I bought a Highlander in November of 2022.
Lie 1: After I paid, the dealership informed me a second key wasn’t available , but I would get it “in 2-3 months.”
Lie 2: In October I called Toyota corporate customer service (not the dealership) and they told me I “should get a letter later this year”.
Lie 3: I called Toyota again and tried to nail down a more specific date and the person said “the letter will arrive later this month”. (Still October)
Lie 4: October goes by, still no letter. So in early November, I called Toyota again and they said I’d get a letter “later this month”. I told him that’s exactly what the last guy told me, and asked him to escalate my case.
Lie 5: I got a voicemail from the escalation person apologizing, and telling me that I was scheduled to get a letter “later this month”.
I called that number back and said I needed something more specific than “later this month” or “later this year”. He put me on hold for a while, came back and said ”Oh, your vehicle was supposed to be in phase 2. You should have gotten a letter months ago, but it looks like for some reason we didn’t send it to you.”
Seriously? What would have happened if I hadn’t called them repeatedly??
Toyota customer service is embarrassingly bad.
Call your local dealership and have your vehicle’s VIN ready. Your dealership will take your VIN down and order a key for you. It’ll take some time for Toyota Corporate to dispatch a key to the dealership after they place the order, so I’d probably check back with the dealer in 3 to 5 business days. After they have the key, you will need to schedule an appointment with the dealer to have the vehicle programmed to recognize the new key.
If for some reason your dealership gives you the runaround about your key, call the Toyota Brand Engagement Center regarding recall “23TJ01” and explain the situation again. Toyota occasionally will “goodwill” a key to the customer if for some reason the dealership can’t order a key for them.