Complaint Review: KIA MOTOR FINANCE

On or about February 2020 I entered into a defferred payment agreement with Kia Motors Finaance who were offering this to it's clients in response to Covid. The arrangement called for a SIX (6) MONTH moratorium on my $378.18 monthly payments on my 2019 Kia Forte -which I purchased July 2019 and had been making timely monthly payments on. The person I spoke to said they wer " overwhelmed by the number of people taking advatage of this defferment and were wroking to get it all ironed out".

My payments were supposed to resume in August 2020, however the company notified me in late July 2020 that I was late for that month's payment and advised me that I was supposed to have restarted my payments in July not August. This was inaccurracte. And they did not even provide me with any documentation - rather , instead, they added a significant late charge . By the time I receieved this - I was about to make my August payment ( which as already entioned was the actual start date to resume my payments).

I tried and tried to correct their mistake with them but they insisted my payment was due n July without providing any documenetation or verification. After trying in vain , I finally gave up and paid all the additioanl monies ( as well as the two months' payments), Unfortunately that did not end my problems- in fact- it was just the beginning of a nightmare that I have been stuck in ever since.The following month , September 2020- I attempted to make my online payment as I always had but for some reason it kept rejecting it.

I tried over and over and then called customer service who told me ' I must be entering the checckingg account information incorretly ! I erxplained that I had tried numereous times and was pretty adept at entering nine digits without error. Still - it would not allow me to proceed. I was forced to give that VERY SAME checking account information VERBALLY to a customer service rep at an additinal charge of $25 ( service fee!) who miraculously was able to enter that very same info without any issue.

The following month-  I again attempted to make my payment online and this time I receive a message saying that the account is not "recognized"! WHAT? I then try yet another bank account I own and it seem to process my payment .......Only then seeveral weeks later ( and wheen I am now in the LATE period) I get an email from KIA saying my payment could NOT be processed and I am assessed another late chaerge. Ok- now we are up to November and I try AGAIN....and both accounts. I get as message charge is being processed only to then receive another email weeks late ( again in the LATE period) saying my account was not paid because of insufficient funds !

I call them up and say this is absolutely not the case and I am happy to have my banks send you my statements proving that I had more than sufficient fumds at all timers. Crazy but true- they tell me no. They tell me that now I can no longer even attempt to pay online because of all these (erroneous ) issues. They terll me my only option is to either mail in my payment OR pay it with a representative for that $25,00 additional charge! If that wasn't bad enough - I see that I am being cchaarged every month a NSF charge as well as a late charge - this hasa been the case for vitually every single month for over a year.

This is depite the fact that  I have sent my check ( from thata very same bank they claim is so problrematic) every month on time and VIA fedex ( at an additional cost to me ) so that I can get confirmation that it is in fact received! I send a sccathing letter explining everything each month. I have called more times than I can count and have never once received a response. I haver emailed many times and have even both messaged them and ranted on their FACeBOOK page.

Not only that but I drovre an hour to the dealership and went to talk to the finance director in person - after explaining thIS INSANCWE ( and quite frankly SCAMMY situation ) to him- his response? " Oh I know- I can't even get them to anser MY calls which is why I would never buyu a Kia"?!? Omg - sadly he was the second manager to tell me the very same thing. In addition to the insanity with the finance company - I have also had a great deal of problems with the cafr itself from DAY 1. After yking it in many times to 2 different dealerships and getting nowhere..

I contacteed a top Lemon Law firm who took on the case. Sadly - after month of the trying to work out something with KIA- they were unable to provide me any assistan e and my only recourse was to eiter pay them a large retainer to proceed to court or back down- not having that kind of money- I had to back away.   I am talking about ( among other issues) my carr sudenly losing control of the lane changing mechanism and all the alarms gping off while I am alone on a highway far from my home at night by myself on seeverzzl occassions  with no other option  but to sit on the side of the road and pray until I got up enough nerve to drive myself all the way home - and NOTHING from KIA despite the fact that they were well aware fof this problem but had not found a solution.

Anyway- I only mention this beause many people suggesteed that the issues I was facing with KIA FINANCE was somehow retailitory for my attempt to file a lemon law suit. WHo knows? Yet - here  I am more than a year later- never  having recieved  any type of resolution on that- and still I CANNOT MAKE  PAYMENT in a "normal way". Just last month with my NOvemeber 2021 payment I tried again to pay online- no luck. I then tried to  pay with a customer ser vice rep as somehow the fee is now 'only" $7.95- far less than the fedex charge I have  een paying each month.

So i give her my checking accuont information - the very same account I have been mailing in checks from every month for the past year and more and she tells me they have NO RECORD of this payment method for me and thus cannot take it!!! SHe then asks if I want to use my credit card on file- I DON"T HAVE a credit card on file as I have only paid by check. She then tells me she has to connect me to another department to take a check! I am beyond fuming now.

The next person gets on the phone and I explain the crazy situaiton and he tells me he is a third party company that takes payments for Kia Finance ( what?). So I give him my checking account info ( the same info that the KIa rep said SHE could not take and the reason I was sent to him) and he tries to process it only to get a notification that it wasn't accepted FOR HIM??? I  asked if I could actually give him my actual credit card to make the payment- the same card that is linked to the checking account and lo and behold it goes throug no problem.

NONE of this makes sense- and it has caused me not only tremendous stree and aggravation but because they have made all hese crazy edrrors and then have repported me to the Credit Bureaus my credit score has gone down well over 100 POINTS in just this time period. So I can't even  qualify for a decent loan to get into another vechilche abd out of this nightmare. Each month they send me a notice that I owe at least double the amount that I actually owe and I refuse to pay anything other than my regular amount. Each month they charge me late fees and NSF charges - and no one . but no one aanywhere in that company will even try to correct this mess .

PLEASE - I am chroicall ill and on social seccurity disability- this has taken a tremendous toll on every aspect of my life. If anyone can help or has any suggestions _ please please let me know. I am due to make another payment thghis week and I get streezed out for days ahead of time each month. Thank you