Consumer complaint received 2023-01-13
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: Tesla, Inc. (WA)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I leased a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX from Tesla Finance, knowing that if I wanted to end my lease early, I would be able to transfer my lease in XXXX weeks, as stated in Tesla Lease Transfer Information Packet XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX, I started my lease transfer process. XXXX days later, on XX/XX/XXXX, Tesla Finance informed me that the paper title was ordered from Washington State DMV to complete the transfer, as Tesla Finance lost the original title that was sent to them in XX/XX/XXXX. I immediately reached out to Tesla Finance and offered to go through the Quick Title process provided by Washington State DMV and offered to pay any additional costs. However, Tesla Finance rejected my offer and told me to wait XXXX weeks. Indeed, on XX/XX/XXXX, I learned from XXXX XXXX ( a Tesla Finance XXXX ) that the title was actually ordered on XX/XX/XXXX, not on XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I was called by Tesla Finance. They told me that they would get the title very soon. Tesla Finance later emailed the transferee and me that the title takes about XXXX weeks, which should be done in the next few days. 

As XXXX weeks passed with no updates from Tesla Finance despite my countless attempts, except for XXXX call, on XX/XX/XXXX, I left multiple voicemails and emailed Tesla finance . Finally, I received a call from Tesla Finance at XXXX pm, saying they have the title now and will schedule the transfer on the earliest day. They told me that the earliest day would be XX/XX/XXXX over email. I asked them if they could expedite the process as we've been waiting for more than XXXX months now. They told me that they would monitor the availability and if there is availability earlier, they can expedite the process. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a call from Tesla Finance again, and they told me they could not locate the title and would get to the bottom of this by XX/XX/XXXX. 

I talked to Washington State DMV on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX on the phone. Two separate DMV agents confirmed that DMV did not get any replacement title requests. On both days, I immediately informed Tesla Finance about the situation and asked Tesla Finance to take immediate action. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, Tesla Finance rejected taking any action, claiming that DMV records were inaccurate. On the same day, XXXX XXXX XXXX a Tesla Finance employee ) also assured me that the title would arrive any moment. However, on XX/XX/XXXX, during my phone call with XXXX XXXX XXXX a Tesla Finance employee ), Tesla Finance told me that they agreed to take action and made a new request from DMV as they could not confirm the status of their previous request with DMV. We currently have no clarity on when the transfer will happen. Since Tesla has no problems getting their payments from me, all they are telling me is to wait. 

For most car manufacturers, lease transfer process takes around XXXX weeks. Tesla also advertises in its " Lease Transfer Packet '' that average wait times are around XXXX weeks. By not processing my lease transfer properly in a reasonable time, and misinforming me throughout the process, Tesla is forcing me to terminate the lease. During my phone conversations with them, they told me multiple times that if I did not want to wait long times, I could go through the early termination route by paying exorbitant fees. They asked for {$8200.00} to terminate my lease early. While waiting for Tesla to complete the lease transfer, I paid them another XXXX months of the lease, totaling {$1400.00}. 

I have also contacted Tesla Executives, Tesla Legal Department and Tesla Corporate Auto Resolutions but never received a response.