If you're financed with Capital One, you're probably going to be waiting a while

So, my battery died last night. I've been patient, but I decided to dig in this morning because I really don't want to pony up for a fresh battery.

The good news is that I was able to get through on chat twice in a relatively short amount of time. I landed on Step 15 on Nov 6. VW says they sent my payoff request on Dec 14. That's a pretty bad lagtime in itself, but, OK, the request has been made, right?

I'm financed with Capital One, so I called them. My account shows no payoff request activity.

Back to VW. VW says there's a special contact at the banks.

Back to Capital One. After a lot of hold time, the buck stopped with the third person I talked to. There is a special team working with VW. There is no way to contact that team. There is no information available from inside that team regarding whether VW has submitted a request for a payoff amount or when a payoff number might be generated and returned to VW. Somewhere along the way this was referred to as a "streamlined process," which pegged my irony meter.

It's a simple number that I can obtain in the time it takes me to log in to my account on Capital One's web site. It's a simple number that a dealership can obtain in a few minutes with a phone call if I'm trading in a car. It's ridiculous that it's taking weeks to communicate a simple piece of information that's readily available.

I have two pieces of advice:

-Finance with a local bank or credit union. Do business with an entity that won't "streamline" the process. Do business somewhere you can walk in and talk to humans in person and get answers.

-If you're stuck on Step 15 and have your car financed, find out from VW if they've requested the payoff and then start hassling your lender to process the request.