Kia denied a Massachusetts woman’s $11,000 engine claim over 2 missing oil change receipts — is that even legal?

With the company’s promotional material reading, “We have you covered,” Amber Cichowski naturally expected that she would be covered when the engine failed in her 2021 Kia Telluride with 80,000 miles.

Unfortunately, WCVB reported that’s not actually what happened.

Until the media got involved, Cichowski was reportedly told her claim was denied, and she’d have to pony up $11,000 for the fix. Kia gave a simple justification for the denial, but lawyers say it wasn’t necessarily a valid legal reason not to pay the claim.

Kia denies a warranty claim over missing receipts

As WCVB reported, Cichowski first noted problems with her Kia in the summer of 2025 when it stopped accelerating. Kia performed numerous repairs, but the problem repeated on Christmas Eve, and she was told after the second breakdown that she’d need a new $11,000 engine.

Cichowski assumed the engine warranty would cover her because she was well under the mileage and age limits. But Kia threw a wrench into her plans when the car company asked for records of every single oil change from the first day she purchased the car up to the present.

While Cichowski had four years of receipts, she couldn’t document the 2022 and 2023 oil changes her husband did at home because he didn’t keep receipts for the oil or filters. Those missing receipts led Kia to deny the claim, leaving Cichowski feeling “really, really defeated.”

Her frustration was compounded by the fact that she could document eight dealership oil changes, she had followed Kia’s maintenance schedule, and Kia hadn’t raised the issue when it performed the summer repairs.

“It was like the worst feeling ever to think that you bought a car with a warranty, thinking that they would cover the vehicle, and then they say, ‘Sorry, just kidding,’” Cichowski told WCVB.

Lawyers say this kind of denial may not be legal

Fortunately for Cichowski, the law may actually be on her side. It’s possible that Kia shouldn’t have denied the claim based on home oil changes alone.

Benjamin Drake, founder of Lemon Daddy, told Moneywise that, in some cases, a company “can deny [a claim] for lack of maintenance.” However, lack of maintenance and lack of a record of the maintenance are not the same thing.

“A manufacturer generally can’t deny an otherwise valid claim merely because the owner, rather than a dealership or repair shop, performed the oil change or other routine maintenance,” Steven Nassi, founder of the Easy Lemon law firm by RockPoint Law P.C., told Moneywise.

Nassi added that the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act generally prohibits conditioning a written warranty on using particular branded parts or services and said that state law may provide car owners with additional protection. While “missing maintenance receipts can create an evidentiary issue,” he said, the lack of the records doesn’t prove the maintenance wasn’t done.

According to Nassi, Cichowski could have provided purchase records, maintenance logs, credit card statements or even just testified that the oil changes were done.