Consumer complaint received 2022-12-21
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan — Lender trying to repossess or disable the vehicle
Company: HYUNDAI CAPITAL AMERICA (AZ)

What Happened : On XX/XX/XXXX ( payday ) fund auto-deposited into my chk acct approx @ XXXX XXXX, so I made a {$480.00} pmt to my KIA, which includes {$100.00} past due XXXX ( XXXX days ) and {$370.00} XXXX past XXXX ( XXXX days ). This payment actually brought the account current XX/XX/XXXX payment becomes due, which was initiated by myself without having received any calls or electronic notices from KIA Finance to my knowledge regarding my KIA account at the time. Later that night or more specifically, early on XX/XX/XXXX, approx XXXX XXXX  I was awoken and happened to go out on my balcony, when I noticed that my car ( XXXX XXXX ) was gone! 

Early the next morning, I immediately contacted KIA Finance and asked for explanation regarding why was my car repossessed, which they stated that I was on a repossession list. I then stated that I had already made a payment online that bought the account current, so again ... " Why was my car repossessed? '' The rep stated that I did not call or contact KIA Finance regarding my payment. I then said that I have been paying on the vehicle for over 5 yrs and never called to let KIA Finance know that I made a payment... and then asked " KIA doesn't get a notification when its customers makes their car payments from their personal KIA account that's accessed within KIA Finances own website? '' I asked to escalated the issue/discussion to a Supervisor. The Supervisor said basically what the rep shared and he responded that he can see that I " Authorized '' a payment on XX/XX/XXXX, although we ( KIA ) can't tell whether its real payment or not and since I was in Repo status that I needed to call them when I made the actual payment. I stated that no one called me from KIA to let me know anything, especially that I was in a repo status, although if I knew that I surely would have contacted you at the time of payment to avoid any crazy actions! The rep/supervisor then stated that I requested to be placed on a Do-Not-Call list, which I stated that I have never asked to be placed on a Do-Not-Call list. I said it shouldn't matter since I paid the past due balance previous to the repo, so why did KIA repo my car? Again, the rep/supervisor stated that I needed to contact/call KIA at the time of payment to avoid the repo taking place, which I stated why would I need to call you when I paid through my KIA account... and I received an email confirmation of the payment immediately to my email, so why is KIA acting like they are oblivious to my payment being made and why would I ever contact a KIA rep anytime a customer makes a payment... and is that what KIA is requesting of their customers each month? Again... you were in a repo status, so contacting KIA 's dept that handles repossessions was necessary to avoid the repo proceeding. I asked if I could have a copy of their companies internal repossession procedures regarding & their internal car payment ( s ) procedures sent to my email. I was denied this information. 

**Important FYI... On XX/XX/XXXX... XXXX and XXXX when I called to discuss the repo and how I felt that it was " Unjust '' and I asked for a review of my situation from KIA 's corporate office, I was told that a review would be conducted and I would be notified of the findings. Although an important point is that if you called the division that handles repossessions at that time you would find that the office hours were ( XXXX XXXX XXXX-est ) which means that on the West coast if you contacted KIA 's Repo division after XXXX XXXX  west coast, then you were out of luck! This means even had I been aware of the repo status on XX/XX/XXXX, I would not have been able to report the payment ( XXXX XXXX  XXXX AZ ), since that division would have been already gone for the day. I found this out when I contacted the repo division office around XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to discuss additional issues regarding acquiring my car out of repossession. 

On XX/XX/XXXX & XXXX... I escalated and again asked individual 's I spoke to at their corporate headquarters, located in California, if I could have a copy of their companies internal repossession procedures regarding & their internal car payment ( s ) procedures sent to my email. I was again denied this information. I threatened to review any and all legal remedies against KIA for the unjust repossessions of myself and any others who might have been harmed by this corporations unjust actions, which I stated includes more than half of the country that could be unfairly subjected to unjust repossession due to the crazy ( XXXX XXXX  - XXXX XXXX  ) hours that the repossession division was open and available to customers. 

I don't know if what I shared to KIA corporate made a difference, although when I called KIA finance on XX/XX/XXXX, the hours for access to the repossession division has been changed to ( XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX  est ). 

Around XX/XX/XXXX, I called KIA again to discuss a XXXX payment deferral, since my car was supposedly being reviewed for what I considered to be an unjust repossession and I had to pay over {$750.00} to get my car back back. Again, I was denied! So when I went to my KIA account I noticed that my account stated that my payment on XX/XX/XXXX was for {$370.00}. The {$480.00} credits as my XXXX XXXX ( See Encl. ), so I was fine and didn't require a deferment, although on XX/XX/XXXX when I was looking to pay the monthly {$370.00} ... the amount was changed to {$760.00} past due! I was both levied and extremely exhausted at the same time! So I paid the $ XXXX  monthly XXXX and here I am today! I again called KIA Finance and the reasoning from them is that additional repossession fees was not added until XX/XX/XXXX, so that why the amount due changed. So, I asked after I had to pay over {$1500.00} in less than 30 days to KIA, could they apply my XXXX XXXX monthly car pmt towards my XXXX payment, so I am not at-risk of another repossession and make payment arrangements to pay the remaining {$390.00} due... again denied! The rep stated that their internal processes are designed to pay them first. A single individual has " Zero Chance '' negotiating with a $ XXXX Dollar corporation who holds all the cards ... at every turn they are always gon na be right! This is a classic " Heads they Win... and Tails the Customer Loses '' scenario! I hope your organization can assist the little guy, because KIA is a " Corporate Bully! ''