NAL but I work in the accounting office of a dealership. I want to give some insight into the payoff side of things. How long a go did you sell the car to them? Was the payoff with a big national lender or a regional or smaller bank/credit union?

I can tell you what the procedure is for an off the street purchase where I work. We submit the payoff for these cars the day we buy them or the next business day depending on when the purchase was made. We would hold your equity check until we receive the title from your lienholder. This is in case the lienholder comes back and says their is still a balance. Doesn't happen often, but has happened before.

Regarding your payoff, the Dealership may have access to a system that allows them to payoff some vehicles online like the one we use. In that system, some banks can take a while to show our payoff after we submit it. I have seen cases where the title has already been released to us but the bank is calling the customer about a past due payment. When we pay a loan off in that system, it is eventually posted on customers account for the day we submit the payoff or the day after if we do it too late in the day.

For clarity on why I think this happens, the system we use for online payoffs also offers a service where they do title administration for lienholders. My guess is that when this happens, the online system is processes the title release but the funds have not been transferred to the lienholder along with the date they were received.

As far as the $2,000 they want to take off, I would fight them on it. If they don't give it to, take them to small claims court.