This week, documents surfaced showing that on two occasions, Toyota service personnel drove vehicles to investigate customer complaints of sudden acceleration and verified that the customers' claims were correct. Toyota repurchased the vehicles and urged both customers to keep quiet, even requiring one of them to sign a confidentiality agreement.
Yahoo News censored my comments about this matter, and is now refusing to publish any comments I submit, regardless of the topic.
On 5/12/09, which was less than a week after I began directing people to this blog, I got a telephone c
all from Mr. Dave Adams - Southeast Toyota's "Customer Loyalty" guy - claiming he wanted to "help me get some of my money back." But it turned out to be exactly the kind of bullying I've come to expect from Toyota. Specifics - if you can call them that - were kept verbal (the trademark of someone who's tryin' to scam you), I would be expected to accept considerably less than my expenses, and I would be required to tow the line in terms of loyalty to Toyota. They don't call him the "Customer Loyalty" guy for nothin'. To ensure that Toyota was making a "good investment," I would "say nice things" about Toyota when I visited their dealerships, and this blog "might have to come down." Seems I also needed to "learn how to be a gentleman." Any more picketing, and the Customer Loyalty rep would see to it that I didn't get a dime. Even gave me a couple of days, he did, to "think things over." Yessir, he put on quite a performance. Flogged me good n proper for darin' to criticize Toyota, and simultaneously whined that my remarks about Toyota had "hurt his feelings." Touchy folks, these "Customer Loyalty" guys. But things could have been worse. At least I wasn't required to buy a new Toyota...Since Toyota refused to offer bonafide specifics and put them in writing, I finally made my position crystal clear. Sent 'em an e-mail stating that I better not settle for anything less than reimbursement for all of my expenses. Reminded 'em, I did, of the continuing problems I'm having with the engine they rebuilt. Unfortunately - as I've noted elsewhere on this blog - multiple engine failures are not uncommon. And incidentally, when it comes to hurt feelings, my feelings were also a wee bit challenged when I had to fork over thousands of dollars due to Toyota's improperly designed engine.
Point is, Toyota shouldn't profit from their design defect, and potential reimbursement shouldn't be held as a club over a customer's head. C'mon, Toyota. Clean up your act.
