Consumer complaint received 2024-12-24 00:00:00
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Problem with fees charged
Company: Westlake Services, LLC
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
I purchased my XXXX XXXX XXXX from XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX online. The car was financed by the dealership, and eventually transferred to their in house financing, then to Westlake Financial Services ( which is still XXXX ). Shortly after I lost my job in XX/XX/XXXX. I began making late payments but was still keeping my account current as much as possible. In XX/XX/XXXX, I fell behind by more than XXXX payments. Westlake provided an option where my payment would be moved to the end of my loan to get my account current so I could make a payment and be less than a month overdue. Since then I have been about a month behind due to the inability to catch up on my payments. At all times, I was informed by the representatives that my account will be delinquent but my car would not be repossessed until I was more than 3 months past due. So my account had been within a month past due and made payments as I can. Due to the multiplicity of calls I receive, I put my account on do not call status ( for autodialers ), but I had provided that all correspondence be sent to me in writing by email. I made a payment in XX/XX/XXXX, to bring my account within 1 month past due as usual. On XX/XX/XXXX, my car was repossessed by Westlake without notice or warning. Westlake had placed a repossession call on my car, despite being less than 90 days past due. When I called them and protested, they demanded that I bring my account fully current ( with 3 months of payments - meaning pay the bill that wasn't even due ) and also pay the repossession fees even though they did not give me any notice of the repossession. As a result, I was forced to borrow money for the payment. I was forced to pay using XXXX and I was placed in a very bad situation when I had to pay fees and costs for the loan and transfer. Without a car I lost employment opportunities and my child 's transportation to school was jeopardized.

Westlake provided me with no notice regarding the repossession. When I called them they told me that I had been told 3 months " in error '' and that they can repossess the car at " any time '' even after a single late payment. The contract allows them to repossess the car but I believe they are supposed to provide me notice and opportunity to make a payment before hand, and they misrepresented that I had a 3 month window before the car would be set up for repossession. Also there was no indication on my bill that my car would be repossessed. When I asked them why I was not provided any notice they said that since I had requested " do not call '' they did not have to provide me with any notice and they would not issue any notices. At no point in time did I tell Westlake that I did not want any contact. Instead, they used the excuse of a blanket " do not contact '' on my account so that they could get away with failing to provide any billing or repossession notices on my account.

Westlake uses intimidation tactics like this to force payment of the loan and has completely disregarded my rights as a consumer to the appropriate notice before they repossess my car. Not only that but they continue to change the terms of the contract by stating I have XXXX months then saying they can repossess at anytime, keeping me in fear of losing my car and livelihood. Further, they added the costs of the repossession fees on top of my loan, changing the loan amount and increasing my interest rate and payments without my consent. 

These are predatory and unfair business practices. I called several times during this ordeal to escalate to a XXXX and appeal the decision but they refused to speak with me or routed me to rude and disrespectful agents, or place me in the cue. Their actions are predatory, unfair and fraudulent and have caused me to lose business and employment opportunities and also placed me and my family in constant fear of losing our only means of transportation.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation