On July 7 we purchased a 2001 KIA Spectra, VIN KNAFB161015026643, from KIA Time of Sumter. I live in Sumter only a couple of blocks from the KIA dealership. One of my main concerns at the time was that the KIA dealer had no maintenance facility in Sumter. Our sales person, Nate Schwartz, assured us that they would have a maintenance facility by December of that year and even showed us the building on the premises that was going to be converted. We therefore decided to go ahead with the purchase.
Within a month I noticed some problems. They were:
An electrical problem that kept blowing a fuse. This affected the passenger side power windows.
The interior trim needed adjusting.
The headlights were out of alignment.
The interior trunk release did not work.
Although we reported these problems within 72 hours of purchasing the vehicle, we were not able to get an appointment to repair the items until September 10. On the date of the appointment we had to drive 54 miles one-way to Florence, S.C. To their shop. Since it could not be fixed in one day we had to leave the car. It took over a week to complete repairs.
In October I accepted a position overseas, in Muscat, Oman. This means that now my wife would have to deal with KIA anytime there was a problem.in late October I noticed the black tape trim around the doors was wrinkling, the rubber weather-strip around the windows had buckled and the hood was not properly aligned.
I drove the car to KIA in Sumter to schedule service and they told me to take the car to Florence the following day. Once again I had to drive to Florence only to be told that parts would have to be ordered. The parts came in and we were told to bring the car in anytime on the 9th of November. I departed for overseas on November 1.
My wife took the car to Florence as scheduled and was told that they would not be able to get to her that day and she should come back on the 11th. She drove back on the 11th and was told that the car would be ready the following day.
By now we were driving two cars to Florence in anticipation of the car not being repaired on the spot. This means that each time we needed service we were putting a minimum of 108 miles on each vehicle.
On February 7th, March 5th, and May 2nd of the car was back in Florence for the tape trim around the doors, the rubber weather - strip and a noisy exhaust. After picking up the car on May 2nd my wife and son noticed damage to the right front quarter panel which had not been there previously. After some discussion the owner, Buddy Yarbourgh, agreed that the damage had been done in his shop and said he would take care of the damage. The service manager scheduled the service, to repair the panel and fix the interior trunk release which was not working again, for 28 May.
My wife delivered the vehicle to the shop as scheduled. As usual it would not be ready that day. My wife called to check the status of the car on May 29 and again on June 3rd. Both times she was told that the car was not ready. She called twice on each day and the second time on June 3rd was told that the damage to the right front quarter panel was her fault and they would not repair it unless she paid for it, she refused.
My wife and/or my son Joey called again on 6,7 and 8th of June. On the 8th my wife was able to speak to the owner, Buddy Yarbourgh and she told him that I would be coming to see him when I got home. He told her to let him come. My wife and son finally picked up the car on June 10th, after two weeks, and noticed that most of the repairs had not been accomplished.
Each time my wife went to KIA to complain about the car she was put off and given excuses. She was ignored for long periods and her calls were often not returned. The service manager, Danny, and the owner, Buddy Yarbourgh, treated her rudely to the point where she cried from frustration, when she got home.
It wasn't until the second week in June that she finally told me what was going on. I was scheduled to come home for vacation in July so I told her to just wait until I got there.
However, she decided to try one more thing. Since I am retired military, she decided to make an appointment at the base legal office. The lawyer she spoke to, listened to her story and prepared a letter to KIA, which my wife sent certified mail on June 12th.
The next day (the 13th) Danny, the service manager, called and left a message, stating that he received the letter and wanted to see if something could be worked out. On the 14th at 8:32 AM, my wife called and spoke to Danny. He asked her to come speak to him, in Florence, to see what could be worked out. She told him that she no longer felt comfortable speaking to anyone up there. She told Danny that he would have to deal with my husband when he comes home... Danny told my wife that he would call when I got home and she told him not to bother since I would be visiting them. Danny then told her to be sure that I called first.
I arrived home from overseas on the night of 27 June. On the 28th I called the lawyer at the air force base legal office to thank him for his help and get advice on my options. He stated that although he could send letters and offer advice he could not represent me in a civil case, which I already knew.
