Kia Finance is an incompetent joke

[EchoesMyron]

I leased my Stinger GT2 in January of 2018 after ordering it in November of 2017. I leased the car at the time because it gave me the biggest bang for the buck given the rebates that were being offered.

On November 21st, I went back to the dealer and bought my lease out. No big deal, correct?

On December 2nd, Kia Finance withdrew a lease payment from my checking account. I hadn't really thought about turning off the autopay function because I guess I figured that in 2018, 2 weeks should be enough time for a lease account to be closed after paying it off. Hell, my credit union had paid the dealer and posted the loan on my account within 48 hours.

I called Kia Finance to say WTF and was informed that they never got the payoff from the dealer. At this point I'm fairly panicked and pissed off at the same time. However, something was fishy about the info they were giving me because I could see on my online account where it said the car had been returned but they still said I owed money.

Anyway, to make a really long and boring story kind of short, I called Kia Finance several times trying to get some kind of factual, consistent information about my account. Every time I called I got different, conflicting information. The car was paid off, it wasn't, they never got the payment from the dealer, the account was closed. It was absolutely ridiculous. At one point, someone told me if I wanted it taken care of, I had to send a written request to Kia...WTF?!? this isn't my mistake, it's yours. I should be told that it will be taken care of and then compensated for my time and the hours of my life I lost dealing with your incompetent customer service people.

I talked to the finance person at the dealer I bought the car from and he assured me that Kia had withdrawn the money from the dealer's account for the payoff and he didn't seem too concerned about it after that. I suppose that's because he didn't have 2 loans on the same car like I did.

I finally got someone from the dealership to actually listen to me and she was able to call the Kia rep and the next day it appeared that the car was indeed paid off but when I called Kia Financial to confirm this, they told me I still owed a monthly payment. I informed them that this was incorrect and they owed me a monthly payment. I called back and the next person said the car was paid off and I was owed a refund. That sounds more like it but I was cut off from them before they could give me more details and they never called me back. I'm sure if I call again, I'd get different info. Who knows if I'll get my payment back. Fortunately, I disputed the charge in my checking account and sent the credit union after them.

I still love my Stinger after nearly a year and 12,00+ miles but I will never deal with Kia Financial again...what a complete joke.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Lol. I think that you made it more difficult being on top of too many Kia people all at once.

When I did the buyout after three months, the main thing I wanted to make sure of is that Kia didn't keep getting a monthly payment, since I was done. It did seem a bit flakey, the timing (like ships passing in the night) of the buyout, my upcoming monthly payment and all. And for a very brief time my account finance page showed a payment made. But in the end the numbers reconciled. I even got my title in a timely manner. So, I guess I am saying, don't "deal" with them, let them do their job and wait and see if there is a problem. Don't borrow trouble.

 

[EchoesMyron]

I see your point but when $37k that I'm ultimately responsible for gets lost in the ether, I'm not going to just sit back and hope it works out. As far as I can tell, the payment from the dealer was never credited to my account with Kia until the rep dug in and figured out where the disconnect was. It's not like it was pending or processing...it just didn't exist.

In addition, the fact that I couldn't get any kind of consistent information on my account was very disturbing.

For whatever reason, this kind of thing has happened to me a lot in recent times and I just don't have the patience for it any more.

 

[Doel]

if it were me I would have told the dealership to take care of the problem, that is their job after all.

 

[EchoesMyron]

That is essentially what I did and they have taken care of it but I have still been trying to follow up with Kia Financial to make sure that everything is paid off. It's very difficult to tell what's going on by looking at my account online and I haven't gotten any kind of correspondence from Kia saying that my lease has been paid off, closed, etc. The level of communication is very poor.

 

[DiabloStinger]

Seems like a real cluster!

 

[Doel]

That is essentially what I did and they have taken care of it but I have still been trying to follow up with Kia Financial to make sure that everything is paid off. It's very difficult to tell what's going on by looking at my account online and I haven't gotten any kind of correspondence from Kia saying that my lease has been paid off, closed, etc. The level of communication is very poor.

I think you forget that you're dealing with a massive corporation that always moves a lot slower than we want them to. You didn't even give them a full business week to take care of the problem. Chances are they would have resolved everything on their own without you blowing up their phones, what you're doing may be complicating the process even further because now you have multiple people involved. Give them a little time.

 

[EchoesMyron]

Ok, I had the dates wrong.

November 19, I bought the lease out.

December 2nd, a lease payment is taken from my account.

December 2nd: I call Kia to ask why a payment was taken, they tell me they have no record of the car being paid off.

December 2nd: Dealer says Kia withdrew the payoff money from them on November 21st.

So...they had from November 21 when Kia withdrew the payoff money from the dealer to December 2nd when they charged me a payment to settle my account and communicate with me that the account was paid off. When I talked to them on the 2nd, they had no record of a payoff being received even though they had (according to the dealer) received it.

That's a business week plus and it's 2018. How long does it take to internally transfer a payoff from the dealer to Kia Financial and list my account as a zero balance?!

In addition, Kia had no record of the payoff until I said something about it. 'Massive Corporations' may move slow when they have to pay out but they sure do move fast when it comes time to collect a payment.

I'm just relating my experience. If you all want to defend this mess and blame it on me, fine. I'd like to see how you casual you act about it when it's your money at stake.

 

[nhcowboy28]

Come on, it's 2018. How long does it take to internally transfer a payoff from the dealer to Kia Financial and list my account as a zero balance?! They had 2 business weeks to get the account settled (minus a day for Thanksgiving) and they still took $600 from my checking account 2 weeks after I had signed the paperwork at the dealer.

In addition, Kia had no record of the payoff until I said something about it. 'Massive Corporations' may move slow when they have to pay out but they sure do move fast when it comes time to collect a payment.

I'm just relating my experience. If you all want to defend this mess and blame it on me, fine. I'd like to see how you casual you act about it when it's your money at stake.

I feel your pain.

FYI... I’d never deal with the dealership. Always go to the bank / lender... in this case, I would have gone through Kia finance directly from the start. Stealerships will always make life difficult (even if not intentional).

Good luck.

 

[EchoesMyron]

FYI... I’d never deal with the dealership. Always go to the bank / lender... in this case, I would have gone through Kia finance directly from the start. Stealerships will always make life difficult (even if not intentional).

Actually it was the dealership who finally helped me out and appears to have gotten things taken care of. Kia Financial could not really tell me anything and was constantly giving contradictory information.

One of the main reasons why I wanted to buy the lease out in the first place was to transfer the lender from Kia to my credit union as I trust them far more than a giant corporate lender.

 

[shaggystinger]

Sorry to hear your troubles @EchoesMyron . KIA has come a long way but the finance department (KMF) should be avoided at all costs. Long story short, I paid my car off in August and am still waiting for them to send the title. Each call to KMF is a different story ending with "an email will be sent to our titling department". I had to threaten legal action and just today was told it will be next day delivered. Just keep reminding yourself why you went the lease/buyout route and saved yourself a good chunk of change.....O and did I mention never use KMF again, just to be clear

 

[Doel]

Ok, I had the dates wrong.

November 19, I bought the lease out.

December 2nd, a lease payment is taken from my account.

December 2nd: I call Kia to ask why a payment was taken, they tell me they have no record of the car being paid off.

December 2nd: Dealer says Kia withdrew the payoff money from them on November 21st.

So...they had from November 21 when Kia withdrew the payoff money from the dealer to December 2nd when they charged me a payment to settle my account and communicate with me that the account was paid off. When I talked to them on the 2nd, they had no record of a payoff being received even though they had (according to the dealer) received it.

That's a business week plus and it's 2018. How long does it take to internally transfer a payoff from the dealer to Kia Financial and list my account as a zero balance?!

In addition, Kia had no record of the payoff until I said something about it. 'Massive Corporations' may move slow when they have to pay out but they sure do move fast when it comes time to collect a payment.

I'm just relating my experience. If you all want to defend this mess and blame it on me, fine. I'd like to see how you casual you act about it when it's your money at stake.

Oh I'm not blaming anything on you, I'm just telling you that your expectations are a bit unrealistic and that you're overreacting. I turned in my lease to Nissan Finance this year and it took them over a month to get me the final paperwork and final bill. It took KMF a full month to send me the paperwork and get my car into the system for my financing (bought the car October 2nd, first payment wasn't due until November 20th, received the paperwork the beginning of November). You submitted your lease buyout literally the day before Thanksgiving and you're surprised they still accepted your auto payment a business week later? Come on man... just relax, if that one payment missing from your bank account is going to break you, you may need to rethink owning a Stinger at this juncture in your life, living paycheck to paycheck is not the way to go if you can help it.

