Consumer complaint received 2019-11-18
Company: HYUNDAI CAPITAL AMERICA
State: VA
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Lease
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Excess mileage, damage, or wear fees, or other problem after the lease is finished

Complaint:
This might just continue to be a string of unfortunate luck, however the cycle must end somewhere : Back in XXXX, a lady ran a red light and T-boned the passenger side of my XXXX XXXX XXXX ; the damage was extensive with all passenger side airbags ( front, side, and side-curtain ) were XXXX. I had XXXX XXXX at the time ; instead of XXXX having my best interests at heart ( and to save money like all insurance companies do ) they assessed the damage at 67 % which does not meet the 70 % minimum threshold in order for them to deem the unit a total loss, even though I was not the one at fault, and behested them about not wanting to and not feeling safe driving around a car in which the airbags had previously been XXXX. I know that they are set to go off only once, so it is a bit of a gamble driving around afterwards as no one is certain how the airbags will perform in another crash. Because of this XXXX said my car was still worth {$24000.00} and would not total out my car. Since I could not get assistance from my own insurance company for an accident that I was no way responsible for, I wanted to switch out cars now as I did not feel safe driving the XXXX. In working at XXXX XXXX Auto Finance, I had some good relationships with local dealers, in particular the Hyundai Dealership ( I also worked at Hyundai prior to XXXX   XXXX and is a reason why I had such an affinity to XXXX vehicles ) and so I went there to exchange out my XXXX for a new Hyundai on XX/XX/XXXX. 

However, when I got to the dealership, the {$24000.00} quoted value of the car XXXX stated it was worth was no where near the value the dealer gave me ; they originally came back stating the car was only worth {$16000.00}, an {$8000.00} difference from what XXXX had provided. I was able to work the value up to {$18000.00}, but still {$6000.00} difference is a lot to cover, therefore the best option I had at the time was to lease a car to absorb that loss in value and then at the end of the lease be able to walk away with out another big hit. XXXX and I at the dealership to help keep the monthly payment down with rolling in all that negative equity decided a 48 month lease would be best. Being around dealerships and auto finance, I know that 4 year leases are rare, and typically they are 24 or 36 month leases, but was totally on board do to the situation I found myself in, through no fault of my own. If I had my wish, that lady would never have ran that red light and I would not be at a dealership trading in the XXXX, that I purchased for a lease. 

Fast forward to XX/XX/XXXX, and my 48 month lease with Hyundai had reached maturity and was at end-of-term. For the past 4 years I had made every payment on time to HMFUSA ( 80 % were at {$510.00} and then in the final 18 months the payment was {$480.00} ) without missing a beat ; again was never late nor did I miss one. Upon lease maturity, I had now moved from the XXXX XXXX to Virginia during the length of the lease and knew that there was going to be an excess mileage charge as I did exceed the allotted amount by a little bit. I was fine with this and was willing to pay as that is disclosed right in the Lease contract I signed in black and white as to what the over-mileage penalty per mile would be. What is not disclosed in the contract, not is there any monetary value associated with it, is the amount of wear and tear Hyundai can deem as " excessive '' and that there are not timeframes on the wear and tear and charges in relation to the time frame ( i.e. 24, 36 or 48 month lease I would think would have different parameters around the total excess wear and tear it could charge ). 
It took Hyundai 2 months to get me an end-of-term statement, as although I had updated my address on the website ( XXXX ) they were sending the statements to a previous address in TX, not the current one I had on file with them in VA. So in XX/XX/XXXX, I went online as I had not received a letter from Hyundai yet, stating how much over-mileage penalty I owed to officially close of the lease and have everything settled, and was absolutely floored to see excess wear and tear charges for almost {$3800.00}, and some of the stuff that it was calling out was as if I should not have driven the car at all in that 4 years in order to avoid excess wear and tear penalties ; a scuffed hub cap from friction with a curb upon parallel parking was on there and for like {$600.00}, again what they were claiming for " excess wear and tear '' was egregious for a 48 month lease, I could understand if I had a 24 month lease and the car ( which I spent numerous amounts of money keeping up with maintenance and car washes ) looked like it did, which is still great shape for being 4 years old, however, where is the statue of limitations in regards to what is acceptable as " excessive '' in relation to time-frame of leasing the car. I was a little suspect on that high of an amount and at the same time would not be able to bay {$5800.00} within in 15 days to satisfy the lease end-of-term, especially when the verbiage of due date took a much more aggressive turn, yet Hyundai was the one that sent the statement to the wrong address, twice! 

Around, XX/XX/XXXX I can not remember the exact date, I called into the customer service department and spoke with a lady in regards to her lease. Her extension is XXXX ; I asked her to look into the excess wear and tear charges and provide to me a justifiable answer as to how Hyundai can get away with charging that much in fees after a 4 year lease. The Lady was extremely helpful and polite, and after discussing the charges with her, she kindly took off {$1300.00} of the excess wear and tear charges, bringing the total owed from {$5800.00} to {$4400.00}. The lady told me that this will reflect after 7 business days, and if I were to call in to make a payment in that timeframe it may not be reflecting the new balance internally yet.

The customer service representative then asked if I would be able to pay the amount in full to satisfy the end-of-term, to which I replied that I was not in a position to do so and would like to see if I could pay it down within the next few months contributing what I could ; she advised that if the balance what not paid in full by XX/XX/XXXX, that even though the last 4 years of ontime payments for the lease were made, the final payment might now reflect " Late '' after XX/XX/XXXX until the balance is paid in full, but there will be no harm in making monthly payments and the balance will not Charge-off. She then asked if I wanted to make a payment today, and I advised I had a meeting so I could no longer remain on the phone, and I felt more comfortable making payments once the new lower balance reflects in the 7 business days. As of XX/XX/XXXX the balance on the account still shows the original {$5800.00}, which is very disheartening, as they keep texting me and calling for me to and give them money that they are egregiously requesting, without showing a sign of good-faith and updating the balance to reflect the correct lower amount. Many times I went online to pay what I could toward the balance, however, even though the text messages I was receiving said I could, when I went online I was unable to make any payments and had to call in. 

I have a full-time job, am currently enrolled in night school, getting my XXXX, have a 21 month old daughter, and a wife who is 7 months pregnant ; finding time to call in to them is really tough and Hyundai 's lack of care for the situation is very inconvenient. 

In XXXX, I received another letter from Hyundai that still reflected and demanded the old amount of {$5800.00}, however with updated verbiage that if the balance was not paid by XX/XX/XXXX the account would be charged off. To be honest I was livid. I spent the last 4 years paying $ XXXXmo to them without missing a beat and always on time, called in to get some help as I have every intention of settling the lease, received that help or thought I did, and now the exact thing Hyundai said would not happen, is happening, they are going to ruin my credit and charge-off this lease, although I have made many attempts to resolve this with Hyundai and they still can not disclose the agreed upon amount that I owe. 

Therefore, on XX/XX/XXXX I called the number on the letter I had received and spoke to XXXX in the XXXX XXXX XXXX department of Hyundai ; she was extremely rude, inconsiderate, unprofessional, and never treated me with respect. All she saw was that I have an outstanding balance and " I better pay it. '' In the middle of her interrupting me every time I tried to ask a question or get clarification, I was finally able to inquire about the discrepancy in the amount on the letters I am receiving and what is disclosed online versus what the customer service representative I originally spoke to and I, agreed upon. XXXX put me on a 10 minute hold, and when she came back to the phone, she confirmed that she was able to find the notes of the conversation I had with the customer service rep. and that they will honor the lower balance owed. Upon stating that she immediately got aggressive and asked if I would be making a payment to cover the entire balance at that moment over the phone, to which I started to respond with my answer and she cut me off again and demanded I settle up in full at that moment. I advised her, that I am skeptical as I have been down this road before and would like to actually see the lower balance that was agreed upon reflected just once and I will start making the monthly payments I had spoke with the original customer service rep. about. XXXX very abruptly advised me that there is no such thing as paying the balance down, I could not make monthly payments, the original person I spoke to was " lying '', and that if the balance is not paid by the XX/XX/XXXX it will be a charge-off no matter what. I then proceeded to ask her if I am " sh*t out of luck, as I called when I first knew about the balance seeking help and assistance from Hyundai as I had all intention of paying off the loan in full yet I was not in a position to do it all at once, I am sorry $ XXXX is a lot of money at one time, are you saying you are unable to help? '' To which she essentially responded, yes you are out of luck, there is nothing I can do, and she is unable to help. She then pressed me again to pay the entire amount on the phone, and if I did not it will be charged-off, I said I was not in a position to do so, and she ended up disconnecting us. 

On XX/XX/XXXX 7 days after I had spoken with XXXX, ( who again stated she updated the amount to reflect the lower balance that had been agreed upon ) I received a letter from Hyundai dated XXXX ( so still drafted after my phone call with XXXX ) stating that Hyundai was willing to settle with me for 80 % of the original balance. I was unable to call in that day so I filed a complaint online with Hyundai Consumer Complaints and did not hear anything back in their SLA for a response. Therefore on XX/XX/XXXX I called in to the Complaints department and after telling all that had happen over the past couple month and the letter I had just recently received again with the incorrect balance being reflected, I was told by him, he was unable to help as though it is the Hyundai Complaints department, it is only for vehicle or dealer issues, they are unable to pull financial information or accounts, and in order to solve this I need to call the same number back and " see who was telling me the truth. '' Even though on the website Hyundai states no complaint is to big or small, they handle them all ( paraphrasing ).

I have not been able to get anywhere, and I have never said I am not going to pay, I have been trying to pay and asking for assistance and at one point I had it, but that seems that was just a farce.

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