Settlement Penalty even after 3 months notice was given

I had my car financed with Wesbank, until recently. In July I called them and gave notice that I wanted to settle the outstanding amount on my car. I also asked them to make a note that I this would be my official notice of settlement. The call centre agent at that point noted my notice and told me that all in in order for me to settle the amount in October this year, which I did. A couple of day before it was time pay the settlement I went onto the website, to confirm the amount that I was to pay for settling my car. I did this, as I was aware that we did have a interest rate cut sine my conversation with the call centre and I just wanted to make sure that I had the correct amount. After the settlement was completed, I was ent back onto the website and saw that I was charged an penalty for early settlement of the account of around R7,000.00. When I contacted Wesbank and asked about the penalty they said, I requested a new settlement which terminated the old one (how am I supposed to know that) and that the fact that I actually did give the appropriate advanced notice does not matter, my account has been closed and I will not get my R7000 back. This is absolutely ridiculous, I followed procedure to let them know and to make sure I pay the correct amount by the date that was provided to me. I even called them again a week before the settlement date to make sure that they were aware that the settlement was planned for Oct.