Westlake Financial Services 4751 Wilshire BlvdSte 10Los Angeles, CA 90001westlakefinancial.com My refund: the trouble with Westlake's customer service Los Angeles California

I paid my car loan bill twice -by mistake- on July 19, 2013. This is a mistake I will make sure I never make again and not only because it is moronic of my part to cough $520 for my $260 car payment but also because it is an ordeal beyond any imagination to obtain a refund from Westlake. Once I realized I have duplicated my car payment in July I called Westlake on Friday 7/19, faxed all relevant paperwork and Westlake told me I should expect a refund by Tuesday 7/23. I trusted Westlake and I called on Tuesday and then Westlake told me I should expect the refund by Wednesday or Thursday top as it took 48 working day hours to process the refund. I thought Westlake's statement was reasonable and I called again on the afternoon of Thursday 7/25 and then Westlake told me it was "still processing" and that I should not expect a refund on that Thursday. I didn't like what Westlake told me but even when I was already suspecting some foul playI didn't call Westlake a liar.

Yet.

What I did was to call again  on Friday 7/26 and then I was assured I would have my refund by Saturday 7/27. I wanted to be sure this time Westlake was knowledgeable about  its own business practices so I asked Westlake: "are you telling me I will have my refund by Saturday, that I will actually see the refund in my account on Saturday?". "Yes" said Westlake.

When Saturday 7/27 came I realized Westlake had been lying to me all this time because on Saturday 7/27 my refund was nowhere to be seen.

I called Westlake again on Monday 7/29 and for the first time in more than a week, somebody named Josh told me Westlake actually mails paper checks like it's still the 19th century or something. Josh also told me he was going to email the Financial Department and that I should call one hour later to get the news about the status of my refund.

I did. I called one hour later and I spoke to a young lady who was obviously in training because I could hear the voice of somebody else feeding her the lines she was in turn feeding to me which by the way was more of the same BS Westlake had been feeding me with for more than a week already. She said "I don't see the response to Josh's email yet but I can tell you the check was mailed to you on Thursday 7/25". I ended my call with a few sarcasms possibly mentioning something about misdirections, the poorly informed Westlake's CSRs, etc and then gullibly allowed the usual mailing three days period.

Today is August the first and I don't have my refund yet. So I called Westlake again and spoke to Harold who told me the check was actually mailed on 7/30. Finally I lost it and I am not fully proud of all the things I said.  I called Westlake a lying liar and that Harold shouldn't take it personally but this was by any standards the worst customer service imaginable. Not only the announced processing time of 48 hours was a complete smoke curtain to keep the client off the phones; also no one at Westlake knows squat about what's going on there and... the lies! The lies!

I asked Harold to transfer my call to a supervisor as I wanted to continue complaining to somebody with a higher rank. "Hold on", he said.  I held. And held. And held some more. Then Harold came back and said "there's no one there so I'll transfer you to the supervisor's voice mail". "Whatever", I said and proceeded to leave a rather long message which I hope totally clogs that supervisor's voice mail.

My hope is that tomorrow Friday 8/2, fifteen days after my initial request was made, my check will come in the mail. If not I will continue to call and email you Westlake and as soon as I can refinance my car, I'm gone Westlake. I will also pass the word to all consumer feedback related websites --although I checked a few minutes ago and you guys are already deep in negative review everywhere.

Yours truly

Jose Rodriguez and Wolfie (my BMW)