National Center for Dispute Settlement -

kenneth land

Very professional organization that helped us with a vehicle with less than 3,000 miles that had the entire front end replaced. We managed to receive a new vehicle to replace the one that was unfinished from factory. Nice to know you can get help against the big corporations.

Tyler Larson

I had to use NCDS as part of a California state lemon law claim. I was forced to use NCDS because the manufacturers have a great deal of control over how lemon law arbitration claims are handled in the state, and you are forced to use the arbitration provider that your manufacturer has authorized. John Holloran, the owner of NCDS, sent me an email requesting that I leave a review. It really demonstrates how little attention to detail that they have that he reached out to request this considering that:

1) In the course of handling my claim NCDS was found by the California Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to have violated California state law (specifically that it was operating outside the minimum standards for an arbitration organization) Note: an earlier version of this review mistakenly identified the CA DCA as the CA AG. The controlling state department is the DCA.

2) NCDS's handling of my case resulted in me initiating an internal investigation into their practices (in which they cleared themselves, naturally)

3) NCDS employees made statements to me that violated NCDS publicly published rules

4) NCDS employees became angry and belligerent when confronted about the fact their statements violated their own rules

NCDS employees are not detail oriented, do not understand their role in dispute resolution, and are generally uninformed about the rules of the program they are tasked to implement. If I could have taken my arbitration claim elsewhere, I certainly would have, however that is not how lemon law arbitration claims work, at least not in California.

If you do use NCDS, be sure that you are clear on what the rules of your participating program are. Do not rely on NCDS to know or understand rules, even important ones. Remember that the arbitration programs are created by state law, but the manufacturers are the big ticket customers of the service. Do not expect to be aided in any way by NCDS, and expect them to actively work against resolution of your claim. This may not be your experience! But you should go in with your eyes wide open to avoid any unpleasant surprises.

I will close by saying the actual arbitrator who worked on my case was incredibly fair and knowledgable, and the hearing itself went fine, although it was scheduled about an hour's drive away from where I lived for some reason.

Matt Whigham

The process was pretty streamlined (but took a bit of time) for my issue since I well surpassed the time in shop requirements for California.

The biggest issue I had was my reps wouldn't provide an estimate of how much restitution would be awarded. The documentation had a formulate about how to calculate what the award would be but I didn't understand what capitalized cost was since I had leased the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe vs purchased.

After award I was able to figure out that my lease listed an equivalent sale price which was used as the capitalized cost, to me it would have seemed the capitalized cost would have been the money I put into the car (my down payment and lease payments).

Overall I would definitely use this service again if I had a lemon law issue come up that needed resolution! My points of contact were friendly, responsive, and talked me through the process (minus figuring out how to calculate projected restitution).

Stephanie Howe

Very professional and prompt service. I reached out to the Attorney General's office in regard to my 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L having multiple electrical issues and that I was getting nowhere with the manufacturer. They suggested contacting NCDS, in which I did and was pleasantly surprised how quickly they reviewed my information and got back to me. They set my case for an arbitration hearing in which they recommended a repurchase of my vehicle. The operations manager, Lena Wright, called me after hours just to ensure she got a hold of me right away to explain the process. She was extremely polite and professional. It was very encouraging to have a party to help me against a large corporation. I would definitely recommend utilizing this organization.

Renata

Absolute scam, unprofessional and waste of time for the consumer. Heavily favored toward manufacturer to the extent that manufacturer can use google searches as evidence but the multiple shop diagnostic reports and tests that I brought in as evidence was identified to show ‘nothing’. For a literally brand new vehicle off the lot. What a joke. Not credible in any way. What’s the point of a hearing when the manufacturer wastes time discussing things that have nothing to do with the said issue and the arbitrator throwing me a notion with no actual reasoning based off of NO EVIDENCE! Yall really throw consumers under the bus over ‘if you search on google you can see…” over my multiple shop diagnostics and tests with actual evidence shown. And to further waste my time in regard to things that have nothing related to why the hearing is even happening. Toyota representatives literally shown no effort or sweat cause they know they don’t gotta try when the arbitrator is on their side.

Just expect that if you’re coming across NCDS, it’s solely for the purpose of getting through their waste of pointless system that favors big corps so they can demotivate you from taking the manufacturer to court.

Once again, NCDS and the little bubble you have with manufacturer representatives are an absolute joke. Do yalls job right. Yall really messed with me over the bs that Toyota fed yall and brought me financial struggle. Shame on yall for the bias. And to have the audacity to tell me at the start of the hearing that it is not biased in any way. Pathetic

Edit: I did not make two reviews.
vehicle has had over 3 service attempts. Vehicle has been at service for a month. Vehicle is brand new 2023. The manufacturer blamed my driving and told me I looked after the car poorly? With what proof? The arbitrator utilizing unproven he said she said reasonings provided by manufacturer to deny my case. If I googled why I have a headache, I’ll come across a lot of reasonings, including extremes like cancer. If the doctor told me; if you google your headache, you can see you have xxx symptom. What kind of bs diagnosis is that. That’s literally what Toyota wasted my time with in the hearing. Simple google research analysis. Excuse me but wtf? Kept bringing up topics that have absolutely nothing to do with the issue of the vehicle. I even pointed out things in the hearing that Toyota service did to my that was AGAINST what is stated in warranty which was that they used the wrong engine oil for multiple services and yet it wasn’t even mentioned in the made decision. Do you see why this is pathetic? Toyota representative also claiming blindly nonsensical bs. They literally did not even try cause they knew they were going to win.

Vehicle meets all lemon law guidelines and yet despite an obvious manufacturer fault vehicle, I was denied.

Camellia Romero

Zack was the most helpful out of all the people I had to deal with. I have been with Toyota for 30 years. But after buying a brand new 2022 Rav 4 hybrid Lemon, I thought I was done with Toyota forever. But now, driving my new replacement 2024 Rav 4 Hybrid, I am very satisfied ans a Toyota fan again. So far!

Mark Nutley

I honestly don’t remember either my case manager or the arbitrators names but both were professional and kept me informed and explained everything I had questions on. My suggestion for anyone going thru this with Stellantis(Jeep)is document everything! Take pictures, videos, record conversations with service writers, techs etc. Because like in my case, no matter how awful the situation, Stellantis (Jeep) will do everything to thwart you from winning a buy back no matter how may boxes you check in your states ( Lemon Law ) requirements.

Shane Nichols

Although my claim was settled before engaging in the arbitration, I was legitimately impressed by NCDS' responsiveness and the breadth of information made available to prepare me for the claim. It is a great program and aggrieved vehicle owners like myself should not hesitate to utilize the program.