Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports

In XXXX of XXXX, I worked with Wells Fargo mortgage advisor XXXX XXXX on obtaining a pre-qualification for a mortgage. I was crystal clear from the beginning in that I am NOT interested in a formal pre-approval and I absolutely do not want Wells Fargo to conduct a hard credit inquiry at this time ( I have evidence of this in text messages with XXXX, plus I have multiple witnesses about that I made this clear ). XXXX said that this will be possible and asked me to fill in ( multiple ) online applications for a mortgage. I filled out the online application forms, but made absolutely sure to never go past the final step where it asks me whether I want to authorize a hard credit inquiry. To be clear : Best to my understanding, I never authorized a hard credit inquiry for a mortgage application with Wells Fargo because I never went through the final submission step in any of the multiple started online applications, as per guidance from the mortgage advisor. 

Nevertheless the morning of XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX asked me whether my credit is frozen in the following interaction ( text messages reproduced verbatim below ) : XXXX XXXX : " Just double checking. Is your credit frozen? '' XXXX XXXX : " Yea it is. So sorry I forgot to tell you that '' XXXX XXXX : " Let me unfreeze '' XXXX XXXX : " Do I need to unfreeze all three or just one credit agency? '' XXXX XXXX : " Yeah it has to be unfrozen for the soft pull to work '' XXXX XXXX : " All 3 bureaus '' XXXX XXXX : " I'll do it now. Sorry about that '' XXXX T : " I'll send a new invite '' XXXX XXXX : " You can use it once it's unlocked '' XXXX XXXX : " Ok unlocked everything after an hour on the phone with credit bureaus. Now starting application process again '' XXXX XXXX : " Ok let me know if you have issues. I sent a fresh invite just in case '' XXXX XXXX : " OK I unfroze all three bureaus. Then I went through the application process again. Same issue still with the same notice regarding a hard inquiry '' XXXX XXXX : " Was it in the same application or did you use the new invite? '' XXXX XXXX : " I used new invite '' XXXX XXXX : " I'll reach back out to program manager '' [ conversation continues, XXXX fills out multiple applications online, but always gets asked to authorize a hard inquiry at the end of the flow ; XXXX makes sure to never submit that form ] XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX : XXXX XXXX : " My credit score e ( sic ) just got impacted and went down XXXX points. I did not authorize this '' XXXX XXXX : " I definitely did not click the SUBMIT button '' XXXX XXXX : " Hmmm. Give me a few I'll call you. Not sure what happened. I wasn't even at my desk '' XXXX XXXX : " Ok thanks '' [ conversation continues ] My credit report shows a hard credit inquiry from " XXXXWELLS FARGO MOR XXXX with the date XX/XX/XXXX. This impacted my credit score immediately and negatively up to today. 

A formal complaint filed with Wells Fargo did not lead to a resolution. The response from Wells Fargo dated XX/XX/XXXX was : " [ ... ] In your inquiry, you advised that you did not authorize for a hard credit pull to be completed. During our conversation, you advised that you were filling out the online application. When it came to the screen to submit the application and pull credit you closed out the screen, and was careful ( sic ) to not hit the submit button. A request was made to remove the credit inquiry. [ new paragraph ] We show an application was filled out online and you gave permission to pull the credit on XX/XX/XXXX. When the application was transferred to our system on XX/XX/XXXX, the Home Mortgage Consultant ( HMC ) was not prompted to pull credit. We do not show the HMC pulled credit, or authorization was not provided, and respectfully decline your request to remove the credit inquiry. [ ... ] '' Note that the response from Wells Fargo claims that authorization was given by me. However, they are unable or unwilling to produce information on the details on _how_ I allegedly provided authorization ( given that I never submitted the final step of the online application ) and they're unable or unwilling to produce written evidence of the actual authorization.