Stericycle Expert Solutions and Lemon Law
If you’ve tried to negotiate a lemon buyback or with a car maker before filing a lawsuit, you may have encountered a company called Stericycle Expert Solutions ( a.k.a. “Stericycle”).
What is Stericycle?
Based on the “About Us” section of its website, Stericycle provides services to businesses in the form of “recall, retrieval, return, and audit processes”. The name “Stericycle” may originate from the company’s history of providing compliance solutions related to medical waste management, but this is only a guess.
Relative to the automotive sector, Stericycle bills itself as providing the following core services for leading car makers: “reacquisition, recall, early resolution, data cleansing and analytics, funds management and disbursement, and verification and inspections programs”.
Stericycle News & Lemon Law
Our firm has encountered Stericycle handling the lemon buyback and replacement process for car makers such as BMW, FCA (Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, Ram), Honda, Kia, Suzuki, Lexus, Toyota, Mazda, Mercedes, Volvo, Porsche, and Mitsubishi.
It seems that these auto manufacturers and distributors will pass on the negotiation of lemon claims, along with the lemon buyback or replacement process, including the payment to consumers of money and the vehicle turn-in process.
In most cases, it appears that car makers intend for Stericycle to handle lemon law resolutions before the consumer has brought litigation — and typically before the consumer is represented by an attorney. This is important Stericycle news to remember for anyone who pursues a lemon law buyback or replacement from a car maker that uses Stericycle’s services.
Problems We Have Noticed
So, why are automakers passing their lemon law buyback responsibilities to a third party — and a party that is possibly named for medical waste management, no less? We can only speculate, but we have noticed issues that affect consumers.
Stericycle seems to insulate car makers from the buyback process. Stericycle can make arguments, demands, or requirements of consumers, while allowing the manufacturer to stand out of the way. We have seen Stericycle misinterpret the law — and, as you might guess, those misinterpretations have always been in favor of the company’s manufacturer clients.
Perhaps the worst part for most consumers is that the Stericycle middleman process contributes to the delay of resolving a lemon buyback or compensation agreement — a type of stonewalling that manufacturers use to induce consumers to accept less and be done with the frustration.
Advice for Dealing with Stericycle
Our firm has noticed is that Stericycle is not affable when dealing with consumer lawyers. They apparently like to dish out “compliance” in one direction, without taking any pushback.
If you are forced to deal with Stericycle in the course of a lemon buyback, and you have any doubts or discomfort about the process, the amount of payment offered, or the length of time it is taking to resolve your situation, contact Goldsmith West for a free review your case. It is always wise to have your own expert advocate, just like the automakers have in Stericycle.