Consumer complaint received 2024-02-23
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Lease
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease — Problem when attempting to purchase vehicle at the end of the lease
Company: HYUNDAI CAPITAL AMERICA (CA)

In the previous XXXX CFPB Complaints Hyundai has refused to provide their calculations for the lease end residual value under the terms of the XXXX and XXXX lease and extension agreements. My correspondence today is a final attempt to resolve the breach of contract, and contract fraud issues Ive experienced from Hyundai Motor Finance. If we can not come to a final agreement before XX/XX/XXXX, I intend to sue. 
Since XX/XX/XXXX, Hyundai has refused to provide me with written documentation or explanation why the residual value Hyundai quoted and charged to me at lease end was inflated over and above the contracted residual value. For more than three years, through telephone and written correspondence to Hyundai, to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Credit Reporting Agency, Hyundai has misled, misrepresented, and suppressed facts all within Hyundais knowledge and possession. 
Below are some of the facts of the case I intend to submit to the Court. 
Background : I entered a lease contract with Hyundai Motor finance in XX/XX/XXXX. Prior to lease end, XX/XX/XXXX, I extended the lease 6 months with an executed lease contract. At lease end, I dealt directly with Hyundai Motor Finance since the dealership where I purchased the vehicle, XXXX Hyundai, had closed and been out of business since XX/XX/XXXX. Prior to lease-end and due to the Global Health Crisis, I was granted an allowance period in XX/XX/XXXX. During this time, I informed Hyundai of my intent to purchase my vehicle. Hyundai confirmed to me and to CFPB in their complaint response # XXXX that they provided me with a residual value buyout quote in XX/XX/XXXX. That information was also published on my personal account portal at the companys website www.hmfusa.com. In an anticipatory breach of my XXXX lease agreement surrounding my intended lease-end buyout, I asked Hyundai why the residual value was greater than the lease contract allowed and requested them to please review the terms and reconfirm the lease buyout numbers. I asked for a written itemized breakdown of the vehicles residual value. Hyundai never responded back to me or adjusted the residual value to the correct amount in my HMF online account portal. At purchase in XX/XX/XXXX, I again asked Hyundai to review their contract terms and to provide written confirmation that all lease extension payments were deducted from the vehicles residual value in adherence of the XXXX lease agreement and XXXX lease extension agreement. Hyundai assured me their numbers were correct and all that written confirmation would be provided to me post purchase. I relied on Hyundais good faith representations that they were adhering to the XXXX lease contract terms and that their documentation would support the XXXX lease contact numbers and went ahead with my purchase. For more than three years despite more than a dozen written requests Hyundai refused to provide explanation for the inflated sale price above the contracts residual value and concealed from me internal documents and calculations that could never match the contract terms. They have misrepresented facts to me and to CFPB in complaint responses. Customer Care Team Supervisor ( XXXX? ) confirmed XX/XX/XXXX that Hyundai had unilaterally changed the terms of my agreements without informing me and without my authorization. Below are the pertinent contract terms breached with my traceable payment history and a record of Hyundai overcharging and breaching the terms of my lease and purchase agreements after falsifying contract records. 
XXXX ) XXXX XXXX : The residual value amount Hyundai quoted me, published on my account, and charged me in XXXX was higher than the executed contracts residual value. 
A ) Buyout Terms in my XXXX lease contract and XXXX lease extension are attached and as follows : B ) XXXX Contract Paragraph 9 : PURCHASE OPTION AT LEASE END OF TERM. Purchase Price is Line 7D RESIDUAL VALUE {$18000.00} C ) XXXX Lease Extension Paragraph XXXX : RELATING TO PURCHASE OF THE VEHICLE AT END OF LEASE TERM. EXCEPT ANY MONTHLY PAYMENTS YOU MAKE DURING THE EXTENDED LEASE TERM ( EXCLUDING PORTION ALLOCABLE TO TAXES ) WILL BE DEDUCTED FROM VEHICLE PURCHASE PRICE. Monthly payment is defined and identified in line 7I. = {$360.00} or {$2100.00} for 6 months. 
D ) Contracted Residual Value Per XXXX Lease Agreement and XXXX Lease Extension Agreement : XXXX - {$2100.00} = {$16000.00} E ) Estimated Buyout Quote provided to me by Hyundai in XX/XX/XXXX, required at XXXX purchase, and still published to my online Hyundai Acct portal as of XX/XX/XXXX : Residual Value {$17000.00} see attached Account Record and Bill of Sale. 
F ) In anticipation of Hyundais breach of contract after questioning their over-inflating the vehicles residual value to me in XXXX, I asked Hyundai to confirm proof of their residual value calculations. I waited and relied on Hyundai in good faith to properly research in earnest their calculation errors. In their responses to CFPB, Hyundai maintains they had researched and reconfirmed their numbers to me and that they were accurate. 

XXXX ) XX/XX/XXXX : Hyundai Customer Care Team, XXXX XXXX verbally maintains the XXXX buyout quote is/was accurate because the amount also included additional undisclosed fees added to the vehicles residual value. Additional add-on fees at lease-end are not found anywhere in the terms of my contract and are a deceptive scheme and a material breach of our contract. 
A ) In adding additional fees to the vehicles residual value, Hyundai in XXXX unilaterally altered the price and terms of the lease contracts. This was done without notification or explanation. 
B ) XX/XX/XXXX : to cover up their breach, Hyundai attempted to send a check for {$360.00} - a partial refund of their over-inflating errors. The XX/XX/XXXX, issued check was non-itemized, contained no cover letter or explanation and was labeled customer experience. see uncashed check attached. 
C ) Hyundai has refused to provide explanation for, and a breakdown of, their check issued XX/XX/XXXX, except to say Hyundai guarantees the check it is not for any unrecorded payment. see XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX telephone recording with Customer Care Supervisor, XXXX XXXX. 
D ) By design rather than coincidence, the XXXX partial refund payment is the exact amount as XXXX base monthly payment ( without tax ) I was making. When my lease-end buyout began in XX/XX/XXXX, I suspected and expressed to Hyundai that they had failed to recognize and post all payments to my account. By failing to post the full amount of every payment, Hyundai then failed to deduct the full amount of all XXXX lease extension payments as the contracts buyout terms call for. This concealment inflated the purchase price over and above the contracted residual value setting off a cascade of wrongdoings, including damages surrounding repossession and sales tax collections on amounts higher than the contracted residual value sales price. Since XX/XX/XXXX Hyundai has presented false buyout numbers to me, published those fraudulent numbers to my Hyundai account, affirmed them to the CFPB and to the Credit Reporting Agency in every one of their complaint and dispute responses. 
XXXX ) XX/XX/XXXX, during a 36-minute phone call with Customer Care Team Supervisor ( XXXX? ) that began at XXXX XXXX, I was told by this Supervisor that Hyundai had unilaterally changed the terms of my agreement without ever informing me and without my authorization. My XXXX lease and XXXX extension agreements had been altered internally by Hyundai to subtract depreciation fees from each monthly payment creating fraudulently inflated residual values outside of what the contract allowed. These amounts were then posted to my account, provided to me verbally in XXXX prior to the vehicle 's lease-end and allowance periods and at purchase in XX/XX/XXXX. 
F ) Hyundai created deceptive depreciation fees not found anywhere in the terms of my contract and for almost four years concealed those changes and withheld the information from me. It is now indisputable Hyundai either failed to record and deduct the full amount of all XXXX base monthly lease extension payments from the vehicles residual value or they unilaterally created deceptive add-on fees at lease end. Either way, Hyundai has researched and responded to my CFPB complaints XXXX times after presenting them with copies of the specific contract language. Even after providing Hyundai with the contract language, they gave misleading and deceptive responses to me and to the CFPB. Hyundai still refuses to produce any documented residual value calculations that conform with contract terms because they know they can not create a record that will reconcile with their inflated buyout amount. And doing so would expose almost four years of deceptive practices. Instead, theyve tried to make it all go away by issuing a partial refund for my overpayment without any explanation labeling their check customer experience. 
G ) What should have been a payment recording error resolved back in XX/XX/XXXX or an internal systems glitch at lease end buyout during a Global Health Crisis turned into more than three years of consumer fraud and breach of contract coverups. It is not acceptable that Hyundai ignored researching my reasonable contract inquiries in XXXX and has continued to deceive rather than confront their errors and make this right. 
H ) The buyout calculations remain in dispute today and regrettably, Hyundais XXXX responses are the same as they were in XXXX at lease-end allowance. They are misleading and lack candor to me, to the CFPB and to the CRAs for taking responsibility for their unilaterally actions and then providing misleading responses for actions they were never allowed to take under the terms of my lease agreements. Hyundais XX/XX/XXXX partial refund attempts wont erase their underlying deceptive business practices and breach of contract. 

XXXX ) XX/XX/XXXX : At purchase both parties relied on the terms found in the XXXX lease agreement. The XX/XX/XXXX Bill of Sale provided to me by Hyundai states : BUYER ACKNOWLEDGES THAT THEY LEASED THE VEHICLE WHEN NEW AND THAT IT IS HAS BEEN IN HIS/HER/THEIR CONTINUOUS POSSESSION SINCE THEN. SELLER HAS NOT OBTAINED POSSESSION OF THE VEHICLE, AND MILEAGE IS BASED ON BUYERS WRITTEN DISCLOSURE. Neither this Bill of Sale nor any other contract were presented to me in advance of purchase. Both parties relied on the XXXX lease agreement and XXXX lease extension agreement. This Bill of Sale was delivered four months after I purchased the vehicle and after, unbeknownst to me, Hyundai had remotely dismantled my XXXX operational electronic key fobs ( {$610.00} in lost value ). The XXXX Bill of Sale ( attached ) confirms a {$19000.00} AS IS vehicle purchase. At no time prior to my XX/XX/XXXX purchase, or after, did XXXX disclose to me that my XXXX operational key fobs obtained when I leased the vehicle in XXXX would no longer function upon purchase. Hyundai has refused to cite the exact contract language where Hyundai is granted authority to unilaterally devalue a vehicle in their possession altering the AS IS sale terms in advance of a purchase without disclosing it to the Buyer. The XX/XX/XXXX unsigned Bill of Sale XXXX months post-purchase states both parties previously agreed to the undisclosed and unknown altered AS IS arrangement. The Bill of Sale language is a false representation of my actual purchase experience. Hyundai was made aware of the non-operational key fobs in written correspondence XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX and has refused to address or even recognize this issue. Hyundai was deceptive by withholding material information at purchase when they knew in advance of purchase that the XXXX electronic keys included in my XXXX lease were rendered useless at purchase and I did not. 
I informed Hyundai of my intent to purchase the vehicle, during allowance periods of the Global Health Crisis. Hyundai required overinflated buyout numbers from illegal add-on fees creating an anticipatory breach in XX/XX/XXXX. They then created an actual breach in over-charging me above the lease contracts pre-agreed residual value purchase price and unilaterally altered and devalued the vehicles condition by dismantling XXXX key fobs. They failed to disclose to me, the buyer, the change in as is condition prior to my purchase. Their actions have been deceptive, deliberate, and in bad faith. The California auto industry is heavily regulated, the law prohibits false statements, material misrepresentations and other unfair and deceptive practices in connection with the sale of vehicles. 

Enclosures : XXXX Lease Agreement Buyout clauses, purchase option, contractual residual value, and base monthly payment clause. 
XXXX Lease Extension Agreement reduced residual value clause : each base monthly payment reduces original vehicle residual value at purchase. 
XXXX Post-Dated AS IS Bill of Sale Actual Purchase was XX/XX/XXXX : no change to contract terms disclosed, provided, or signed at purchase. 
HMF Acct Statement : confirming overinflated residual value posted as of XX/XX/XXXX and Dealership out of business as of XX/XX/XXXX. 
XX/XX/XXXX Check partial refund, does not include or reconcile with full amount of over inflated residual value price Hyundai demanded. 
Breakdown of Actual Damages from Hyundais anticipatory breach, actual breach for over-inflating residual buyout beyond contract and change in undisclosed " as is '' condition at purchase.