Consumer complaint received 2021-09-09
Company: HYUNDAI CAPITAL AMERICA
State: MA
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Lease
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Unable to receive car title or other problem after the loan is paid off

Complaint:
I leased a car through Hyundai Motor Finance. On XXXX XXXX, I paid off my car in full. 
After getting email confirmation that they had received my final payment, I called to ask when I would receive my title ; the agent I spoke with said it would arrive in 7-10 business days. He didn't mention anything about documents they would need for this to happen. Then I received an email asking me to e-sign an odometer statement, which I did. 
I then got an email confirming that I signed. When my title didn't arrive after 10 days, I called them again and this time they said they hadn't received my odometer statement, nor a signed bill of sale. No one had mentioned that, I didn't have one and th eperson I spoke to had no information for me about how to get one -she just repeated that I needed to return it. I tried calling again and got an agent who said they would send one via the US mail.She told me I could fax both documents. It came a week later, I filled it out and faxed both docs to them. No title came. I called again and they said they hadn't received the fax ( my fax machine prints a page letting me know a fax had gone through and this one did. I actually faxed it twice to include a cover page just to make sure it wasn't in some way identified ). I asked to speak to a supervisor and the woman who I then spoke to said I could e-mail it and she gave me an email address. I sent it right away, with a message asking them to reply with confirmation they'd received it. No reply. I waited 7 days and then called again. The agent I spoke to said they had not received my documents. She put me on hold for a supervisor and after being on hold 15 min. I hung up and tried again. The agent I got this time told me they had received my odometer statement on XX/XX/XXXX ( my email from them was on XX/XX/XXXX ) but didn't have the bill of sale. This time, I was on hold for a supervisor for 20 minutes and spoke to someone who said neither document was there. I told her I had emailed them and while on hold had forwarded my initial email to the same address, again asking for confirmation. She put me on hold and then told me the " inbox group '' had my email but couldn't download the documents because of server problems ( if the server works to receive emails, not sure how it then can't work to download a doc ). She told me that when they could download the docs, they would post the documents to my file ( which I have no access to ) and my title would arrive 7-10 days later.

While on hold I checked out the XXXX XXXX XXXX to see if there was any information about the company and I discovered 200+ posts by people who also had no luck getting their titles - people trying for several months, even. Everything the agents told me they had told others - server problems, docs not submitted despite evidence of submitting them, etc. This company has NO CONTACT INFO for any dept - no complaint dept, no direct line to the title dept. Every dept posts the customer service number as a means of contact and customer service agents say they can only email other departments- they can't call them to get information. No legal dept is listed on any website I could find, so if I wanted to sue them for my title, not sure how I would be able to. I can't believe it is legal to take payment for a vehicle but not then send the title. In Massachusetts, I can do nothing with my car without the title- I can't sell it, and if by chance I miss the deadline to renew my registration, I can't re-register it. My car is an object of value if, and only if, I have title to it. So : they have taken my money but have not given me ownership of my car.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation