Customers angry at Toyota’s unexpected price increases

The unexpected decision by Toyota Vietnam to raise car sale prices by 16-46 million dong, just one day after the State Bank of Vietnam announced the increase of the interbank dong/dollar rate, has angered customers.

T, a salesman at Toyota Showroom on Lang Ha Road in Hanoi, said he has suffered a number of complaints.

Customers are complaining that despite already making payments for cars, when they went to the showroom to get an invoice on November 26, the day, when the new price levels became valid – they received a nasty surprise.

They were told that they have to pay tens of millions of dong more, because of a new pricing policy of the manufacturer.

Other customers, who had signed car purchase contracts with Toyota already, but have not received deliveries, now also had to sign new contracts to purchase cars at the new prices.

L, an officer of a construction company, was one of the customers. She said her company, which signed a contract to purchase a Fortuner, also had to agree to pay 31 million dong more for the car.

Explaining the re-signing of the contract, L showed a provision in the car purchase contract to VietNamNet’s reporters, which said that at the delivery time, if Toyota Vietnam changed the quoted price, the seller had the right to adjust the sale price.

“Because of the provision, we had to accept to pay more for the car, though we are not happy with the behavior of the manufacturer,” she said.

The situation is also occurring in Toyota showrooms in HCM City. N, a client in District 5, said said he signed a contract on purchasing a Corrola Altis with Toyota Phu My Hung agent on November 3, 2009 and expect delivery in December.

The sale price of the car at the moment the contract was signed was 671.9 million dong. However, as Toyota has unilaterally changed the sale price, N will now have to pay 697.5 million dong.

“I feel as if I have been defrauded. Toyota does not respect its customers. It only wants profit,” N said.

When announcing the decision on raising sale prices, Toyota Vietnam said that it was forced into it because of the dong/dollar exchange rate increase and that the dollar price increase means it has to pay higher for car part imports.

However, N said that the explanation is unreasonable. He said the contracts were signed a long time ago and the manufacturer made the cars with the car parts it imported before at low prices. Therefore, the manufacturer has no reason to raise the sale price so suddenly.

Nguyen Duong Anh Dung from Toyota Phu My Hung, when talking with VietNamNet, said that as a sales agent, he has to sell cars at the prices announced by the manufacturer. All the cars, delivered from November 26, will have to bear the new price levels.

Toyota Vietnam has announced new car prices applied as of November 26, 2009. The highest price increase of 46.6 million dong is for the Camry 3.Q, while Camry 2.4G has seen a price increase of 33.8 million dong

Other hot models have also seen sharp price increases. Corolla Altis 2.0 25.6 million dong, 1.8AT 23.5 million dong.