Council happily take your money, but when it comes...

Council happily take your money, but when it comes to paying it back take over 7 weeks to return any over-payment, with numerous phone calls/emails to the CEO and complains dept before MY money was rightfully returned. Had this been the other way round, the council would have sent me a court summons.
Any business in the private sector with this level of poor service would no longer be trading.