Consumer complaint received 2020-05-27
Company: Westlake Services, LLC
State: FL
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Auto debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Sub-issue: Seized or attempted to seize your property

Complaint:
Westlake Financial purchased my account from my previous lender when they went bankrupt. The old company did not accurately file to my credit reports, they did not allocate payments correctly ( I have proof of this ), they had their website up and running and taking payments after they had supposedly " shut down '' which those payments were not allocated to the account either. I didn't know the company ( XXXX XXXX ) had closed until speaking with the new lender ( Westlake Financial ) after my car was repossessed. I tried to dispute the account with them due to the issues with the previous lender and they had me jump through hoops to prove payments were made to no avail. I had sent them a redacted bank statement showing the payments were made to the old company as they had requested me to do so. The next person I spoke with said they needed 3 months worth of statements to prove the payments were not " refunded '' to me. Which I had also sent redacted. Then they told me that I needed to send 3 months prior and 3 months after, also sent redacted. Then they told me to send 6 months worth of non-redacted statement to show the balances, which after consulting with my bank ( who stated this was ludicrous ) I was advised by my bank to not send them non-redacted statements as the previous information should have been more than sufficient.This was in XX/XX/XXXX. 

Fast forward to XX/XX/XXXX, I checked my credit report and saw that the account was on my report as {$0.00} and closed. I am in the process of buying a home and removing things off my credit report to do so. I didn't know what they did with the car, and due to the lack of trust from the incorrect information provided by Westlake financial, I purchased a XXXX report to see what happened to the car. The XXXX report stated the car was sold at auction on XX/XX/XXXX. A vehiclehistory.com report showed that the car sold at auction for {$4300.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. Westlake financial did not inform me the car was being sent to auction, nor did they inform me the car had sold. 

When I called Westlake financial directly today to attempt to get the account off my credit report, the first agent told me they informed me over the phone that my car was going to be sold at auction. Knowing this to be a lie, I asked him to clarify when was the last time I spoke with someone from Westlake. He said XX/XX/XXXX which was around when the car was repossessed. The car didn't go to auction until XX/XX/XXXX, which again, I wasn't informed of. When I informed him about that, he got an attitude with me and stated they didn't have to email me notice of being sent to auction. I told him there was no written notice through email or the mail. He got angry and told me to pay the bill. I asked to speak with a supervisor. He transferred me to the supervisor, who reconfirmed my mailing address ( which had been updated back in XX/XX/XXXX during conversations with them ) .She said they had my old address on file, and the letters informing of the auction went there. I know this is a lie because I have USPS mail delivery notification that takes pictures of all mail being delivered to me, as well as USPS mail forwarding that didn't end until XXXX of this year. I went through my emails to see if anything was received, which there wasn't. I asked if they were sent certified, she said no. I asked her to take the account off my credit report to avoid legal action of them for civil theft and illegally selling my car. She said no, it will remain open and I will continue to receive phone calls to collect the balance.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation