Consumer complaint received 2021-12-09
Company: VW Credit
State: CA
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Lease
Issue: Getting a loan or lease
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising

Complaint:
The vehicle ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ) I leased was deemed a total loss due to an accident on XX/XX/XXXX ( the accident was deemed the fault of other driver in its entirety ). 

My insurance company ( XXXX XXXX ) paid VW Credit Leasing {$37000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX ( see Exhibit 1 ), which was higher than the value of the car at lease signing as set forth in the lease agreement, which was stated to be {$33000.00}. See Exhibit 2. VW Credit Leasing/Audi Financial Services is now refusing to refund me the difference/overage of {$3800.00}. See Exhibit 3. 

Audi Financials  position in Exhibit 3 is, however, not supported by the lease agreement, and materially misrepresents the terms of the lease agreement. Audi can not cite even one section of the lease agreement in support of its position that it is entitled to insurance payments made in excess of the stated value of the vehicle. The stated value of the vehicle in the lease agreement is {$33000.00} no more. The fact that Audi is now trying to increase and misrepresent the vehicle value so that it can profit from additional insurance monies is unconscionable. In fact, nowhere in the lease agreement does it state that Audi Financial is entitled to insurance payments made in excess of the stated value of the vehicle at the time of the lease as set forth in the lease agreement. Also, the lease agreement does not state that insurance payments made as a result of the lessee ( me ) acquiring additional insurance coverage ( more than the coverage required by Audi Financial under the lease ) should inure to the benefit of Audi Financial. In short, Audi Financial is arguing that they are entitled to wrongfully keep and profit monies received from my insurer involving an accident in which I was seriously injured in Audis vehicle ; and for insurance coverage that I solely paid. 

Audi Financial also sent demand letters stating that I needed to continue to make lease payments even after the date of the total loss ( i.e., for a vehicle that was wholly unusable ) or that my credit would be adversely affected. See Exhibit 4. Therefore, I made lease payments on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX for a total of {$920.00} for a vehicle that was not even usable. See Exhibit 5. Audi Financial sent a further letter dated XX/XX/XXXX stating that I owed payments in XXXX and XXXX ; and that if I did not make these payments, Audi would : report information about [ my ] account to the credit bureaus ; that this is an attempt by Audi Financial Services to collect a debt ; and a negative credit report reflecting on your credit record may be submitted to a credit agency. See Exhibit 6. Audi Financial has failed to refund the {$920.00} that it wrongfully demanded and is retaining. 

In fact, Audi Financials  demand that I send in payments for XXXX and XXXX were even more unreasonable given that Audi Financial delayed sending the letter of guarantee to XXXX XXXX for weeks on end even after several requests were made by XXXX XXXX total loss team. See Exhibit 7 - email from XXXX XXXX dated XX/XX/XXXX. Audi Financial delayed processing the paperwork so that it could exact additional lease payments for a vehicle that was declared a total loss more than three months ago. 

Audi Financial also retained all of the cash I paid at the start of the lease of {$3700.00} even though due to the accident I only used the vehicle for two months of the 42 month lease term, and therefore should be entitled to a pro rata refund of {$3500.00}. See Exhibit 2. 

Audi Financial also did not give me the lease pull ahead amount even though they had sent me several emails regarding this and assured me that I would not be responsible for the last months lease payment. See Exhibit 8. In fact, Audi Financial charged me for the last month payment of {$430.00} on XX/XX/XXXX when I turned in my XXXX XXXX XXXX and entered into the new lease for the XXXX XXXX XXXX. See Exhibit 5. This is clearly a form of false and misleading advertising to get customers into another Audi lease. 

As of this writing, Audi Financial has not returned any funds or refunded any amounts to me. I have tried contacting them repeatedly through their secure message system, left voicemails, but all I receive is an auto generated response that I need to call them ; and when I do call them I am put on hold for more than 30 minutes. See Exhibit 9.

I request your help in getting back from Audi Financial the amounts that they are illegally withholding and delaying in returning to me, but also undertake an investigation to discover other consumers who were injured by Audi Financials unfair business practices ; and to ensure that in the future other consumers are not unfairly taken advantage of by their car lease company especially following a major car accident. 

According to XXXX XXXX, Audi Financial is one of the only captive automotive finance company that engages in this practice of keeping their customers insurance monies in excess of the stated value of the vehicle on the lease agreement. 

Please let me know if you have any questions and thank you in advance for your help. 

Best, XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation