A South Carolina man thought he was upgrading when he purchased a brand-new 2024 Chevrolet Silverado. He made a deal with Winding Chevrolet GMC back in June. Along with the new truck, he traded in his 2017 Silverado. At the time, the used pickup carried a loan balance of about $35,000. He trusted the dealership to pay off his loan, rolling the remaining balance into his new contract with GM Financial.

But by August, Wright’s financial world turned upside down.

“I got a letter from TD Bank wanting money,” Wright said. “I thought, ‘What in the world?’”

Confused, he called TD Bank, only to hear he was late on payments for the vehicle he no longer owned.

Wright immediately contacted the dealership. They claimed their bank account had been hacked and promised to resolve the issue as soon as possible. But weeks passed, and the payments didn’t come through. The dealership eventually made one payment of $812 on August 20, but the remaining balance remained unpaid.

“Now my credit is going down by them being late, late, late — really late,” Wright told News 2.

The situation escalated further this fall when Wright received a letter threatening repossession of his old truck. The stress mounted.

“They’re fixing to start repossessing the truck,” he said in October. “Once they repossess it, then that’s really messing my credit up.”

Desperate for answers on his traded-in Silverado, Wright sought help from the local news station.

When reporters arrived at the dealership, they found an empty lot with zero new cars. The dealership’s owner, Michael Winding, explained that GM Financial had removed the vehicles as the dealership transitioned to a new loan provider.

After a tense meeting, Winding agreed to cancel Wright’s trade-in deal, give back his 2017 Silverado, and notify GM Financial to void the new truck contract. “And Channel 2 News came up here with me, and now, low and behold, I got my truck back, and they got theirs,” Wright said.

The business owner admitted the deal should never have been finalized and promised to compensate Wright for his payments.

At the time News 2 shared the story, Wright was still waiting for GM Financial’s final word on the 2017 Silverado’s status. “Now I’ve got to get my credit straightened back out,” he said.

Consumer advocates encourage car buyers making a trade-in to double-check their contracts and follow up with lienholders to avoid potentially disastrous scenarios. Most (if not all) lienholders will continue to hold up loan terms, regardless of the background noise.