Battery Replacement #2 (and rental car fiasco)

[PopcornAndData]

I'm writing to share the following information about the second battery replacement for our 2016 Kia Soul EV. The first one was long but went well and the delay was understandable given that it was in the early months of the pandemic when manufacturing and shipping were disrupted. And the first battery truly failed, with a pretty steep decline in range over several months to something like half the normal range. The replacement battery worked great ... until the big recall and software update.

Second replacement duration: 85 days, including multiple delays in diagnosis ... or repeat diagnosis. Whatever. They had to refine their tests, apparently. Despite performing great from our perspective, it eventually failed the tests.
Rental Car Reimbursement duration: 118 days ... and counting. In case you're wondering, it's a healthy four digit number.

Why did we rent a car rather than having the dealership arrange and pay for that? Because the default rental car agency for our dealership would not permit drivers under 21, and the primary driver of this car was my 20 year old daughter (away at college, living in a place that pretty much requires a car). Therefore, we used a different car rental agency and, with permission from Kia, submitted the related receipts afterwards.

Since then: delay after delay after delay after delay. Numerous discussions and emails from corporate. Additional documentation requests. It's now been escalated. Well, actually not. Now it has. We'll get back to you.

Buyer beware. Just sayin'.

Best wishes.

 

[spidermonkey]

First of all, what you are going through sucks. I know it, like really know it. Many of us here do, my car was gone for about ten months. I'm sure none of this is going to sound helpful but here it goes:

So this is going to be a little hard to hear but its really the truth of the matter. You need to sit down and really look at your cars warranty. Then you need to understand that each dealership is different in how they handle rentals and loaners, the dealership is independent of the corporation. Kia is not very good at communicating just how overwhelmed they are with service and recalls. On this they could do better. They will do right by you in the end, it will just take every last ounce of patience you have.

If I were you I would lose the rental and just get by without a car as best as you can, KIA operates on a reimbursement with proof of purchase level and they really like documentation. So it depends on how much you like paper work.

In the end they checked every box they were obligated by law to check, and in the end they made me whole on all the expenses that I had accrued over that ten months. I was skeptical to the end, but here I am at the end of it and honestly the worst thing I can say about KIA is that they could have communicated better.

The take away is this: You are not alone, your suffering is real. For your own mental health you need to be more than patient, you have to be full on Zen to the eleventh power. You need to read your warranty, its not the best read, but it clarifies a lot of things. The warranty is the contract KIA will honor.

KIA will make you whole in the end. In the end you will be able to say all this to someone else.
For right now though, I am sorry you are going through this.

 

[PopcornAndData]

Thanks for the background and context, @spidermonkey - I appreciate it. Meanwhile, the transmission failed. I'll post separately about that.

 

[PopcornAndData]

Kia just sent a letter stating their intention to pay the full rental car fees, just asking me to sign off on that being the complete expectation from me. Sounds good! I returned my signature in 16 minutes. ;-)

Now we'll see how long it takes for actual money to get to me ...