I bought a 2023 Kia Sorento on Nov. 29, 2024…read more
After the salesman had confirmed some basic info, I was passed to Matt, the finance guy. He sat me and my parents (they were loaning me a down payment) in his office where he proceeded to give us a great deal with a $1500 tradein value for my 2011 Ford Fusion. Fantastic.
When he asked for the title for my Ford, I gave him what I THOUGHT was an acceptable document--the signed-over title of the Ford from my ex husband. I will admit guilt here--the title should have been fresh and in MY name, which I did not understand. But Matt said, "It's fine, we'll take care of it," and took the title and gave me the tradein value.
In December, after I'd already driven the car back to Illinois with the promise "I'd receive plates in the mail," I received texts from Matt stating that they actually DID need a fresh title, so they'd fedEx the faulty title I'd given them back to me.
Several weeks later, that title had not arrived. It had been lost with FedEx, and my ex had to order another one. At this point, the temp tags given by Art Moehn had expired. I called the dealership to ask for new ones and they refused for "legal reasons." I even offered to repay the tradein value of the Ford and start over, but was told that wasn't possible.
My ex finally got the Ford's fresh registration and signed it over to the dealership. I FedExed those documents back (it was nearly March at this point). I received a text from Matt confirming that, yes, I should receive my plates in the mail, and they'll send a 60-day temp tag, which did arrive.
The 2nd week of May, I still had not received my plates. I became concerned--my temp tags would expire May 29, and I'd booked a road trip through Canada (at a $2k expense) for which I'd need proper registration. So I contacted Matt (after several ignored previous attempts) on May 14, asking if he could check that all paperwork was in order. He assured me that it was, and said I just needed to wait.
Several days passed with no update, so I reached out to both the Illinois and Michigan Secretaries of State. Neither had any information on my VIN. I spent over 4 hours on hold. I reached out to the leinholder, Capital One, who said, yes, there was a delay from Art Moehn on paperwork. Feeling like I might have found the issue, I contacted Matt.
He proceeded to call me back and repeatedly state that he could not do anything, that the lender had nothing to do with the registration, that it "must suck" to be in my position, but there was absolutely nothing he could do because DealerDoc (who he'd FINALLY agreed to contact after several texts) hadn't "gotten back to him." He insisted that DealerDoc "doesn't make mistakes" (this did turn out to be true, but wait for the end).
So I reached out to DealerDoc on May 23. They returned my call on May 27 to communicate the following: DealerDoc did not receive ANY transfer registration paperwork until May 15. One day AFTER I'd sent Matt the a text regarding checking on a 3-month-old registration paperwork submission. To reiterate--I now realized Matt hadn't submitted ANY paperwork until almost 3 months following his receipt of my valid title.
Art Moehn's employee berated me, ignored me, and then gaslit me while covering up his own ineptitude. He had never submitted the paperwork until AFTER several emails and texts from me (nearly 3 months after I'd submitted valid documents) and lied through his teeth about making a mistake. While I now finally have my plates (nearly 7 months after sale, 3 months after submitting valid paperwork, and many hours wasted on hold), I cannot speak more poorly about Art Moehn's staff, at least with this particular employee. My Kia is fine, by the way. But don't trust financing, registration, or communication from this dealership.
