Heritage Toyota

Dear fellow automotive consumers, On April 12, 2021, I Dear fellow automotive consumers, On April 12, 2021, I was assisting my sister in her potential vehicle purchase. We decided to stop by Heritage T Dear fellow automotive consumers, On April 12, 2021, I was assisting my sister in her potential vehicle purchase. We decided to stop by Heritage Toyota located at 1620 Shelburne Rd, South Burlington, VT, 05403. Upon arrival, we had specifically expressed our sole intention of test driving a 4runner. We never once stated that we are purchasing a vehicle today, only to test drive. A sales representative by the name of Daniel Pasco, did his usual sales pitch and asked if we were considering a trade-in. My sister said that since we are here, let us get an appraisal for her Nissan Altima. Mr. Pasco (who periodically kept pulling his mask down, well past his nostrils – a blatant disobedience to Governor Scott’s COVID-19 mask mandate and disregard to the customers’ safety and well-being) asked to see my sister’s driver’s license. Mr. Pasco whipped out his personal phone and snapped a photo of my sister’s license. I immediately inquired about it. Mr. Pasco stated that he did indeed take a photo with his personal phone but tells me that it was uploaded to their data recording software only. This did not sit well with me because there are absolutely no safeguard measures in place, should a security breach occur in the future on Mr. Pasco’s personal phone. He claims that it is not. However, I must ask, “what proof can Mr. Pasco or Heritage Toyota, unequivocally provide to us?” This is a stressful memory that we will forever, haunt us for the rest of our lives. Mr. Pasco also asked, “Do you know who the auto loan was from?” I had replied, “Wells Fargo, sir” and nothing else. Upon returning from the test drive, Mr. Pasco presented us with a printout documentation (which I have in my possession still as proof) that contained all of my sister’s personal information as well as her financial information on the Nissan Altima such as: duration of the auto loan, monthly payments, remaining payoff balance, date of loan, payments received up to now, etc. Mr. Pasco claimed that he used a website called, “RouteOne” which "works with many banks." Mr. Pasco simply inputted the VIN from the Altima and was able to pull my sister’s entire auto loan information including her personal information. My sister has never purchased a vehicle from Heritage Toyota ever before. She has never explicitly given both verbal and/or written permission for him to pull her financial records. The Altima was purchased from Freedom Nissan. Heritage Toyota has no formal nor legal rights to access such private information. This was all done behind our backs as we were test driving the 4runner. I stated to Mr. Pasco, “Sir, you went behind our backs without our permission nor knowledge. Shouldn’t you be able to offer us a fair market value price for our trade-in without illegally searching up the information behind our backs.” Mr. Pasco’s response was, “oh, uh, ummm, like yeah, we can but we need to know how much you still owe on the vehicle.” The vehicle's worth is completely independent of how much it still owed. As a reminder, we clearly stated to Mr. Pasco that we only want to test drive the 4runner, no sale today. Immediately, we terminated the interaction and politely asked to take our keys and leave. Fellow consumers, a random third party (Heritage Toyota) was able to access private and personal information from whom they had no pre-existing relationship with. The actions of Heritage Toyota were unprofessional/unsafe (disobedience to COVID-19 mask mandate), irresponsible (allowing employees to capture customers’ driver’s license using their personal phones), profit-oriented (presented us with a payoff quote upon returning from test drive when we clearly stated we only want to test drive), and despicable (went behind our backs to obtain personal and private financial information). If there were a way to lose consumer trust and confidence just like that, Heritage Toyota is the leader in the industry. We walked away feeling as if our rights and privacies were violated, as if they were non-existent. All the best, Chaz More