Incorrect Monthly Payment On Contract

[AMDman18]

So I've got a bit of a predicament here and I'd love to get some input/advice/guidance from you guys and gals. So back in December I took delivery of a '19 Stinger GT2 RWD. Not the best deal in the world but also not sticker so I was OK with that. When I originally signed for the car I was told that all in my monthly payments would be $599/month. A little more than I wanted to pay but not far off from reality since I wound up not qualifying for top tier lease rates. (Thanks a lot brand new job...) Well, I was pleasantly surprised when a few weeks later, earlier this month, I get a call from the finance guy saying that we need to come back and resign some paperwork because they messed up on the residual. They input it 1% lower than it should have been, a "typographical" error according to the finance guy, and as a result my monthly payment is actually going to go down around $15/month. Hey, I'll take that! So I go back out to the dealership, sign the new paperwork, and I think I'm good to go. Until yesterday (1/17) when I finally get emailed from Kia with how to access my account online. So I log in, thinking I'm going to owe them my first payment of $585 soon only to be greeted with a due payment just shy of $609. So I'm like "Uhhhh, what the eff??" After finally figuring out how to see a breakdown of the payment, I see that the base payment lines up correctly with what's on my contract, but the taxes almost doubled. I discovered all of this late last night. So this morning, I call Kia Financial. The lady on the phone is telling me that it's the local tax bureau that's responsible and that I could contact them (for what, exactly, I have no idea) or contact my dealer. Seeing that I'm getting nowhere with her I hang up and call the finance guy back. He sounds surprised that it happened and said that generally if a discrepancy like that was seen that Kia Financial would have contacted the dealership asking what was up with the difference before it ever getting to the customer. But ultimately he said since it's submitted there isn't much he's aware of that can be done but he was going to contact their Kia rep and speak with the people at the dealership that file all the paperwork and whatnot and see what can be done if anything. I never heard from him for the rest of the day...... So now I'm kinda starting to get into a bit of a panic. On top of it being wrong and everything, my payment is due TODAY (1/18). Yeah, they sent me an email to set up my account A DAY before the first payment is due. But what do you guys think I should do? I was thinking of trying to call this Kia Stinger customer support line I keep hearing about. Should I pay the first payment and continue to fight this? Should I leave this first payment unpaid until I get them to sort it out? And speaking of sorting it out, what if anything can they do? I was thinking of asking maybe as a compromise like, "OK, since I'm paying more than I agreed to and there's seemingly nothing that can be done, can Kia at least upgrade me from 12K to 15K miles and I'll just keep paying this higher than agreed upon rate?" I dunno what to do or expect. Any input would be greatly appreciated and apologies for the great big wall of text. I'm also attaching pics of my contract as well as my payment due breakdown.

 

[MMB22]

Others can chime in but from what I see I hate to say it but the tax they are charging is something that you would have to pay in your state no matter what you agree upon with the dealer so that is non negotiable from the way I see it. I looked up Louisiana tax and it appears there are additional taxes that can be added in addition to the straight sales tax so I suspect that maybe what you are seeing.

Louisiana has a statewide sales tax rate of 4.45%, which has been in place since 1938.

Municipal governments in Louisiana are also allowed to collect a local-option sales tax that ranges from 0.00% to 7.00% across the state, with an average local tax of 4.69% (for a total of 9.14% when combined with the state sales tax). The maximum local tax rate allowed by Louisiana law is 7.00%.

So I'm not sure you are going to get anywhere. But my best advice would be to make the payment and not go delinquent out of the gate as I work in Mortgages and it would be like someone not wanting to pay their mortgage payment because the taxes are too high and that doesn't fly when you've signed a contract. The only thing you may get from the dealer is that they did not calculate the taxes right to give you a fair representation of what you would actually be paying (with all taxes) so you might be able to get something they can add like free oil changes for year etc.

My guess is the dealer guys didn't calculate the taxes right sent it to Kia where they calculated them correctly resulting in the higher payment.

 

[AMDman18]

Others can chime in but from what I see I hate to say it but the tax they are charging is something that you would have to pay in your state no matter what you agree upon with the dealer so that is non negotiable from the way I see it. I looked up Louisiana tax and it appears there are additional taxes that can be added in addition to the straight sales tax so I suspect that maybe what you are seeing.

Louisiana has a statewide sales tax rate of 4.45%, which has been in place since 1938.

