Consumer complaint received 2023-03-13
Company: Westlake Services, LLC
State: IA
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Problem related to refinancing

Complaint:
Salutations ; My name is XXXX XXXX, I purchased a car through XXXX XXXX of XXXX. It was a XXXX  XXXX XXXX. 

When purchasing the vehicle, I needed to get a loan, and the dealership had a list we went through and picked one. That company happened to be : WestLake Financial Services www.westlakefinancial.com Initially my payments were {$710.00} a month, and I made every payment on time. When I checked my breakdown of the financials, I noticed they were keeping money for themselves and not reflecting it towards my payments for the car. 

At this point, I decided I needed to go with someone else, so I went to my bank which at the time was : XXXX XXXX XXXX, they re-branded to : XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

My personal banker, XXXX XXXX assisted me in refinancing my car loan through them, which afforded me better rates and obviously better customer service. 

During the transition from WestLake Financial to my bank, I suffered a great deal of stress from WestLake. 

They initiated business with me through practices of deceptive and arbitrary flexibility regarding payment structure and customer service. 
They continued their relationship with me through abusive practices of misdirection and empty promises. 
They maintained a measure of unfair means of leaving by posting non-working phone numbers on their website, e-mails and links. 

It took me entirely too long to leave them. 

I had my bank provide me with a loan payoff amount that WestLake financial requested, WestLake then told me they did not accept payment through wire transfers or direct banking and I had to mail them a cashiers cheque or money order. 

My banker helped me in the process of converting my loan to a money order and mailed it out through first class priority mail requiring a signature upon receipt. I believe it was XXXX who verified it was delivered and signed for, WestLake then told us they didn't receive the cheque and I was being billed interest and additional charges through this process too- which changed the amount I needed to mail them, so my banker had to cut a second cheque for an even bigger amount. 

I made over twenty phone calls and over twenty e-mails to WestLake, including my banker in the dialogue for record keeping and they ran me in circles for weeks. 

Providing me with numbers that were disconnected, e-mails that were returned saying those accounts were not active. 
I gave my banker POA to assist me in this matter and they refused to talk to her on the phone or through e-mail, so I had to miss work on several occasions so I could sit in my bankers office to be on speaker phone. 

And finally when we finally got the loan switched over after paying extra money and causing me severe pain and suffering, they still refuse to send the title of the car to my bank. 

Someone needs to take action and shut these fraudsters down! These are unacceptable business practices and I know I am not the only one suffering from these XXXX XXXX XXXX. If I wasn't already poor, I would hire an attorney and try to sue to get some money back. Hopefully you guys will have better luck. 

For any additional information or for verification you can also e-mail my banker at XXXX I hope you guys can do something about this, and maybe possibly help me get my cars title from them?

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