Dangers of Auto-payments
I have a leased Toyota Corolla, and I am happily enrolled in AutoCheck payments with Toyota’s Financial Services. So I do not even look at my bills. Once I opened my bill and noticed that the requested payment was twice as high as I expected. I looked closer and the bill had a car tax included in it. I looked even closer and read that:
Your Current Payment Due will be automatically withdrawn from your checking or savings account on the above Payment Due Date or the next banking day.
I decided that everything was taken care of and continued my relaxed life. After several months I checked my bill again, and the car tax was still there. After more careful study of my bill I discovered that Toyota’s “Current Payment Due” doesn’t include my car tax. Obviously they assume that their definition of “Current Payment Due” is crystal clear to everyone.
I got worried about this delayed car tax payment and went online to pay it. I tried to make this payment, but Toyota’s website rejected it. The website informed me that because I am enrolled in AutoCheck, I am not allowed to make separate online payments. I couldn’t believe it: to do so, I would have to de-enroll first!
So I just wrote a check.
In one day my feelings for my Toyota Corolla were turned around. If their financial system is designed so stupidly, what can we say about their car designs? Suddenly the sound of my brakes and the squeak in my steering wheel worry me.
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Nathan:
Don’t worry, I’m sure the contractors who write the financial software are different from the contractors who designed the brakes and steering components. 🙂
7 January 2011, 1:23 pmLeva:
Unfortunately nowadays they use software to design those components, and who knows how good were contractors who wrote that software 🙂
7 January 2011, 9:47 pmFedja:
The brakes on modern Toyotas are certainly prone to malfunctioning. I know two people who almost crashed their cars because of that personally. The Prius brake problem is public knowledge by now. I do not see why I should believe that other models are any better, so I’ll never let anyone in my family to buy or to drive any Toyota car made after 2000. I’ve heard that steering is also a problem but I do not know anyone who can confirm that personally.
6 February 2011, 2:44 am