Municipal governments in Louisiana are also allowed to collect a local-option sales tax that ranges from 0.00% to 7.00% across the state, with an average local tax of 4.69% (for a total of 9.14% when combined with the state sales tax). The maximum local tax rate allowed by Louisiana law is 7.00%.

So I'm not sure you are going to get anywhere. But my best advice would be to make the payment and not go delinquent out of the gate as I work in Mortgages and it would be like someone not wanting to pay their mortgage payment because the taxes are too high and that doesn't fly when you've signed a contract. The only thing you may get from the dealer is that they did not calculate the taxes right to give you a fair representation of what you would actually be paying (with all taxes) so you might be able to get something they can add like free oil changes for year etc.

My guess is the dealer guys didn't calculate the taxes right sent it to Kia where they calculated them correctly resulting in the higher payment.

I think that's exactly what happened. In a fairly hasty manner they put together a deal with inaccurate numbers to get me out the door. And, in all honesty, The amount isn't an issue. If I were to be breaking the bank with a 20 some odd dollar increase then I shouldn't have been shopping for this to begin with. My issue is really with the principle of it all. I signed a contract with someone who was assuring me that this would be my monthly payment in order to make a deal. And now all of a sudden those assurances are out the window and there isn't anything anybody can do. That's...... REALLY annoying to me. And the guy never even said anything like, oops, I goofed. My bad. Even that would maybe make it a little bit better. But the idea of making a customer sign on the dotted line only for those numbers to be wrong at the CUSTOMER'S expense and then just being like "uhhhh, I dunno" just doesn't sit well with me

 

[MMB22]

I think that's exactly what happened. In a fairly hasty manner they put together a deal with inaccurate numbers to get me out the door. And, in all honesty, The amount isn't an issue. If I were to be breaking the bank with a 20 some odd dollar increase then I shouldn't have been shopping for this to begin with. My issue is really with the principle of it all. I signed a contract with someone who was assuring me that this would be my monthly payment in order to make a deal. And now all of a sudden those assurances are out the window and there isn't anything anybody can do. That's...... REALLY annoying to me. And the guy never even said anything like, oops, I goofed. My bad. Even that would maybe make it a little bit better. But the idea of making a customer sign on the dotted line only for those numbers to be wrong at the CUSTOMER'S expense and then just being like "uhhhh, I dunno" just doesn't sit well with me

That's how I would approach it maybe with the GM at the dealership and state because of this you should give me something to make up for this mistake. Getting something rather than nothing may at least let it sit better with you. I would be like look Kia is going to send me surveys and ask how it was if you want a good score you need to make this right or I won't recommend people etc. You don't need to get all in their face crazy with it but I would definitely make that point. An extra $20 for 36 months on a lease is $720 you were not banking on for the life of the lease so I'd say try for something like the free oil changes or some accessory or something.

Sorry man but good luck hope you can at least get them to admit they made the mistake.

 

[CKeeler]

I pretty much ended up with a similar problem. All my paperwork showed my lease payment was supposed to be 395. But Kia finance sent me an email for my first payment of 399. After talking with Kia finance and going back to the finance manager at the original dealer, I came to find out that my particular city adds another 1% in taxes on top of county taxes the dealer had accounted for. Their computer system didn’t know that when they input my address. Luckily the finance manager is a real stand up guy and since he couldn’t get Kia finance to do anything and the dealership wasn’t going to do anything that I know of, he decided to take it upon himself and pay for my second oil change and tire rotation. A small thing, but I’m happy with the way he treats his customers

 

[MMB22]

I pretty much ended up with a similar problem. All my paperwork showed my lease payment was supposed to be 395. But Kia finance sent me an email for my first payment of 399. After talking with Kia finance and going back to the finance manager at the original dealer, I came to find out that my particular city adds another 1% in taxes on top of county taxes the dealer had accounted for. Their computer system didn’t know that when they input my address. Luckily the finance manager is a real stand up guy and since he couldn’t get Kia finance to do anything and the dealership wasn’t going to do anything that I know of, he decided to take it upon himself and pay for my second oil change and tire rotation. A small thing, but I’m happy with the way he treats his customers

Good deal, see that is a dealership that at least values their customers. They didn't have to but because they admitted the mistake and gave you something that ended up being of monetary value they leave you with a good impression of them. We all make mistakes but its how we take ownership of them which to me really says something about someone or a dealership.