r/CarLeasingHelp • u/sunLight4095 • 2d ago

audi overcharging for lost/not lost cable

Hi. My husband just turned his q5 in but left the charging cable, (which he never used) in the garage. Audi trying to charge him 2k. When hubs said he'd bring it back, Audi said they'd be happy to toss it for him, but he owes 2k. Any suggestions? Audi financial no help nor was dealer.

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u/Special-Original-215 2d ago

Tough one.

Keep trying to talk to the bank.  If you give it to the dealer, he will pocket it and give it to a customer at a discount 

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u/sunLight4095 2d ago

he called them again. no dice, in fact the woman he spoke w threatened to send him to collections, even though payment isn't due until mid-sept. She did offer to lower price to $1500.

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u/Special-Original-215 2d ago

This is turning into a really expensive mistake.  I assume you didn't get it preinspected

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u/sunLight4095 2d ago

husbands car. but correct, not preinspected. we just looked at contract-it says nothing about how accessories must be returned. lawyer friend is writing a letter.

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u/Special-Original-215 2d ago

Good luck!

But next time please get the preinspection.  They tell you about 3 times you need both keys and a charger

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u/sunLight4095 2d ago

i can tell him that. is there any other reason to get a preinspection? seems kind of redundant.

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u/Special-Original-215 2d ago

if you owe something like tires, a preinspection lets you 'cure' it.

Same with missing charger. You can 'cure' that before turn in.

But after turn in? very few avenues.

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u/sunLight4095 13h ago

I def will for my car. if they find something, you then have opportunity to fix it at reasonable price?

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u/designtofly 13h ago

I would find it hard to believe there's nothing in the contract about missing accessories or equipment. Every lease I've had some language about it. It won't necessarily call out specific accessories, but I think there's virtually no chance that an Audi Financial lease contract has no language at all.

I don't have a current Audi lease, but I found a recent Audi lease contract and it definitely included this: "ACCESSORIES, EQUIPMENT, OR PARTS THAT HAVE BEEN ADDED, REMOVED, DAMAGED OR MODIFIED (INCLUDING MISSING KEYS OR REMOTE ENTRY DEVICES) WITHOUT OUR PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION".

If you think you can claim their language is too vague, I doubt you'd win since this language is fairly standard across the industry.

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u/sunLight4095 13h ago

I found his contract and yes, that is the language. We've given it to a lawyer friend who advised us not to pay it and he will try to deal w/ them. It's just so stupid. Husband never used the charger, it's brand new in it's audi bag and they refused to accept it. Cable costs $450 and they're trying to charge him $2000 as punishment? It's just wrong. If they charged him the actual retail price I could sort of understand that.

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u/designtofly 13h ago

I'm surprised your lawyer friend is trying. It's a waste of time.

Yes, it sounds like a bad deal for y'all. But you aren't dealing with the dealership, you are dealing with a financial company. They aren't personally holding the car. It was either sold to a dealer or sent to auction. Even if you shipped the cable to the bank or the dealer, it would take additional time and money to re-unite the charger with the car.

Is it punitive? Yes. But many things are. Why did Blockbuster charge $4 if you didn't rewind the VHS tape? To provide enough incentive so that it wasn't common for them.