TOYOTA ON DALEMABRY IN TAMPA, FL. THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF AND LIE TO YOU JUST TO GET MORE MONEY OUT OF YOU...

I have had my car for almost 2 yrs and never had an issue with Southeast Toyota Finance till now. I have paid my car payment each month and last month did't have enough to cover the full. I paid all but $96. I got harassing phone call from the company which all the people that called 2-3 times a day were all RUDE! Told me that there was a $100 late fee! Are you kidding me! I called the company and the person that I spoke with was very rude and basically told me that I should know when my car payment is due and not his fault I didn't pay my bill. He was so rude! Customer service goes a long way. I am in the works with my credit union now to refinance my car with them. My opinion don't use this company. I have told all my friends, family, co-workers and everyone. I hope that you will think twice!

Very unsatisfied in the manner that Toyota handles late payments. No payment reminders or late payment notification, especially for the first time of a missed payment.
Auto-payment was already in effect.
Your staff is very rude at the time of speaking to a customer.
At the time of calling a customer, it is the callers responsibility to introduce themselves before demanding information from the customer.

I see so many complaints about Southeast Toyota Finance, and I want to add one more. I am paying my bills on a regular basis, and even to lower interest charges, I have made two additional payments in advance to decrease principal amount. But what I realized that the daily and total interest charge not only does not decrease but also getting increased! I addressed this issue to SETF, waiting for reply, if not resolved, I'm going to address this to Better Business Bureau.

I purchased a 2015 Camry in Jan 2015. Very happy with my car. Later on in 2015, around August. I had a change in income.. For a month and a half. So I was short on my payment. So instead of paying the full amount I paid $500. Leaving me a balance of $93. Including the late fee. I had reached out to Setf before I was even late. Just to make them aware of the situation I saw coming. No help there. Just told me to pay before 30 days. Well, I didn't pay the full amount.. So just recently in May 2016. Didn't really have any reason to check my credit. I did so because I had obtained some credit and wanted to see if they were reporting yet. I opened my account for my auto loan, and discovered that toyota had been reporting me late for 9 months for the $93. Even though I was still making my monthly payments on times. My account was in good standing with them until that one month. I take accountability on the partial payment. But why report me being late every month when I was making my payments. So my credit score has taken a big hit. I was preparing myself to upgrade to a newer Camry. But now this has happened. I've reached out to CS. No help there. I would have expected this from some buy here pay here places. But I'm shocked from what should be such a reputable company. This definitely will make a big decision on ever doing business with Setf/ world Omni financial in the future.