Kia Customer Service Has Failed a Loyal Customer

I have a terrible complaint about Kia customer service to share. I have tried to contact them by phone number, email address, and even writing laters. So, it's important that you understand the back story and how I was treated.

I along with my 78 year old mom went into Kia Motors of Irvine to inquire about a used 2012 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport that was advertised on craigslist for 10,795. I had previously called to make an appointment with a sales rep and had confirmed the price over the telephone.  I had been shopping around for this particular car model and saw an ad on craigslist showing the 2012 Mitsubishi and saw that it was being sold at Kia of Irvine.

I knew nothing about Kia or its company, but i felt comfortable walking into a Kia buying a car, even a used one because knowing what I know now, I was naively trusting because of what I saw on TV and what I associated Kia with. I remembered Blake Griffin jumping of a Kia in the NBA dunk contest, I remember watching the Australian Open and seeing Kia on the nets, I remembered about seeing all the commercials with Kia having its 10 year/100,000 mile warranty.

I thought to myself this is a trustworthy company and I could trust them, so I headed over there with the intention of buying my used 2012 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport and thought it would be a honest straight forward process where I would have no stress about dishonesty or being taken advanced of. Sadly after my experience and complaints against Kia, I have embarrassedly suffered from both and want to share my honest, transparent experience at the Kia of Irvine and how it has effected my life.

When I arrived on the lot, a sales person named Daniel greeted me and I inquired about the 2012 Mitsubishi. When he brought the car over he immediately told me the car was amazing and a steal at $13,995, when I told him i saw the ad for $10,795, he told me to show it to him and they would honor the price. Before we took the test drive I asked Daniel if the car fax was clean and if the car had been in any accidents, he assured me the car fax was clean and the car had not been in any accidents and verbally said the car had no accidents. I specifically said .. “Is the car fax clean with the title and no accidents,” where he responded, “It’s a clean car fax with no accidents, I can get you the car fax after we test drive the car.” I never got the car fax report from him and relied on the brand of KIA that he was an honest person, which today I have learned he is not which to me is a strong reflection and indication of Kia.

After taking the car for the test drive, I asked Daniel and his finance department to run some numbers to me in regards to the financing of the vehicle. After about 45 minutes Daniel returned with his sales manager. He explained the details of the price in a very professional way I thought at the time, but later learned that he was technically not lying, but he was presenting information to me in a very deceiving manner. He told me the monthly payments would be $309 for 72 months for the 10,795 to be financed and included a 3 year 36,000 mile warranty for the car. Later on I learned that he had built in the price of me buying a warranty, gap coverage, alarm system, and anti-theft tracking, all the extras added over $100 to my monthly payments, but did not disclose any of this to me.

At the time I said I wanted to talk to my mom about it and think about it, however Daniel and the Sales manager insisted I sign the contract right away, even physically standing between me and the door multiple times. My mom is 78 years old and was getting very tired and hungry and wanted to go to a local Starbucks to get coffee and food, but Daniel and the sales manager would not allow me to leave and insisted I stay and have coffee in the lobby. My mom is very particular and wanted her coffee and pastry from Starbucks.

I insisted to be allowed to leave and my mom was getting angry and wanted to leave. However we were not allowed to leave and the sales manager instructed Daniel to follow us in the car if we really wanted to go. He said we can go and have daniel come in the car with us, in the Mitsubishi, I insisted that i take my won car and Daniel said he would follow us in the Mitsubishi and escort us to the starbucks. My mom and I went to Starbucks while Daniel followed us in the car and waited outside the starbucks while my mom and I ordered coffee. When we left the coffee shop, Daniel escorted us back to the Kia dealership.

Upon returning to the Kia dealership, I wanted to talk more to my mom about the purchase, but I was pressured again to make the deal. Daniel and the sales manager tried theie best to keep my mom and i separated so we couldn’t converse about the purchase. It was a very pressure felt and stressful situation. I felt a lot of pressure and I eventually agreed to buy the car. after we had verbally agreed to a deal and I went in to talk to Sammy Sheikh, the Finance Manager at the Kia of Irvine. When i went in the room i was shocked to see that that on the paper there was an additional $7,000 added to the amount which included me paying for a warranty, anti-car theft device, alarm system, and gap coverage.

Multiple times i declined all the coverage and every time Sammy said that the car could not be sold without the gap coverage, without the warranty, without the anti-theft system, or without the car alarm. Multiple times when i looked over paper work, Sammy said “why do you keep reading everything, I’m already telling you what you are signing.”

This had a dramatic effect on me psychologically, because every time i read something on the paper Sammy was very aggressive towards me and kept saying i was an adult and i should feel nervous about making a purchase and that for some people money is an issue, but people like him don’t worry about money. He began negotiation back and forth and i kept telling him i would not pay for anything except the car and every time he told me the car could not be sold without the extra coverage.

I finally decided to get up and walk out of the room and told him i would not buy the car and at that moment Sammy would not let me leave the office and very forcefully and aggressively told me to sit down. He then preceded with telling me stories about one in particular where he said “if you want a hot blonde girl, then you have to spend more money, if you want to be cheap, you get the ugly girl”. He continued to talk about how money is not an issue for him and neither should it be for me and I needed to act like and adult and not be afraid to buy the car. After almost 2 hours of being in the room and me continually saying no and i don’t want to buy the car anymore.

Sammy finally sold me the car without all the extras. I thought everything was done until he asked me to pay $300 for the security system, that i had told him dozens of times before i would not buy or pay for, but I was exhausted and just overstressed at the process that at the time I was willing to pay him $300 just to go home.  He had lied to me the entire time that the car could not be financed without all the extras and that i had to buy all the coverage that included gap coverage, warranty, anti-car theft device and alarm system.

As I signed all the paperwork, Sammy told me that we were in the room for over 2 hours and was complaining about how he had to pick up his wife at the airport from Toronto. I was tired and exhausted and just relieved to be done. The problem was one of the forms he instructed me to sign was a waiver to  my rights for a 2 day cancelation contract. He never ever verbally offered me the option of a 2 day used car cancelation agreement, which california state law say i need to be offered that option before buying a used car in a Kia dealership. He watched me very carefully when I signed all the papers and never once explained to me my options for the car cancelation contract agreement.

After the purchase was made and all the paperwork was signed, Daniel met with me to go over all the details of the car and to inspect it physically to make sure everything was fine and operational. Upon inspecting the car there were multiple areas of the car that needed detailing, there was accessories and hardware in the trunk that needed to be installed. Daniel suggested that i take the car now and i could come back anytime it was convenient to get the work done. I suggested that the car be kept overnight to get detailed and i would pick up the car the next morning. Daniel agreed and he said it was his day off, but he wanted to be there for me when i picked up the car, so I asked him for a ride and he agreed.

The next morning i receive multiple text and phone calls from Daniel asking me where i was. He sent me multiple text saying that i wasted his time, that his time is valuable , and that he is not playing games with me. I replied to him and said i was ready to go at 3. He then angrily responded with text saying “are you kidding me?” , “I waited all morning for you” He was no longer going to give me a ride and that i could talk to his associate David.

I arrived at the Kia dealership at 6pm on friday March, 25 and met with david. David had me sit and wait for over 30 minutes to pick-up my car, upon inspection of the car we noticed that the car had not been detailed, none of the hardware and accessories had been installed in the trunk, the driver side speakers were not working, and the car had not been detailed at all. David apologized and said I could take it in the next day to get it all serviced. I complained that i was already promised this yesterday and the end result was no one took care of the care or did any of the necessary work that was promised on it. He told me i could call anytime to schedule and appointment, but was not confident n this, but reluctantly took the car because I had no ride or car to get me around and told him i would come in the next time i was free.

The next day after reading over the paperwork I saw that I had signed the waiver to my rights of a 2 day cancelation agreement, that i did not remember reading or signing, because Sammy the Finance Manager at Kia assured me everything I was signing was everything he was telling me it was verbally at the time, but not once did he mention my right to a 2 day used car cancelation option. This made me upset, but I did not think much of it at the time. I followed up with Daniel 6 times via text and phone call about the issues with the detailing, stereo and hardware of the car , but not once received a phone call or text.

I was angrily upset, but was ready to let everything go because I didn’t want to deal with anymore stress and hassle i was been caused and was ready to move on, take the financial hits, and be on with my life. After some thought and a lot of driving, I thought to myself, I might as well get a hybrid car to save on gasoline. At this time I decided to play around and see how much i could sell the car for or trade it in to get a luxury hybrid, i knew i would most likely take a financial loss, but i was ready to move on from this car even if it meant losing some money.

I had some interested parties and the South County Lexus returned me a trade in quote of $7,000, for the car I paid $10,795 ($12,300 with taxes and fees) because it had been in an accident. I was in shock and asked the sales rep to check again. He sent me over the car fax, which showed that the car had been in an accident.

That same day before I spoke to the sales agent at South County Lexus, I had an interested buyer Kae who was seriously considering buying the car for the $12,000 i had advertised it for on craigslist. In the conversation at the time I promised Kae that the car had a clean car fax and no accidents, the same exact words that came out of Daniel’s mouth, thats the level of trust I had in him. After I received the news from South County Lexus, I immediately called Kae and explained the situation to her. I spoke to Elliot about the Mistusbishi I planned to trade in and asked him for help in the matter. He suggested that I speak to the General Sales Manager at Kia of Irvine.

I decided to try to contact daniel again via text and phone, but have gotten no response. I then decided to call Kia of Irvine and asked to talk to the General Sales Manager or any other Manager, but I keep getting Katella who is the Concierge and she keeps telling me that it is the end of the month and there is no one to help me, she said they are really busy and there is no one to help me. I explained the whole situation to her and when she heard the car had been in an accident she said I should have checked the car fax before buying the car.

I told her daniel never gave it to me nor did anyone else show me it. She then asked me what kind of accident the car was in and I said the car fax showed it was involved in a side swipe collision. When she heard this she told me it shouldn’t affect the value, I told her I disagreed and She assured me she would speak to the appropriate people and I would be receiving a phone call soon. this was on March 30, I never received a phone call.

The next day I again called and Katella picked up the phone again, I explained the situation again to her and she complained that I had been calling everyday and that there was no one available to help me and that i had to make an appointment to physically come in and talk to someone about the car, but they could not do anything for me and that i was my fault that i didn’t look at the car fax before buying the car. I asked her again to allow me to talk to a manager and she refused and said the only way i could talk to someone is if I came into the Kia dealership and they wouldn’t take the car back anyways.

I would rather not go into that Kia dealership again for multiple reasons, even for safety reasons, but it may be my only option. The end result is I want a full refund and to return the car. What I must regretfully say is there is in no way that I am able to trust a company like Kia in any regard nor would i ever remotely recommend this company to anyone based on my experiences.

I wanted to share my experience and see if there is anyone that has had a similar complaint about Kia or could offer any help or advice in this matter, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.