Lease return excess wear & tear

[WildRide47]

Running to the press in less than 30 days might feel satisfying, but it rarely speeds up a resolution.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t share their experiences here. In fact, the forum is exactly the place to talk about frustrations, compare notes, and help each other get results. But let’s not pretend media escalation is a silver bullet.

Once the press gets involved, legal teams on both sides (Lucid and BofA) have to get looped in. What happens next? Everything slows down. Communications get lawyered. PR responses get vetted, then shelved. The companies go into risk mitigation mode, not problem-solving mode.

Instead of fixing the issue internally and improving the system holistically, resources get diverted to damage control.

To give a real-world example: My mom was legal counsel at a major utility company. One day, someone put out a “funny” sign in the cafeteria - Homer Simpson tripping in a nuclear plant on some green ooze with the caption “Be Safe in the Workplace.” Innocent enough? Not to legal. Because if anything ever went wrong at the actual nuclear site, that sign would’ve become an exhibit in court or a headline in the media.

It took five meetings, three law firms, and twenty lawyers to remove that sign from a breakroom table. Millions of dollars and countless hours were wasted not because it wasn’t important, but because the legal loop is slow, expensive, and reactive by design.

Just something to think about before escalating publicly. The better fix might be through persistent internal advocacy - advocacy on this forum, which by Lucid showing up here and contacting people directly shows that they were in this process.

A PR battle that turns every issue into a liability solves nothing.

Just my two cents.

I disagree. if Lucid goes into risk mitigation mode and not problem solving mode then they are just multiplying the hurt to themselves. Lucid is a relatively new company. The last thing they need is continued bad word of mouth. A more logical response would be to say screw this legal nonsense of slowing things down, we need to do the opposite of that and fix this ASAP. That means stop ghosting your customers when it looks like they have legitimate complaint. Since Lucid picked Bofa as a third party, then Lucid is responsible to fix this and inform all those affected what they are going to do about it. That means when they say they will call tomorrow, then follow through. Or at least let the customer know how they plan to fix things and the timeline for doing so.

 

[L-Dude]

Big corporations understand the importance of their brand image. If something can negatively impact their brand image, they will act. Otherwise, they just string things along under the radar.

 

[martianmango]

I'd be more open to being charitable to anyone but Bank of America. That bank deserves the least amount of goodwill extended to them in any and every situation

 

[Leftlane]

It’s hard to tell people to be more patient and let Lucid take their sweet time to fix this when customers are being turned over to collections IMMEDIATELY. The only parties being negatively affected so far are the customers, and that won’t change without ample publicity and pressure.

 

[BenTexas]

Perhaps BoA thinks Lucid's customers so wealthy that an extra $1000 or $5800 will be ignored.

Not ignoring my extra $5,800 invoice. Bad assumption on their part.

 

[BenTexas]

There is a tiny provision in the reservation agreement that Lucid uses to force arbitration, unless you have affirmatively opted out within 30 days of signing.

The lease itself says nothing about arbitration.

Once my lease is over and I pay their ransom, I'll be happy to walk away from this brand forever

Running to the press in less than 30 days might feel satisfying, but it rarely speeds up a resolution.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t share their experiences here. In fact, the forum is exactly the place to talk about frustrations, compare notes, and help each other get results. But let’s not pretend media escalation is a silver bullet.

Once the press gets involved, legal teams on both sides (Lucid and BofA) have to get looped in. What happens next? Everything slows down. Communications get lawyered. PR responses get vetted, then shelved. The companies go into risk mitigation mode, not problem-solving mode.

Instead of fixing the issue internally and improving the system holistically, resources get diverted to damage control.

To give a real-world example: My mom was legal counsel at a major utility company. One day, someone put out a “funny” sign in the cafeteria - Homer Simpson tripping in a nuclear plant on some green ooze with the caption “Be Safe in the Workplace.” Innocent enough? Not to legal. Because if anything ever went wrong at the actual nuclear site, that sign would’ve become an exhibit in court or a headline in the media.

It took five meetings, three law firms, and twenty lawyers to remove that sign from a breakroom table. Millions of dollars and countless hours were wasted not because it wasn’t important, but because the legal loop is slow, expensive, and reactive by design.

Just something to think about before escalating publicly. The better fix might be through persistent internal advocacy - advocacy on this forum, which by Lucid showing up here and contacting people directly shows that they were in this process.

A PR battle that turns every issue into a liability solves nothing.

Just my two cents.

I think it's a bit disingenuous to ask people not to take every option available to them to resolve something like an unexpected bill in the thousands while staring down the barrel of a collections notice. Your point is fair but make it when you're in te hot seat.

 

[borski]

OK, more press interest in this story. Reporter seeking people here to interview.

I was contacted by a financial reporter who is currently working on a story about Lucid's lease difficulties and the number of people who feel they've been mistreated by the company and/or their lending partner BofA.

He's asked me not to post his email address or phone number, but asked me to get it to other individuals DIRECTLY experiencing something similar right now. This is not for those worried about what might happen to them in the future when they turn in the car.

If you've turned in a leased vehicle and been assessed what you see as unfair charges for excess wear and tear, and especially if you've tried to resolve this amicably with Lucid and/or Lucid Finanial or BofA, and been denied an appeal like me, then PM me here and I'll give you his name and email.

He'd like to hear from you ASAP for his story.

He's reaching out to the company as well, as he clearly should.

Again, don't request from me his contact info unless you're ALREADY experiencing this issue and have tried and failed to get it resolved by Lucid, Lucid Financial, or BofA.

See, this kind of responsible journalism, even when it hurts Lucid, is an example of something I have absolutely no issue with, provided Lucid has been given a chance to correct the issue first.

This 'take your time, gather the data, talk to primary sources, contact Lucid for a response' journalism is great. It's the Mr. eletric 'I copied some sentences from a forum and here's a bunch on how EVs work to fill the word count so google doesn't smack me for bad SEO' that grinds my gears.

 

[BenTexas]

See, this kind of responsible journalism, even when it hurts Lucid, is an example of something I have absolutely no issue with, provided Lucid has been given a chance to correct the issue first.

This 'take your time, gather the data, talk to primary sources, contact Lucid for a response' journalism is great. It's the Mr. eletric 'I copied some sentences from a forum and here's a bunch on how EVs work to fill the word count so google doesn't smack me for bad SEO' that grinds my gears.

I fully agree with this. My quotes were used in the Carbuzz article but important context was missing and this thread is still active. So at best that article is incomplete.