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Hi,
I was looking for lease car option and found online advertisement about Kia Niro 2018 car with $999 down payment and $119/- per month for 36 months lease on PowerKia.com. I visited the store in person on 2/13, took the test drive and liked to car. After arranging all my finance stuff, I setup time by calling sales person and visited the store on 2/16. I filled application form with all person data including SSN. My credit report was run and I qualified for lease but then I was told I have to pay $219/ per month instead of advertise price of $119/- per month. Sales person told price given in the Advertise is wrong and they can't give me on advertise price. I am very disappointment with this experience. I had done all my leg work, my credit report was run and finally I was told that Kia can't give me this deal as per advertised price.
I request Kia to honor the advertise price and please give me this deal per advertise price of $119/- per month.
Attached is advertisement photo taken from powerkia.com website which shows price of $119/- per month.
No, this is not true. Sales person clearly told me that there is no issue with my credit report and I fully quality per my credit report but they can't give the car per advertise price because advertised price is not correct. I am requesting Kia to honor the advertised price.
I asked sales person to give in writing about not giving me the deal on advertised price. Attached is letter I have received from dealer mentioning advertised price was incorrect and hence they are not ready to give me this deal.
I thought you are Kia representative.
I would say reputed company like Kia has to take responsibility to make sure their data is correct before collecting customer personal data and running customer credit report and that’s what brand means. As a customer, we pay for brand name for these key things.
Hi Banti. Appreciated reading your concerns. Admittedly I haven't looked into the particulars of the transaction you're referring to, but it's likely your credit report may have had some issues whereby you didn't qualify for the lower interest rate. Whereas you may have been a higher risk, a larger percentage was being charged.
You responded, "No, this is not true. Sales person clearly told me that there is no issue with my credit report and I fully quality per my credit report but they can't give the car per advertise price because advertised price is not correct. I am requesting Kia to honor the advertised price.
I asked sales person to give in writing about not giving me the deal on advertised price. Attached is letter I have received from dealer mentioning advertised price was incorrect and hence they are not ready to give me this deal."
Appreciated reading your response. The fault is not that of Kia, but a third party that assists this dealer with internet advertising. The advertising firm made a mistake of posting the wrong monthly payment amount which, in turn, would have left the buyer $3600 short on the principal alone.
Whereas your credit has already been run, have you considered determining if you qualify for the $219 monthly promotion?
Yes, I qualified for the $219 but I can't afford it. I was ready to go upto $150 per month but dealer didn't agree.
Kia collected all my personal information including SSN and ran my credit report by giving me wrong information. Running credit report by giving me incorrect price is going to impact my credit score. Its loss for me without any fault. I never expected this kind of response from Kia saying its third party mistake.
Seems i have to consult some legal professional because I am not getting appropriate response and information here.
Hi Banti.
I'm very honored to assist in any way I can. In order to properly help you, let me begin by clarifying a few things.
First, I am not Kia. I own no company and make no representations that I do. I am here strictly to assist you with your concerns.
Second, your complaint stems from an ad you found on the "powerkia.com" website. This website is in no way owned or run by Kia. Power Kia is a dealership in Oregon. Power Kia is not owned or ran by Kia. The only reason Kia is brought into this discussion is because Kia brand merchandise is the form of cars the Power Kia dealership promotes and sells.
Third, the powerkia.com website is not run by the Power Kia dealership. The website, like most forms of advertising, is subcontracted or "farmed" out to another company called dealership.com. This is important to understand where the "fault" may reside in the mistaken calculations.
Okay. Now that those items have been clarified, let's cover a few areas of concern. Oregon Statutes § 646.608 covers truth in advertising and protects consumers from fraudulent advertising practices. Without question, no seller is allowed to PURPOSEFULLY engage in advertising to DELIBERATELY mislead a customer. However that does NOT mean that if a mistake is made in running an ad, that a retraction cannot be placed to correct said mistake.
Let me try to simplify the issue at hand. Let's say that I run a small used car lot within your town. I have a Ford "widget" that I want to sell. Within the local paper I place an ad in which I offer this Ford for $5000.00. However the paper makes a mistake when running the ad and states the vehicle is offered at $500.00. You see the ad, drive down to the lot and want to buy this vehicle for the $500.
So who is at "fault?" Which entity, if any, is responsible for covering the mistaken ad?
The laws may vary from one state to the next. For the most part, no one becomes responsible for selling the product at the mistaken price.
In this scenario, you'd want to suggest Ford, of all companies, would be responsible even though Ford has less culpability than anyone. Yes, it was a Ford car, but that is as far as the Ford company has to do with the issue.
Hopefully we can agree that this car lot, also, hasn't done anything wrong. They placed the ad correctly, so they shouldn't be expected to take such a loss.
In this case, one might suggest it's the paper that should expect to lose. After all, it was one of their employees that mistakenly placed the decimal point in the wrong location. Actually this doesn't happen either. Consumer protection laws realize that mistakes like this can happen. The concern is that they shouldn't happen intentionally, creating a "bait and switch" scenario on the public. Laws generally allow the paper, in this case, to offer a retraction through the used car lot in order to correct the mistake. That's what happened in this case.
Unfortunately, you've spent some time and money in order to drive to the dealership, only to find the ad was a mistake, but legally the mistake is just that and not enforceable.
If in suggesting you're not getting the "appropriate response" I believe you're saying that you aren't getting the response you want. I'm sorry if that is the case. You may still, of course, consult a "legal professional;" presumably an attorney. I'd be very interested as to what he/she may say. More importantly, I'd be interested to know what your perception is now that all of this has been clarified. Has it changed your perspective in any way? Sincerely, I'd like to know.
You replied, "I thought you are Kia representative. I would say reputed company like Kia has to take responsibility to make sure their data is correct before collecting customer personal data and running customer credit report and that’s what brand means. As a customer, we pay for brand name for these key things."
I wish I could assist further. I'm sure you're a quality individual and I really do wish you all the best.