Consumer complaint received 2024-01-06
Company: Westlake Services, LLC
State: GA
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Loan sold or transferred to another company

Complaint:
Hello I hope all is well with you. Thank you for listening to my story.
On XXXX XXXX XXXX  I had got XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and it totaled my car, before the accident happened, Ive got an alert from my credit months before, that stated that US auto have closed my account it didnt, but it was just on my credit statement so I didnt explain why how when or anything but because all the complaining that I was doing I figured they closed it down and just said I pay enough on the account because I paid about $XXXX  in almost 3 years of having the car before the accident happened. From the beginning, US auto has put me through per XXXX  in my life, please excuse my frustration, but it did take a minute to figure out that I had signed myself into a big fraudulent situation and I have gotten so XXXX  with trying to figure out how to legally handle the situation. It put a lot of stress on me due to me having to pay every two weeks which came up to almost $XXXX  a month @ XXXX every two weeks sometimes I paid a little more to quickly pay off the account, and I knew if I just turned the car back in, it will be put on my credit as repossession, after I successfully purchase two cars paid off the first one and gave the second one to my daughter before purchasing the XXXX   XXXX XXXX with US auto, and was finally XXXX   points away from a XXXX  credit score, I never had a repossession on my credit and I didnt want one because of the fraudulent situation US auto put me in, so I just kept paying for the car until I could legally afford help, in the beginning at the purchase in the car in XXXX XXXX, I put my down payment on the car on XXXX XXXX I had to pay my first payment on XXXX XXXX  and every two weeks after which I thought was weird because everyone pay after one month of putting the down payment on the car, but I did it anyway and after paying the second payment and the third week of having the car, the engine froze up on me and the car wouldnt start, and come to find out the engine was blown so they sold me a car knowing that the engine was bad, I did found out from several clients who went through this same situation with US auto soon as they purchased a car, it breaks down within days to weeks later, the car just will go out on them, they did provide me warranty, but it was very limited. It was only 30 days, and very short miles because they knew that they do not fix their cars up rite before selling them, US Auto just fix their cars up enough for the customer to drive off the lot for a few days, hoping that the 30 days go out before the car breaks down and the warranty runs out but, thank XXXX  that I was still within the 30 days before my warranty went out when the engine blown on me just 2 weeks later, US Auto put me through a lot, even though I was on their warranty, Us Auto was trying to figure out anyway to not honor the warranty, but they had no choice because legally I was within the 30 days but it took them one whole month to fix the car, which made me have to pay for a rental car out of pocket, with a promise that US Auto will reimburse me, so I did it because I was on a rental insurance with US auto, and a month after getting my car back, it took another month for them to reimburse me for the rental. I had to pay out-of-pocket for and US auto only reimbursed me half of what I pay out-of-pocket for the rental after sending receipts. I called and complaint about it, and they said they will look into it and fix the situation, and every time I call and complain, they will always have an excuse or say that a manager would call me and that it is being looked into, but I never heard anything else about it, so I just got tired of asking about it, but still make my payments, and I have all my receipts to show, and prove all the payments that I have made in close to over 2 years, over the course of a year I noticed that it seemed as the amounts on my account wasnt going down that much and it will be different every time I make a payment and so I will always call and complain about that as well and US auto will always have different reasons and say it was for this charge, another would say that charge an so on, I had to deal with US auto cutting my car off after I made payment, and a day after payment due, when I have to pay every 2 weeks, and on the XXXX  day, if I didnt pay my car would be cut off, and I would be late for work, I had to miss some days because US auto is closed on Sundays, so if the mistake happens on Sunday, u are stuck, and that was such madness I understand if I was a month or even 2 late, but for almost 2 years Ive said on time or within timelines, on the contract it states the car purchase was for $XXXX  and with service contract title and other fees it added up to $XXXX  and with my down payment of $XXXX. It left a balance of a bit over $XXXX  left to pay on my account, and as more time went by I noticed that my account just would not really go down much and so I went back up there to US auto in XXXX XXXX were I purchased the car to complain to the manager in person, and the manager proceeded to tell me that the best thing they can advise because they did the same thing because they got caught up in the US auto fraudulent scam as well. They told me to go to XXXX  and trade the car in, which would make things worse and worse the worst advice that the manager could give me because I was still owe US auto as well and still have to pay XXXX  for my new car, for example, if I owe US auto $XXXX  left on my account and XXXX give me $XXXX  to trade in my car. I would have to give the $XXXX  to US auto and still owe $XXXX  to US auto for the remaining funds left on my credit for the account plus XXXX  will add what I owe them for the car I purchased from them as well. For example if I purchase a $XXXX  car from them, I would now have a $XXXX  payment on my credit to pay off so that was just some really XXXX  advice that manager gave me from US auto, but the US auto manager basically told me right there that I was in a fraudulent situation and I was not going to get out of it without legal help, so I just kept paying for the car to get back-and-forth to work and to save money to invest into legal help with the situation at US auto and pay my other bills and take care of my family. So when I receive the alert on my credit that US auto close my account, I thought it was because all of the complaining I have been doing and that they figure I paid enough for that car because I also will complain to them about how the car kept breaking down but of course the warranty was over after US auto had to fix the engine so of course they wouldnt do anything about it and I had to keep putting money into paying for the car every two weeks and always had to pay for something to get fixed on the car every two weeks. It was a nightmare but I did love the car and again it was very important for me to get back-and-forth to work and I know if I would just give them the car they would put a repo on my credit and it will be hard for me to get another car after I gotten three cars already before I gotten the XXXX XXXX, but when I found out my account was closed by US auto,  I was pretty excited, because again I thought they figure out paid enough even though I did not receive any notice a text to email