I leased a Chevy Volt for 39 months beginning Sept. 1, 2015 with the final payment Nov. 2, 2018. I had autopay set up with GM Financial. On Nov. 28, I returned the vehicle to the local Chevy dealership. We walked in and approached a dude there at a central counter, told him why we were there. He said great, took the keys, had a young man get the plates off of the car for us, and when I said “Is that it?” and he said, “yeah, ‘he’ will go online and “ground” the car”. However…now I know… “When you return your leased vehicle, your dealership will, using an online internal website, notify GM Financial that you have returned your vehicle. … A grounding receipt is evidence of the date and time that you have returned the vehicle to the dealership.”
We did not get such a receipt. Yes, in retrospect I was stupid.
Mid December, I was following up with my financial person at the other Chevy dealership where I had bought a new vehicle and she said “I notice online they’ve never grounded your other Volt, did you decide to keep it?” I was like “what the heck??” So hubby went back in person and talked to yet the same man again who said he would take care of it, didn’t know what had happened, blah, blah, blah. So fast forward to early January and dh gets a notice that his credit score had dropped 100 points!!! And referenced that we were in arrears to GM Financial. He called them immediately and get nowhere, they just kept repeating their litany that we now owed two car payments for December and January. Got nowhere. I called. Got nowhere. Finally I called again and asked for that person’s supervisor. Got a very helpful young lady who told me THE CAR HAS NEVER BEEN GROUNDED!!! I was beside myself. So, I called the local dealership again and I told the operator “don’t put me on hold never to be spoken to again. Right now, I need you to locate an actual person in management to speak to me”. I spoke to him, told him everything…he actually chuckled…and I said “I don’t think it’s funny at all. In effect you have stolen this vehicle from me”. That changed his attitude. He physically took himself out on the lot where the returned leases are kept to make sure they had it. So anyway, yes, they finally straightened it out today. Can you stand the absolute ineptitude and non caring of people? I wish I knew how this ball was dropped. Out front dude trusted the financial people would “ground” the car but also he never did the proper return procedure. He sent us a “Dealership at fault” letter for us to send to the credit bureaus to fix our credit score. Dealing with this was like running a marathon.
Also, stupid, naive, trusting me never got that receipt and I should have known better.
That’s awful! But your persistence paid off!
Sorry you had to go through this. People say I am too paranoid, but it is because I do not trust most people in doing their job right. I would literally say to a representative on the phone that I wouldn’t hang up until I have received an email to confirm whatever.
Yikes. It is, sadly, not an ucommon problem with loans and titles. Make sure to cross all ts and dot all is!!
When we sell our cars, not only we insist to get a sales report so we can file with the state, we also incentivize the buyers to register the car right away.
We had been harassed by the former mortgage company after we refinanced and made 2 (!) payments to the new company. Turns out, the escrow wired the funds but the morons at the old mortgage “misplaced” them. Talk about being on the hook for 2 $350k mortgages on a $450k house!
It is also the reason I do not like to do auto pay.
No autopay for us either.
GMAC, the old financer for GM cars, was awful. AWFUL. They could screw up financing in a million ways. I believe it is now Ally Bank.
No auto pay here either!
It’s frustrating at the least and gets worse from there.
My dad was recently in the hospital and the hospitalist said specifically that the doctors would say they would take care of making follow up appointment at their office but don’t believe a word of it. Advice—take care of it yourself, be nice but make sure you don’t leave details to others when it matters.
Wife was scheduled last year to have eye surgery. We live 30 miles from the hospital in a major city but it took 2hrs to get there due to horrendous traffic. Surgeon’s office told us to report there for 8AM for 9AM surgery. Upon arrival, we were told “No, your surgeon is only here after lunch!!”
It turns out her surgery was scheduled for 2:30 PM!! By re-arranging schedule, they were able to get her in for 1PM, but it made for a nerve-wracking morning, sitting around waiting. Idiots suggested we go home and come back—we would have gotten home and then turn right around to return to hospital!
At least they covered the $15 parking fee.
When wife called surgeon’s office to complain, all she got was kind of a “sucks for you” attitude from them—NOT EVEN A SINGLE WE ARE SORRY!!.
I looked up ‘ineptitude’ in the dictionary and I think I saw the practice’s surgery coordinator’s picture.
My situation had zero to do with autopay.
I would appreciate people sharing why autopay is a problem. I’ve never leased a car but autopay my mortgage and credit cards in full in each month for over 30 years without a glitch. Maybe I’m confused with the term autopay vs deducted from my bank account each month.
I think the problems are conflated. Autopay is a way to pay a monthly car loan, while the OP had an issue with ending an auto lease. I’ve actually not done either, but I do know that it’s a lot easier to keep paying than it is to terminate the payee. In other words, they’ll gladly take your money, but it’s pretty hard to stop making the payments.
Autopay is a problem when the payments are going into a “black hole.”
I have autopay on D’s leased car, and the previous one before it. We get an email every time the bill gets paid, so not sure why it would be a problem except for people that don’t check their email. Plenty of issues can occur with USPS mail, which is actually more likely to lose either your bill or your check. So I guess at the end of the day it’s personal preference which sort of risk you’d rather take.
Anyway, I assume this was OP’s first lease so they didn’t know they were supposed to receive paperwork. For our first lease return the guy checking the car in sat next to me with an ipad and we both tapped here and there, I digitally scribbled a few signatures, got an email receipt sent to me on the spot, and was on my way in 15 minutes. After that I think I got at least 2-3 more communications from the manufacturer’s leasing arm acknowledging the return and refunding me some additional money for low mileage. So tons of communications post-return.
There is a way to pay your bill without autopay. Just outlook it. Then when it pops in your calendar, go to your bank website and pay. This is how I pay the HOA dues for the kiddo condo.
I think what would make me the angriest is being laughed at. Glad you were able to shut him up. I’m glad it all worked out.
It’s really awful that you were laughed at and that the original guy never followed through as he promised— several times!
I would do my best never to deal with that goof ball place again—there are lots of places that treat customers well. This sounds like a place that likes losing customers.
Glad it worked out in the end, but I’d have been as frustrated as you with the process to get there. We’ve never leased a vehicle, but thanks for the PSA in case we ever do.