On 28 June my wife and I went to KIA of Sumter. The new manager, I don't recall his name, (apparently there had been several since we made our purchase) after listening for all of 10 seconds, told me that he was new and it was not his problem. I told him that he was wrong, if he was the store manager, then he had inherited the problem. He wanted nothing to do with it and told me that the owner, Buddy Yarbourgh, would be there in about 20 minutes and maybe I could talk to him. I waited.
When Mr. Yarbourgh came in, he spoke briefly to the store manager and then asked me to step into his office. He failed to even acknowledge my wife. As I explained what had been happening, as I understood it, he repeatedly interrupted to tell me that my wife had misunderstood and that everything could be worked out. After 10 minutes of his condescending attitude I told him that as far as I was concerned he had had far too many chances to work it out and I intended to exercise my rights under the Lemon Law of South Carolina. As I walked out with my wife, Mr. Yarbourgh followed me to the door and continued asking for another chance. I left and from the time we walked into his office until we walked out, he failed to look at or acknowledge my wife, even when she spoke to him.
When I arrived home 10 minutes later, Mr. Yarbourgh called and asked if we could get together, to which I answered no chance. The following day I made a scheduled trip to Philadelphia to visit my Mother.
When I returned on July 9, I began tracking down the KIA organization to find out who I needed to contact. I admit that by this time, having heard all that had happened to my wife, I was extremely upset.
I started making some calls within the KIA organization and found myself talking to someone at Royal Imports. As these conversations finally began to make sense, I found that someone at KIA had entered the wrong VIN for my car and for hours we had been talking about a recently repossessed vehicle that someone had now purchased. It took another three phone calls to get that fixed.
Finally, on 10 July I was put in touch with Mr. Lee Raines. Mr. Raines was from the KIA Regional Consumer Affairs in Atlanta, GA. After a bad start, I was pretty upset as I stated earlier, Mr. Raines began to listen to what I told him. At this point he decided to gather some information and asked me where I had purchased the vehicle. I told him that it had been purchased in Sumter, SC but that the repairs were being done in Florence, SC, 54 miles away. Mr. Raines told me that he was checking on it but that there was no authorized KIA dealer in Sumter and that all of their dealerships had maintenance facilities.
During our various conversations I had made it clear to Mr. Raines that I no longer wanted the vehicle since there had been many unresolved problems over the last year, including the discrimination against my wife. Whether it is because she is female or of Hispanic decent is not clear.
On 11 July Mr. Raines asked that I give them another chance to take care of the problem. I reluctantly agreed. However, I told him that they would have to agree to provide a loaner car, since I knew it would be a couple of days before the work was completed. He stated that he would take care of it. He later called and asked that I take the car to KIA of Florence at 10:15 on 15 July.
As scheduled I arrived with the car. My wife had accompanied me. I had written down all the items that were still unresolved, along with a couple of new ones. I went inside and asked for the service manager and was introduced to Joey Matthews (female). I told Joey about the list I had made and asked that she go over the car with me and verify that she understood each of the items. She agreed and we proceeded to inspect the car. Joey was very helpful even to the point of pointing out a couple of things that I had missed. As we completed our joint inspection and walked back to the service desk, Mr. Yarbourgh came out of his office talking on his cell phone.
As he hung up he approached me and explained that Mr. Raines had just called him and told him to personally make sure that I was taken care of. I explained that Joey and I had just inspected the car and he asked if I could go over it one more time with him. I did so but got the impression that he was not really paying attention to me as he interrupted me several times (to give me his professional opinion). I just let it go since I had already had Joey sign off on my list.
The items on the list were:
1. Black tape trim bubbled - Front drivers side door and both passenger side doors. (3rd occurrence)
2.interior trunk latch will not release trunk. (3rd occurrence)
3. Both rear doors weather stripping loose (new)
4. Both rear doors hit the front doors when you open them (new)
5. Right front quarter panel, damaged in KIA shop. Personnel there stated that they had replaced it and had not. (2nd occurrence)
6. When in the shop in early June, the mechanic had removed a plastic panel from under the car and put it in the trunk.
7. Center console latch broken. (new)
8.interior mirror trim over both sun visors is peeling off (2nd occurrence)
9. Rough start and rattle when Air Conditioner turned on.
KIA provided me with a loaner car and we left
On July 19th, Beth called to tell me that the parts had been ordered, the front quarter panel had been fixed and other items were being worked. I heard nothing else until the 29th of July. At 1:56 PM on that date, Joey called and told me that the car would be ready that day and she would call me back and let me know when to come pick it up.
At 3:15 PM on the same day, Beth called and said that they had received the tape for the windows, but they thought it looked better without it and wanted me to look at it before they did anything. I told them that I could come in on Wednesday the 31st of July.
Upon our arrival at 10:00 AM, Beth and Rodney (a mechanic) showed us that under the black tape, that had given us so many problems over the past year, was a finished red paint that matched the rest of the car. I agreed to have them remove the tape from the entire car as it looked much better. To this day I think that the tape was for the purpose of protecting the car during shipment, but KIA insists that it was to give the car a different look.
While we were looking at the tape and making a decision, I noticed that after two weeks the only thing that had been completed was that the visors had been changed. I mentioned to Beth that Joey had told me on the 29th that everything had been done. Beth said that Joey was only the warranty manager and should not be telling customers the status of the vehicles. Beth said that the car would be ready in about an hour and a half. After that they would detail it and give me a call and let me know when to come get it. At this time I noticed that the front quarter panel had not been replaced like Beth had said on the 19th. I pointed this out and Beth complained that someone had told her it was done.
When I arrived home an hour later, there was message on the machine from Beth. She said that the car was finished and they would clean it in the morning and we could pick it up.
On August 1st, I called Beth to verify that everything was done. She said yes. I told her that on July 15th when I delivered the car, I had asked Joey for copies of all previous work orders for the car, since they had never given my wife copies when the work was completed. Beth said that she would have them ready when I arrived.
When we arrived I inspected the car and found that everything had been completed, except that the front quarter panel had not been replaced.instead it had been repaired. It looked pretty good so I didn't make a big deal out of it, except to mention that I noticed it.
When I arrived home, I took a look at the copies of the work-orders. I noticed that they were very vague, in that they did not necessarily describe the problem as we had reported it. This may explain why problems went unresolved for long periods.
I returned to my job overseas and did not come back until March. At this time I noticed that several things were wrong with the car. Again the rubber around the window was buckling, the interior trunk release is not working, the rattling noise when the air conditioner is on, was back, the front quarter panel, that had been repaired and not replaced, had popped out again, something keeps causing a fuse to blow out and there is a strange rumbling in the right rear wheel that increases with speed.
Since we had just had new tires put on the car at a local dealer, I took the noise in the tire to indicate that it had not been properly balanced. The tire dealer checked the balance the alignment and even replaced all four tires and still the noise persisted.
I called KIA of Florence on 27 March to set up an appointment. The first thing available was on April 2nd. I had to return to my overseas job on the 1st. Therefore, once again my wife, had to deal with them.
My wife delivered the car as scheduled. After checking it out she was told that parts had to be ordered. She was also told that the noise in the right rear tire was a bad wheel bearing, which they would replace and the fuse was blowing out due to a faulty wiring harness. The new service manager Phillip told my wife that the damage to the quarter panel was caused by someone else, although he could produce no evidence of the car having hit anything. He did point out some dirt on the bottom of the quarter panel, which he claimed was a result of running through a ditch. It just happened to be in the exact same place as the previous damage. The small bend in the quarter panel was even in the exact spot where they had painted over it the previous July. At this point my wife didn't know what to say and let it pass. She brought the car home to await the delivery of the parts.
