Consumer complaint received 2023-07-13
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Lease
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease — Termination fees or other problem when ending the lease early
Company: HYUNDAI CAPITAL AMERICA (VA)

We leased a Kia XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX with Kia Finance. In XX/XX/XXXX, something fell off a truck in front of the car as we were turning left at a traffic light. The car was declared a total loss by our insurance company, XXXX. The insurance company paid ~ {$5700.00} dollars above the lease payoff quote. XXXX gave us 7 additional days of car rental for us to find another vehicle. We loved the car and wanted to lease the same car again. We checked multiple dealerships and we found exactly XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in the surrounding error which happened to be an almost identical car in white. We were hoping that the dealership would be able to work with Kia Finance to get the excess payment rolled into our new lease, but they said they couldn't do anything yet as they were waiting on the payment from our insurance company. At this point, the XXXX models are coming out in the next month, so the car was new but last year 's model. Without the equity and downpayment from our first lease and a slightly higher lease rate, we ended up agreeing to lease the car for {$65.00} more per month than our previous lease on an identical car that was totaled. They had us over a barrel really, as they knew that there were no other XXXX XXXX around. We agreed to the deal because we needed to have a car and we fully expected to be receiving the {$5700.00} overpayment they received from our insurance company. Several weeks went by and we had not heard anything from Kia nor had we received any money from them. Over the next weeks we spoke with various persons at Kia over the phone and via their contact us email. Our requests were pretty straightforward forward - we wanted a detailed explanation of how the proceeds from the insurance company were applied and to find out when we would receive the excess funds. We were transferred around from place to place and got nowhere. No one seemed to understand the request... Then we finally received a check from Kia for XXXX cents 3 weeks after they received the funds.. We contacted them again a couple of times over the phone and via their contact us email on their website. After approximately 10 days ( end of XX/XX/XXXX ), we received a check for XXXX with no explanation.. We reached out to them and said thank you for the partial refund, we would like the rest of the refund and a detailed explanation of how the proceeds were applied.. In the meantime, we reached out to XXXX XXXX XXXX to confirm that our new car had been registered by the dealership as they were supposed to take care of all the paperwork and we didn't need to do anything. What we found out is that neither dealership had updated the city about the new vehicles so they still had our XXXX registered that was traded in XX/XX/XXXX. We contacted the dealership where we leased the replacement car and they did actually follow-up with the City and straighten everything out. However, when they did this it generated {$800.00} property tax bill on the totaled car that was sent to Kia. Kia dispite having sent us something that our old account was closed with a XXXX balance ( the completely ignored the overpayment ), started sending us bills for XXXX and we would respond in writing that they should deduct the {$800.00} from what they owed us and send us a refund of the remaining amount. They received to certified letters from us one in XX/XX/XXXX and the 2nd in XX/XX/XXXX. After the 2nd letter, we received a short paragraph from their Customer Care Department that thanked us for being loyal customers and no further refund was due without any further explanation. Apparently, they don't feel the need to account {$2700.00} in extra funds they received in excess of the Payoff Amount for the lease. They turned the {$800.00} over to a collection agency, but we provided the agency with notice that the amount was disputed and provided them the highlights of the dispute and we never heard from them again. We reached out to an attorney and he send 3 separate demand letters XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX, which were all completely ignored except for the 2nd recipient on the 2nd letter did send email to the attorney that they had nothing to do with Kia Finance. After the 3rd letter from the attorney, Kia did report that our account was 60 days past due. This caused our credit score to spiral downward and resulted in decreases in our credit limits and increases in our interest rates since XXXX of XXXX. The attorney suggested that we take them to small claims court and request treble damages for their willful neglect and intentional harm. Our lease states that we should go to arbitration, but that costs money. The amount that they still owe us is approximately the amount of our trade-in equity, our cash downpayment, and the extra amount that we received from the insurance company as a positive condition adjustment. We haven't done anything about small claims court or arbitration. We were hoping we could find an attorney to handle the arbitration thru my XXXX XXXX XXXX, but so far we have not found an attorney willing to assist us. The attorney who sent the demand letters says that he can't do anything further to assist us. We won't ever lease another car from Kia Finance, but they have effectively stolen money, refused to even discuss the matter and the damage they have done to our credit has already cost us a lot of money and will continue to do so for the coming years. When our lease is up in XX/XX/XXXX, we probably will not be able to afford a new car with our credit score down XXXX points since they reported us 60 days late back in XX/XX/XXXX. From what I know of the Hyundai case, it seems that we are being treated in a similar fashion by the sister company Kia Finance. I am hoping that CFPB can do something to help us and also to protect others from the damages caused by Kia Finance.