On June 19th, 2023 I signed a contract with the South Shore Kia for a 36 months lease of a new Kia Niro EV taking advantage of what I thought at that time of a wonderful offer from Kia of a one year of complimentary fast charging anywhere in the United States provided by the Kia USA for a newly leased Kia Niro EV. Upon my arrival to the South Shore Kia on June 19th the above offer was confirmed and I was reassured by the Sales and Leasing Consultant Saboor Arif, the consultant who was working with me, and later by the Finance Manager Dan Archer when I was signing the lease agreement, one year of complimentary charging will be activated by the Kia USA the next day by the Kia Connect after I will contact the Kia USA Customer Service. As I learned next day, June 20th, when I called the Kia USA Customer Service following the dealer directions to activate "one year of complimentary charging" with the Kia Connect, I was told by the representative that the Kia USA not only does not offer or provide "one year of complimentary charging" but as I was told not even aware of a such "limited time special promotion" by any Kia authorized dealer in the country.
Today, two weeks later, on July 3rd, 2023, the South Shore Kia not only still refusing to acknowledge and correct what I thought at first was a mistake or misunderstanding that will be addressed by the South Shore Kia and Kia USA in a short period of time, but completely opposite, the South Shore Kia still actively advertising and promoting a completely inaccurate and false "special offer", still misleading potential Kia customers providing incorrect and without any foundation "special offer" information, including on the front page of the South Shore Kia website, only now as of "4th of July Special Deal" that expires on July 5th, 2023.
Since my initial communications with the dealership after discovering "the mistake" on June 24th, including the Sales and Leasing Consultant Saboor Arif and the following day the General Sales Manager Eric Martinez, and my unsuccessful attempts to connect with the Finance Director Adnan Contractor, all my calls to the South Shore Kia sales and finance departments remaining answered, all my numerous voice messages left remained unreturned. The Kia USA and the Kia Connect both continuing to advise to address the issue with the South Shore Kia directly, under premises that each authorized Kia dealer is an independent business, no Kia USA Regional Sales Manager (unfortunately I don't have his or her name because the Kia USA is refusing to provide me the name and contact information based on the company policy), not assigned to my case Kia Connect Case Manager never reached me back after my multiple attempts to find out the status of my case with the Kia USA, which I was told I should hear back within 24 to 48 hours by email or by a phone call.
A complete failure to communicate and address the issue on all the levels by the South Shore Kia and by the Kia USA, refusing to acknowledge the problem and continuing advertising and promoting the one year of complimentary charging as the "special offer" for me is a clear sign of not only poor customer service by the dealership as well as by the Kia USA Customer Service but more importantly a clear case of intentionally providing misleading and false advertising information by the South Shore Kia. read more