Forced arbitration, courtesy of Dick Dyer Toyota

Seekin' service at Toyota's largest dealership in South Carolina? Take note of your repair order, which informs you that "THIS TRANSACTION IS SUBJECT TO ARBITRATION PURSUANT TO THE SOUTH CAROLINA UNIFORM ARBITRATION ACT." Read the fine print, and you'll discover that once you sign, if things go wrong, you'll be required to submit to the arbitration process before you can take the matter to court. Worse yet, Toyota selects the arbitrator, which turns out to be the so-called Better Business Bureau. How many people do you know who won their case in front of an "arbitrator"? The process is exactly what you would expect from a bully like Toyota: its a deck stacked in favor of big business, which tends to wear the consumer down and discourage further action. 'Course, when folks take their vehicles in for service, they're usually in a bit of a bind - over a barrel, you might say - and don't have time to consider a mess of legal niceties. Which brings us to the crux of the matter. Why does Toyota's largest dealership in the state find it necessary to hamper a consumer's right to have their case heard in court? Must have tons of unhappy customers...