A new car owner said he was close to receiving a “free” vehicle from Kia after the dealership apparently messed up his payment paperwork.
Noe Pena (@noepenaiv) said that he never received instructions from Kia regarding how to make recurring payments. And he said that Kia wasn’t actively checking to make sure he had a card on file—until he called the dealership to let the workers know they made a mistake. Now Pena said he’s left making monthly payments and suggested that he regrets telling the dealership about its hiccup.
“Just realized the car dealership [expletive] my paperwork up with the bank and if I would’ve never came back to fix it i would’ve had a free car,” Pena wrote in the text overlay of his five-second clip. In the accompanying video caption, he said the car was in his possession for two months already.
“Damn I had to make that call about the payments,” Pena lamented in the video caption. His clip has amassed more than 672,000 views.
Kia screws up customer’s payment paperwork
In a follow-up video, Pena admitted he wasn’t “too sure” how the mess-up occurred. He said he received a two-month grace period for his first car payment, meaning it was due Nov. 5.
Two days before then, however, Pena said he called a Kia salesperson because he didn’t know how to make his payment.
“They never told me how I was going to make the payment,” Pena said. Still, he said he knew the amount he was supposed to pay and that Kia had his credit report.
Upon calling Kia, Pena said he was told that he was supposed to receive a letter detailing how to make his car payments. But he said he told a Kia representative that he never got one.
In the end, Pena said he called the dealership back and asked for more details on how to set up his payment account. Pena said he was ultimately referred to Kia’s finance team and suddenly began receiving new credit inquiries from the dealership. He said he was also told by a second Kia representative that there was an apparent “problem” with his old paperwork.
“The finance guy is basically like… ‘We’re going to need you to come in tomorrow to re-sign the paperwork,’” Pena recounted. He said that the man’s excuse was that the bank didn’t receive the original paperwork on its end.
Pena said he confirmed with the second Kia representative that the car was still his—but now he’s on the hook for payments.
“I should’ve never made that call, but I was just scared for it to ruin my credit,” he said. “I should’ve never made that call.”
@noepenaiv The car was in my possesion fir almost 2 momths already damn i had to make that call about the payments😭😭😭😭😭
♬ redbone – via ♱
What happens if the dealership is at fault?
Pena isn’t the first car buyer to find himself in this predicament. In several online forums, other customers claimed that they, too, were steps away from receiving a “free” car.
“If the dealership makes a mistake with your paperwork, which results in them being unable to take payments from your account, could you refuse to sign any corrected paperwork and get a free car?” one user asked in a Quora thread.
Apparently it’s not that simple.
One of the top-liked answers put it plainly: A dealership will either get your money or their car back.
“If it was a direct debit (as deduced from your statement ‘them being unable to take funds from your account’), this is basically the same as not making your payments,” the user wrote.
As a result, they said your car will be repossessed. “Either end back on the lot with the tow bill due to you; possibly ending up at an auction.” They added that missing car payments could affect your credit score, too—even if it’s not technically your fault.
In short, just because the mode of payment didn’t go through doesn’t mean the dealership won’t be able to eventually recover the payment from your account.
“You cannot trick your way into a free car this way,” another commenter wrote.
In the r/personalfinance subreddit, another buyer confirmed this. In short, if you refuse to make payments, you risk getting sued and losing your car.
“It could be an honest mistake or some scummy crap,” one Redditor said of dealerships that make this error. “But there is no way in which you receive a ‘free’ car out of this.”
Some viewers claim they’ve gotten lucky
In the comments of Pena’s video, some viewers claimed that they’ve gotten away with earning a so-called free or discounted car due to a dealership’s mistakes.
“Me when I put 6k down on my car and they never asked for the money so I walked out with a 2021 Camry and my 6k in hand HAHA,” one woman shared.
“My papa got banned from a dealer because they called him after with the ‘we gave you the wrong deal,’” another said. “He hung up.”
“This happened to me too last month,” another viewer wrote. “It was their mistake and they gave me a free 3 year warranty on my tires.”
Others were quick to burst Pena’s bubble, however. They confirmed what Reddit and Quora users said—that there’s no such thing as “free” car from the dealership.
“If you wouldn’t have came to fix it they would’ve repoed it,” one woman said. “From a former car sales consultant.”
“Na they fs woulda caught you,” another added. “Maybe not right away but eventually cause something similar happened to my brother.”
“Nothing is free,” a third viewer wrote.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Pena via TikTok comment and to Kia by email.
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