I executed a lease agreement with Riverhead Toyota on January 17th. After not being billed for a month, I contacted the dealership and Toyota Financial to inquire. Toyota Financial indicated they had no record and the dealership said there was some problem with the paperwork but it was being corrected.
After another two weeks, I contacted both the dealership and Toyota Financial yet again, still no record with Toyota Financial and the dealership did not return my calls (I left seven messages). After multiple go rounds of this process I heard from Riverhead Toyota that everything was finalized and submitted. I called Toyota Financial and they still did not have a record. Then I received a ticket for an expired temporary registration.
Called Riverhead Toyota again and they said don't worry, you can submit the new registration and have the ticket waived. The registration did arrive and I called Toyota Financial and they said "yes" they had me in their system. Only one problem, the lease had the wrong start date. I requested that Toyota Financial send me a copy of the lease, it was not my signature. The payments were the same but the dates were different and it had a forged signature.
I contacted the dealership again and they said "what's your problem, you got the car for free for a few months". I indicated that I did not want the car any longer than the original lease and I did not want to be billed on a lease I did not sign. I asked them to cancel the fraudulent lease and re-submit the original lease, they refused.
At this point I suspected that Riverhead Toyota had held back the paperwork because of the recall on the Highlander that occurred shortly after the lease. I suspect that they got a lot more money from the lease by holding it back for a couple of months and waiting for the new incentives to kick in.
At this point, I don't know what to do. I have called Toyota Financial, the referred me to the Toyota Experience (a consumer complaint group), Toyota Experience referred me back to the dealership. The dealership never called.
While the car is fine, not only is there a lease that I did not sign and am now being forced to pay (Toyota Financial said they can't do anything as they do not have proof it is fraudulent) or have my credit affected. I also feel like I have lost the use of the local dealership for service since I know I cannot trust them.
Not sure what to do!
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