Westlake Financial services Being screwed over Los Angeles California
I'm buying or I should probably say was buying a truck that I was financing through Westlake Financial services. It was repossessed on 06/20/17. I called Westlake about recovering my truck the same day. I was told by a Westlake representative that I would have to pay 2200 something to recover it. I was also told they would give me time. A week later I called Westlake. This time I was told I would only have to pay $1025 to recover it. I called again the following week and was told my truck was at auction. I cried to the representative that how could that be, I've paid $6700 on a $5200 truck. I couldn't lose my truck, he stated it had been 10 days already. I told him I was never told anything about 10 days all I was told that I had time. Then he started I didn't pay $400 something like I had arranged so it was taken to auction. I told him I had never made arrangements on making any payment. He said well that arrangement had been made maybe not officially but it was made. My dad told me I should have been careful being late on my payment that close to my payoff date. He said they wouldn't repossess it if I'd only payed 1000 or 2000 they'll wait until they've gotten$6700 from me sell it for almost as much as I've paid, they just got double the money. I feel like Westlake is preventing me from recovering my truck. I loved my truck. I worked hard for the money I've paid on it. Normally in a situation like this I'd look the other way but Being a single mom of 4 I cannot take a loss of $6700. It would take years to recover from that. Being without transportation for 2 weeks with a family size of 5 in triple digit weather is literally almost unbearable. I just don't see how this can be?
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Robert
Irvine,California,
USA
Obviously Not...
#4Consumer Comment
Mon, July 10, 2017
If you understood the obvious and accepted responsibility you wouldn't be here writing a RipOff report. You made 22 out of
24 payments. GREAT. So where in your contract did it say you could stop at 22 payments being on-time?
They didn't give you "false" information. You needed $1025 to recover it, you called back a WEEK later and were told that if you could come up with $400 as an "arrangement" (meaning you would still owe the $1025, just over time) you don't say thanks or see some hope. No your "entitlement" atttitue continues to blame them as to how THEY are at fault. You said they told you they would give you time. Okay how much time? I bet you didn't ask THAT question.
How do you still owe $2200? Sorry can't tell you exactly. But do you really think that every dollar of your payments went to the pricipal of the truck? No, there were other fees and Interest for the lease you were paying every month. Not to mention the additional fees and interest for the LATE payment. Also, the "truck" was $5200, but what amount did you finance? Did that include any taxes, fees, or extras you may have bought?
Also, if this was truly a "lease", then at the end of the lease the truck would not be yours. You would either have been required to return the truck or pay off the residual balance and keep the truck. Most likely with you being this close to the end of the lease this is what most of what the $2200 was made up of.
Now I am going to throw you a bone. Let's just say that they did reposess it because you were near the maturity date. The fact is that companies don't reposess it unless you are late and you admit you were delinquent. So regardless of when they did it they had the LEGAL right to do it per the contract YOU signed. Would they have given you more time had this happened only a couple months in...possibly. But that would only be because there was more time left on the lease/loan. If you wanted a "safe" period that would keep them from reposessing the truck then you should have made sure it was in the written agreement. Oh and when you try to get your next finance company to do that on your next loan let us know how that goes.
I'm aware of the obvious
#4Author of original report
Sun, July 09, 2017
I understand exactly why I'm in the situation I'm in as far as the repossession goes and admit to being at fault for them to repossess the vehicle. That doesn't give them the right or make it ok for them to give me false information on the amount it would cost to recover the vehicle. Then the next week give me a different amount that was half the amount from the week before. My chances me recovering the vehicle would have been a whole lot higher had I been told the correct information to begin with. The agreement on the lease was $216.42 for 24 months. I had made 22 payments. Payoff date was 06/30/2017. The truck was $5,200 originally. I put $2000 down. If 22 payments made in the amount of $216.42 how would I owe $2200 on the truck still?
Robert
Irvine,California,
USA
You don't see it?
#4Consumer Comment
Thu, July 06, 2017
It is very obvious why you are in this situation. You made a legal agreement that in exchange for them giving you the money to purchase a car you will make a set payment, on set dates, for a set amount of time. In this agreement there was nothing about you only had to make this payment when you could or you could skip payments if some other expense came up. This agreement also stated that if you failed to do this they had the right to reposes the truck regardless of when it was.
You didn't hold up your end of the contract by making payments, they held up their end by repossessing the car. This isn't Rocket Science.
This is NOT your truck, it is THEIR truck until you pay it off, yes even if you still only owed $1 it is still their truck and they have the right to reposes it if you fail to make the required payments. Unfortunately you got very bad advice from your dad and I can see where you got your deadbeat entitlement attitude. And no your 1001 reasons why they should make an exception for you, while I am sure it makes you feel better to try and push the blame onto someone else. In reality it does not matter.
You did not give any specifics as to the length of the loan, your monthly payment, how many payments you have made, and your payment history such as how many times have you been late. But they are a Sub-Prime lender with VERY high interest rates. As such it is very likely you are still at least a year and possibly 2-3 years from paying it off. Not what one would call "close" to paying off the loan.
But regardless of that a company is not going to reposes a vehicle unless you are late. It doesn't matter if you are 1 month in or have 1 month left. When it goes to auction it will sell at anywhere from 25-30% of value. If it sells for less than the balance of your loan you STILL owe the difference. So if for example your loan balance was at $4000, and they sold the car for $2500 you would still owe $1500. On the off chance they sell it for more than the balance of the loan. They don't keep it, the excess goes back to you. So there really is no benefit for them as to when as the best case scenario they break-even with if they had just let you keep it, worst case they have to spend even more money and hope that they can eventually collect from you.
I will tell you one other thing. In just about every state, since it has been about 2 weeks you are at the very end of you options, as if it hasn't already been auctioned off it is likely to go in the next couple of days. So you better try to work something out with them ASAP or you will lose the truck(if you haven't already) and yes this is what ANY finance company would do.