J. Allen Toyota
Reviews and Complaints

I was gonna buy a car, but the car wasn't fixed, so I didn't get it. The Toyota company keeps tellin' me they gonna send me a check for 500. It's been over 3 weeks, and they ain't returnin' my calls, just keep sayin' the same thing.

The dealership sold me a Key Fob insurance for lost or stolen key fobs that has denied my claims 3 different times. I called the dealership 5 times and no returned calls so I drove 1 1/2 to the dealership to get sent to a competitors dealership who then sent me back to the original dealership that sold me the insurance. After demanding a manager I was told he would get with the service manager and call me to resolve my issue. Well, I haven't received no call back. The customer service at Allen Toyota has failed me big time.

We bought a used truck for our biz in March . It's been a while, but we still ain't got the truck's registration papers. J. Allen Toyota messed up and filled out a mobile home title app instead of a vehicle one. We told 'em to send the right papers to our town office, but they sent 'em to the State DMV instead. We've been tryin' to reach 'em, but they hardly ever respond. And when they do, it's just excuses, no solutions.

I took my car to J. Allen Toyota 'cause it was drivin' all slow and stuff. They hit me with a bill for $168.00. They gave me a long list of repairs they thought I should do, and it added up to a whopping $5000. My car's from 2004, so I said, "Nah, I'll pass on that." The price seemed way too high, but I still paid up and went to get my car. But guess what? When I found it in the parking lot, the dang battery was dead and it wouldn't start. Ain't that just my luck? Now I gotta miss another hour of work to go get it fixed again. I'm a busy person, makin' good money, so I think they owe me somethin' for my time. I'm askin' for $100 per hour, which adds up to $200. And I want 'em to apologize in writin' for their lousy service and those crazy charges.

I paid cash ($5800) for a Kia Forte on 4/29 for my son. I went back on 5/6 to buy another car for my daughter, who goes to Ole Miss. We made a deal with a down payment of $5500. That's a total of $11,500 in less than 2 weeks. I bought a 2016 Certified Used Toyota Corolla with 4200 miles. She left the Gulfport lot and drove to Oxford. When she arrived in Oxford 6 hours later and stopped for gas, the car wouldn't start! Luckily, she didn't stop at a random exit, late at night, being a female and alone! She was safe in Oxford. The battery was really corroded. (See attached) James Usey, the sales manager, told us to take it to the dealership in Oxford and have the battery replaced. Allen Toyota will reimburse us for the charges. The charges from Oxford Toyota came to $798.87 (see attached). I think this car didn't go through the certified inspection in Gulfport, or else it shouldn't have been driven off the lot. I want to be reimbursed $798.87, which I paid to fix this car.

I went to J. Allen Toyota on Friday, August 26, 2022, for an oil change. I asked the advisor to check my headlights, even though I knew they couldn't do anything since I already bought the car. But when I said I would pay for it, the advisor kept laughing. He laughed even harder when I explained what I thought the problem was and called another employee over to listen. Then, while still laughing, he opened the hood of my car. I told him I couldn't find the headlight fuse when I looked it up. So, he and another employee searched under the hood and came back to me, still laughing. I asked him to please show me the headlight fuse since he had been laughing at me the whole time, acting like I didn't know anything. I also asked him to correct me if I was wrong. But he just kept insisting that I take my car to Kia because it's a Kia. He made it clear that he didn't want to help me. I bought the car from Allen Toyota less than 90 days ago, and my first car payment was on August 4, 2022. He didn't even listen to me when I told him my car should still be under warranty because I just got it. Two hours passed, and I asked how much longer for my oil change. He was on the phone, laughing and saying something about trying to get a warranty. But he had already told me he couldn't do anything for me. I feel really embarrassed, and I want to cancel any future oil changes with them. Three different car shops told me to take my car back to where I bought it, so that's what I did today. And yet, I left another shop without any headlights. How does Allen Toyota expect someone to go six years without headlights? I've been to four shops now, including Allen Toyota, and I still don't have any headlights. When I bought the car, they said I could pay an extra $100 for a warranty, but right now, that warranty isn't helping me at all. My advisor was extremely unhelpful.

Allen Toyota didn't give us the loan documentation for two weeks after we "bought" the vehicle. They made us leave with the vehicle and we only signed a borrowers agreement. We didn't sign anything electronically with our signatures; those documents were all forged without our permission. After two weeks, they told us to complete a survey with the bank, but we couldn't because we had no paperwork. The dealership told us to lie to the bank and say we had the paperwork, but I refused. Finally, Allen Toyota said we could come get the paperwork. That's when I saw all the charges and our names forged everywhere. We didn't agree to the charges, gap insurance, or interest rate. We informed the bank through the survey. The bank couldn't fund the loan without gap coverage, so the contract was voided and the deal fell through. Allen Toyota said the loan would only be funded if the gap insurance was accepted. The bank said they would contact the dealership. The dealership tried to force us to buy the car anyway and told us to tell the bank we wanted the gap insurance, promising a refund later. We didn't want to do this because it didn't seem right. We returned the vehicle on 9/19 and suddenly Allen Toyota said we owed $1680 in rental fees. My husband told them we didn't sign a rental contract or any of the contracts that were auto-signed without our permission. The dealership refused to return our $1500 deposit. They didn't make us pay the extra $180 the finance manager said would make the charges exactly $1500. We never signed a contract stating we rented the vehicle and we never received anything saying we would forfeit our down payment. We never even saw a rental contract from them. The only thing we signed was a borrowers contract stating we borrowed the vehicle. They unlawfully kept our down payment without a contract or permission. I want my $1500 reimbursed ASAP.

I got my car's oil changed at J. Allen Toyota on 01/29. The service department suggested that I also get a coolant flush, front and back differential fluid change, and a CV boot replacement, which would cost around $1500. I agreed to all the recommendations, but as soon as I picked up my truck on Friday at 5PM, I noticed some problems. My alignment was off and there were coolant leaks. I brought the vehicle back the next day at 11AM and waited for 4 hours in the lobby while they "inspected" it. They told me that the coolant was leaking because there was leftover fluid in the skid plate and it was dripping out due to the slight slope of my driveway. This explanation didn't make much sense to me, but I took the vehicle home. I didn't drive it on Sunday because it rained, so I couldn't see any fluid on the driveway. However, on Monday morning, I once again noticed fresh fluid pools in my driveway. When I looked under the vehicle, I could see droplets of coolant forming in multiple spots on the undercarriage. I called the service department to request a fix and sent them pictures of the issue. They sent a tow truck to collect the vehicle. I also called Allen Toyota and asked to speak with the service manager. They connected me to *** (Monday 02/01 at around 11:30AM), but he didn't answer or respond to my voicemail. A few hours later, I received a call saying that I needed a new water pump, timing belt, and tensioners. I told Allen Toyota not to replace them because all three had been replaced 15K miles ago, which should be good for 90K miles. They then told me to come pick up my vehicle, but I would have to pay for the towing before I could drive it off the lot. This seemed unfair to me, so I asked why. They said it was because I requested the tow, even though I hadn't, it was offered by the person at the service desk. They also didn't explain that if I didn't do all the recommended repairs, I would have to cover the towing bill. After a lot of back and forth and my request for them to listen to the call recordings, the manager agreed that I wouldn't have to pay for the towing. I'm grateful for that, but it was just another negative experience on top of everything else. Allen Toyota never addressed the leak, and when I received the repair order upon pickup, it simply stated, "Coolant leaking from behind timing cover, possible water pump. Recommend starting with replacing water pump, timing belt, and tensioner." So, the dealer recommended an unnecessary $2,500 repair as a starting point. Before leaving, I asked if I would be meeting a manager, and they told me no.

I went to Allen Toyota on 3/3 and spent a long time with the sales and finance departments. I gave them everything they asked for, including references, proof of income from both of my jobs, address, phone number, insurance, and a down payment of $3200. My salesperson was *** and my finance person (who was still in training) was ***.

On April 8, I received a text message from the Head of Finance at Toyota, Mrs. ***, which included all of my references. The message said that if they didn't hear from me by 2pm that day, they would report the vehicle stolen and the Gulfport Police Department would be involved. I called Mrs. and expressed my concerns. She told me that I needed to complete a welcome call with the finance company, AmeriCredit Inc., and that I was missing some information, such as references and proof of employment from one of my jobs (*** Pharmacy). I had already given all of this information to Toyota on 3/3, and I had emailed the specific stubs to ***'s email because I couldn't print them. It's important to note that she had included my references in the text message.

I immediately called AmeriCredit and found out that they had been trying to reach me but had the wrong phone number from Toyota's system. I had confirmed my address and phone number with Toyota on 3/3, so I don't understand why they didn't provide that information to the finance company. I completed my Welcome Call with AmeriCredit and provided them with my references since they said they didn't have them. AmeriCredit also informed me that they didn't have the stubs from *** and that they would get them from Toyota. This conversation took place on 4/8.

I received the car from Toyota on 3/3 after giving them all of my information and whatever they asked for. However, AmeriCredit didn't receive my finance application from Allen Toyota until 3/27 (25 days after I got the car), and it wasn't signed into their system until 3/30 (28 days after I got the car). The AmeriCredit representative assured me that she was taking note of everything that happened with Allen Toyota and that she would resolve the situation. However, due to the delayed finance application and COVID-19, AmeriCredit put a hold on my application. They said that I was terminated from *** but still employed with the VA of Biloxi, MS, so the deal was off because my income status had changed. I found out about this on 4/14 from ***. She called me at 2:25pm and told me that AmeriCredit couldn't approve my deal and that I needed to return the vehicle within 24 hours. She also said that I couldn't reapply with AmeriCredit for 45 days and that she couldn't get a deal with anyone else, but she would refund my down payment. I asked if I would be reimbursed for the money I spent on the tag/registration and the insurance that I had just paid for the second time, but she said no. These expenses amounted to $700.00.

I called AmeriCredit again, and the representative reviewed the policy and said that I didn't need to wait 45 days to reapply. They suggested that Allen Toyota resubmit the application or apply with another lender. When I called Mrs., she said she would submit a few more applications for me, but she kept blaming me instead of acknowledging that this shouldn't be happening. It's not my fault that Allen Toyota submitted my information almost a month late and didn't send my complete file to the finance company. I'm filing a complaint because my deal should have been sent sooner. It shouldn't have taken over 3 weeks for Allen Toyota to send my file to AmeriCredit. Due to COVID-19, my hours at the pharmacy were reduced to one day, but I'm not terminated, and my hours at the VA have actually increased. This deal should have been completed well before 3/30 or 4/8, or even before the lockdown and layoffs caused by COVID-19. I'm considering hiring a lawyer.