 

[EchoesMyron]

Wow, I guess you've got me all figured out. I better sell my car and wait for months for the paperwork to go through because I live paycheck to paycheck.

Again, wow.

Forget it. Now I know why I'm not a big fan of forums.

You all enjoy your cars and your forum. Good luck, I'm out.

 

[MerlintheMad]

I'm just relating my experience. If you all want to defend this mess and blame it on me, fine. I'd like to see how you casual you act about it when it's your money at stake.

I wasn't casual. But I felt that waiting to see what happened was realistic. Like you, I wanted to know right away that my next payment would be refunded. But I decided that even if they took the payment, it would come off the buyout at the time I did it. The dates of the "paper trail", back and forth, would vindicate me. Would it turn into a stupid hassle? Maybe. But it seemed to me at the time that nothing I said to anyone at Kia would help things along. So I just stood back to see what would happen. In my case it turned out right without a hitch: the temporary payment of the last month was cancelled/refunded on my finance page several days later.

It'll all turn out okay. (Hopefully without a lot of, or any, discrepancy that needs ironing out.)

 

[MerlintheMad]

These later experiences with Kia Finance taking a long time seem to be caused by so many lease buyouts. Once the word got out, quite a few leases are "in the works" being processed. My experience took a month and the title was in my hand. That was back in June, first part of July.

 

[westcoastGT]

Merry Christmas ................and to all a Good Night !! breath deeply , its all good !!

 

[GRStinger]

It’s frustrating, I know. You would think in the Internet age – where everything is digital, and everything is interconnected, that transactions like this would (should) take seconds rather than weeks.

Problem is, you have a lot of different processes at different enterprises to run thru. Plus the parties involved and their financial institutions will legally take every minute of float that they can get on the money.

You write a check at the dealership to pay off the lease. Dealer starts pushing paper and deposits your $ to their bank. It'll be a day or two for your check to clear your bank, Then the money sits in their interest bearing account. There’s a ‘periodic’ settlement process on funds the dealer owes Kia Finance and vise-versa. Money moves to Kia Finance…sits in their interest-bearing account. Then probably another ‘periodic’ settlement process and movement of between Kia Fin and Kia Corp. (another reason car companies are in the finance biz.) All the while, there’s reconciliation processes to make sure they’re all square, but nobody’s in a huge hurry – other than for regulatory compliance and demands of the counter-party – to move your money too fast. Throw in some human-error here-and-there, and it can be a frustrating cluster. It’s amazing it works at all. At the end of the day, the system is generally trustworthy and ‘the man’ isn’t trying to illegally screw you. They need the trust, otherwise they wouldn’t be in business for long. Plus, it costs too much to deal with attentive customers like you!

 

[TwinSnails]

I got charged 1800.00 in payments on a 2013 F150 in 6 weeks once... it ended up making that payment less than $200 a month for the remainder of that loan!!! At the time, I honestly didn’t miss the money. 5 years later and two kids... I’d freak out.

I own the stinger, but I can eat one payment a month, I guess that’s living every other paycheck .

1 week isn’t bad, most payments take 3 days to post, let alone a whole car note.

 

[Doel]

Wow, I guess you've got me all figured out. I better sell my car and wait for months for the paperwork to go through because I live paycheck to paycheck.

Again, wow.

Forget it. Now I know why I'm not a big fan of forums.

You all enjoy your cars and your forum. Good luck, I'm out.

you aren't a big fan of forums because you might run into people that don't agree with you? I guess a lot of us really do live inside echo chambers these days... people can have meaningful, insightful conversations even if they disagree.

 

[Phil562]

I went online to set up auto pay after i received a first bill. I wasnt able to setup because according to them my bd didnt match their record. I called them. It was their mistake not the dealer. I waited 24 hours as told then tried to set up with no success. I called again and was told the person before didnt submit it correctly. Was told to wait 24 hrs or i can just enter the bd they incorrectly entered into the system. I will wait until it get updated. But it didnt so i went ahead and enter not my real bd. It worked, i created my account. Until this day i am not sure if they fix it. First time for me in the finance department buying a car. Here is a bonus . The finance guy at the dealership wanted to sell me 100 000 miles or 10 years warranty. I laughed.