It is now the 29th April and the car is still not repaired. I had to come home for a business conference being held at nearby Shaw Air Force Base and am therefore staying at my home. My wife told me that on the 15th of April she had called and spoke to Phillip. She asked when they were going to fix the car. She says that he was rude and asked if she had received a card in the mail. She told him no and he said that she would have to wait for the card and then call for an appointment. I arrived home on the 27th of April and called Phillip on the 28th. I explained that my wife had called on the 15th and was told to wait for a card to arrive. He asked me who told her that. I asked him what his name was and he told me Phillip, I told him that it was him that my wife had spoken too. He immediately began telling me that my parts had all arrived and I could bring the car in at my convenience. I told him that that was funny because we still had not received his card. He ignored that and asked when I would like to come in. I am scheduled for 11:00 AM today, 29 April.
I am going to take the car in today and get the repairs done. However, this is the end of it. I no longer want this car and I want nothing more to do with KIA or anyone in their organization. I believe that my wife has endured enough and that I have been very patient. It seems that each time we go through this, there is a new manager who insists that he is not to blame and I should give him an opportunity to help. I have had enough.
It is my understanding that KIA could be given two choices; first would be to give me a new car of equal value; second would be to refund all my money including registration and taxes. I want to say now that I will never own another KIA by choice and they still have not built, and I understand have no intention of building, a maintenance facility here in Sumter.
My understanding is that this will now be handled through mediation and eventually arbitration. That is fine except I insist that I be dealt with directly. My wife will not be involved in any way. The registration and the loan on this car are in my name and therefore only I will be contacted on this matter. Having said that, I return overseas on the 5th of May and do not expect to return until December. During this time I can only be contacted by either e-mail or an overseas call. I cannot call 800 numbers from my location. There is also a time difference of 8 hours from EST.
Any correspondence can be sent to my home address and my wife will make sure that I get it. However, it will be faster to communicate by e-mail.
I just want to make one more point here. I am a retired Air Force Master Sergeant with 25 years experience in Motor Vehicle Operations. My current position (two years) is as Program Vehicle Manager. Additionally, except when under warranty, I do all the repairs to my personal vehicles and have done so for years. I know what I am talking about when it comes to cars and do not accept most of the explanations (excuses) that have been given by KIA management and their mechanics.
It is now 1:41 PM on 29 April. I have just returned from KIA with the car. It seems we will have to get another appointment since they received the wrong wheel bearing and forgot to get the wiring harness. Once again we have wasted over two hours and driven 108 miles only to have to return again. If you count all the times we have had to make trips to and from KIA in Florence for service it will come to well over 1,500 miles.
All of the above was reported to AUTOLINE as on4e of the steps towards arbitration. I was notified, by e-mail, while I was overseas that I was scheduled for a hearing and a vehicle inspection. I notified AUTOLINE that I could not bring the car for inspection or attend the hearing since I was overseas and could not just up and leave. They responded that since the car was register3ed to me I would have to be present for the hearing or my case would be dropped. Unfortunatley I had to drop the case and I still have the KIA and continue to have problems. My overseas contract ran out on 31 October. I have signed with another company in Iraq and will be reporting on 15 November. I came home for a two week break to discover a thumping and clicking noise from the front end of the KIA on every left turn. This woould indicate to me that there is a bad CVxle. KIA said that the differential inside the transmission is bad because the transmission fluid had not been changed at 30,000 miles as required in tyhe owners manual.
They also said that the engine needs to be de-slugged and are charging $450 plus $95 for worn AC belts (there is a noise from the engine every time the AC is turned on I do not belive it is the belts). I called the KIA regional office in Atlanta and talked to Tracy Francis. She listened and said she would get back to me. After three days she called and left a message reiterating that the repairs neede to be done and should be taken care of before they put the vehilce in storage which would cost me more money. I had no choice but to call the service manger, James, and tell him to proceed but that I was not at all happy. He said that if all went well the car would be ready for pickup on Tuesday, 11 November 203. I depart for Iraq on 14 November. I will continue to do everything I can to ensure that consumers are aware of the problems I've encountered. Even the tow truck opertor who came to take the care to the shop on Monday said he loves KIA's, although he would never own one, they do keep him in business.
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