So I got a call this morning from Lucid Finance. Now that my VIN has been assigned, they want to finalize the terms of the loan.
So on my original application, I had indicated the amount of down payment, years of lease, and mileage (12k/year) I wanted. Their payment calculator was clearly broken*, but the amount I was told over the phone was a clearly more reasonable value.
FY: "Could you tell me what the monthly payment is if I went with 10k/year instead of 12k/year?"
LF: "I'd have to change the application form, send it back to processing, and then they'll create a new application in somewhere between 2 and 24 hours"
FY: "WTF?" [I actually said something slightly more polite.]
LF "Oh yes. They have to recalculate the taxes, refill in the forms, ......"
FY: "This is what computers are for. They're going to enter 10k into a form and the computer will do the rest."
LF "I'm sorry, that's all I can do"
FY: "Is there anyway I can talk to someone in the processing department?"
LF: "I don't even have any way of talking to someone in the finance department."
Seriously, I was hoping to think about a variety of leasing terms (3 years? 4 years?) mileage (10k? 12k?) and down payments. This should be trivial, but Lucid Finance seems to be trapped twenty years in the past.
Are all leasing departments like this? I don't deal with them that often, so I don't know how to compare.
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* I looked at the code used by the Lucid Finance web site. It was always setting the residual value to $0. You got the same monthly payment, no matter how many miles your drove per year.
So on my original application, I had indicated the amount of down payment, years of lease, and mileage (12k/year) I wanted. Their payment calculator was clearly broken*, but the amount I was told over the phone was a clearly more reasonable value.
FY: "Could you tell me what the monthly payment is if I went with 10k/year instead of 12k/year?"
LF: "I'd have to change the application form, send it back to processing, and then they'll create a new application in somewhere between 2 and 24 hours"
FY: "WTF?" [I actually said something slightly more polite.]
LF "Oh yes. They have to recalculate the taxes, refill in the forms, ......"
FY: "This is what computers are for. They're going to enter 10k into a form and the computer will do the rest."
LF "I'm sorry, that's all I can do"
FY: "Is there anyway I can talk to someone in the processing department?"
LF: "I don't even have any way of talking to someone in the finance department."
Seriously, I was hoping to think about a variety of leasing terms (3 years? 4 years?) mileage (10k? 12k?) and down payments. This should be trivial, but Lucid Finance seems to be trapped twenty years in the past.
Are all leasing departments like this? I don't deal with them that often, so I don't know how to compare.
-------
* I looked at the code used by the Lucid Finance web site. It was always setting the residual value to $0. You got the same monthly payment, no matter how many miles your drove per year.