a warning letter or anything to say that they was closing the account so I did not know where to go to or what should I do from there I just figured the account was closed and then I seen that so many US auto had close their doors because they was caught frauding and scamming so many people that they had multiple lawsuits on them and had to close down a lot of their businesses, so I have been trying to figure out information about the lawsuit and which law firm to go to to see if I can be a part of it because of all the issues that they have been putting me through since XXXX XXXX XXXX  of Purchasing this car, but a lotta other things happen in my life after finding that news out that I had to focus on until I was hit by another driver that totaled that car, and I had to explain to XXXX  the other party who hit me insurance company,  about who the payment was supposed to go to which was US auto and they closed my account so Im not sure exactly how not who nor if the payment supposed to go to, and thats when we both did some investigation and found out that a company called West Lake portfolio management brought all US auto clients accounts, after doing more investigation, I found out that the company who has U.S Auto clients information which is Westlake management is trying to make all of US auto clients start over with their payments. For example, as it will show in the documents I uploaded, that on the contract is signed with US auto the agreement states that the cash price of a vehicle from US auto is $XXXX  and with services contract at the title and other fees the price came to $XXXX  and I put $XXXX  down which left a balance of $XXXX  on my to pay off on account which was back in XXXX XXXX, I have been living in XXXX  XXXX  for a while and Ive been moved to XXXX  for a few months and so the address that they have on file is my mother house and she stated that I havent received any mail from US auto, and my mother is XXXX  in XXXX, but recently after the accident when I was able to get to my mom house, I was able to go through some mail and I did find a letter from Westlake management that states that I owe as of XXXX XXXX XXXX $XXXX. They also are charging me for interest of $XXXX  and saying that I owe fees of $XXXX  which saying that my debt is now $XXXX.  And that is just impossible again I do have all my receipts to show all the payments that I have made to US auto since back till XXXX XXXX  and I can definitely send them when you guys need them, I wrote a list of the payments down to make it easier to send for now but whenever you guys need the hard copies of the receipts, just let me know, its a whole lot of them so Ill have to send them one by one. But there is no way I owe them that much. I have paid off about $XXXX  since XXXX XXXX  and having a car almost 3 years, $XXXX  was the start of the payment when I signed the contract agreement back in XXXX XXXX, so how is it possible that I owe XXXX  still at the almost 3 years of paying for this car I also reached out to the company to ask them for information on my account and to send me documents of what I have paid they seem to keep avoiding that question and they keep telling me to call my insurance company and see how much they are going to pay them and when they will pay them, and then they will discuss that information with me which is pretty much against the law. If I call and asked for information on my own account, they should have no problem with releasing that information to me, but they dont know that I have spoken with the other party insurance company which is a XXXX, and XXXX  have told me that they are going to send them a $XXXX  check, but XXXX  have stated that they sent them information asking to show proof of my account and what I owe but they havent sent anything yet and it has been almost 2 months now since the accident so I dont know what is going on with this company, but they are on the news as well and a lot of clients are complaining that they have attitudes that they are not giving any information that they are asking for and that they are overcharging US auto clients, no matter how long theyve been with them. They are pretty much telling them they owe what the account started with, which is my problem now if I was crazy enough to just pay Westlake management $XXXX  without saying anything, I would have double paid for a car that I dont even have anymore because it was totaled, I paid almost $XXXX  and when XXXX  send them $XXXX  that would be $XXXX  that they have took for the payment for the car, which I will be over paying for and they are still trying to say I owe them, that is so not fair and they are ripping me off so bad that its not even funny XXXX XXXX XXXX say is the car is only worth $XXXX  insurance says the car is only worth $XXXX  and I already pay $XXXX  for the car so if they take XXXX  from the $XXXX  that I do not owe them, it will still be a $XXXX  payment on my credit for a car that I do not even have and that I double payed for, this situation has got me so XXXX  and I cannot stop crying because it feel like I am being robbed and theres nothing that I can do about it. I desperately need another car to get a round to get back-and-forth to work and be able to support my household and family and pay my bills and I cant get another car because Westlake management is withholding the $XXXX  and still saying I owe them more which is so not true and I cant get another car because now I have a $XXXX  amount on my credit from Westlake management that I do not even owe, all right now, so not only are they robbing mean but now they are taking money out of my pocket because I cant afford to get another car to get back-and-forth to work with this on my credit and them withholding all that money from me. I do understand that I do owe a couple more dollars on the account from US auto but I do not owe $XXXX, from what I already paid and from what is left, I only owe about $XXXX  to $XXXX, and I supposed to receive the rest of the funds from that $XXXX  check to help me purchase a new car and clear this XXXX XXXX  off my credit that would be fraudulent for them to take the whole $XXXX  and make me pay $XXXX  for the car and still try to make me pay $XXXX, that would be $XXXX  that I have paid in all for that car, This is a maddness. And again the car is totaled is gone and neither one of us can do anything with that car. I really need help with this issue calling Westlake management is only making me angry because I am not getting any response and all they keep saying is call the insurance company to see how much they are going to give them and When will they give them the check, They are so rude and defensive, I asked you even speak to the management, and the rude receptionist repeated the same thing to call the insurance company first and get the information that hes asking for and then call back and so instead of going back-and-forth arguing with them I am asking you guys for all the help that you make, and give please, these people are robbing me. Theyre all taking food out of me and my family mouth. They are keeping me XXXX  where I cannot drive or even try to get another car because his debt is on my credit that I do not owe, which is causing me a lot of XXXX, and is keeping me from making the money that I need to support myself in my family because I cannot purchase another car onto the situation is handled and his debt is clean off my credit

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation