Consumer complaint received 2019-09-08
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: NC
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account information incorrect

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted XXXX regarding a notification that a XXXX store located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, WA XXXX had run a hard inquiry ( one that effects your score ) via Equifax. I contacted XXXX via phone and they told me to contact Equifax and XXXX to initiate a dispute. 

Equifax Complaint I contacted Equifax 3 times ( approx. 3 hrs. ) on XX/XX/XXXX via phone and tried to initiate a dispute over the XXXX credit inquiry, request a copy of my credit report and place a fraud alert on my account. Their phone number directed me to an overseas call center where I was told that the dispute into the inquiry had been initiated but, when I checked my account on XXXX, no such dispute was shown as having been initiated so the representative to whom I spoke on XX/XX/XXXX did not do their job since that was the primary reason I had called. In addition to this, the fraud alert that had been requested on XX/XX/XXXX had also not been placed. On XXXX, wanting to follow up and hoping to avoid the nightmare of overseas customer service, I decided to try their online system when I noticed that Equifax offers Identity Theft Protection plans starting at {$19.00} and reflected that I was receiving free XXXX credit monitoring because of the Equifax databreach of XXXX and thought, " Wow! What a marvel of modern capitalism, I can pay these guys to fix a problem they created through their carelessness and greed which they purposely make difficult to resolve. I wonder if they make it difficult in order to sell their service? What a miracle of the 21st century! '' I then used their online system to initiate a dispute over the XXXX credit inquiry, place the fraud alert and to initiate a dispute over a XXXX XXXX Credit Card account which was shown as open on my credit report but that XXXX XXXX, whom was contacted on XXXX, had no record of under neither my nor my wife 's names or SSNs. I have yet to hear a response from Equifax on the XXXX Credit Inquiry or the XXXX XXXX CC removal. 

XXXX Complaint I contacted XXXX 3 times ( approx. 2 hrs. ) on XX/XX/XXXX and was told that XXXX does not offer services in NC in my area and that as far as they could see no account was listed under neither my SSN nor my name and XXXX told me that a Credit Bureau Inquiry ( Ticket # XXXX ) had been initiated in my name and that I should hear something by XX/XX/XXXX. I also requested a letter stating that an account had not been opened using my information but was told that no such letter existed. I have yet to hear a response from XXXX and am doubtful that I will since I am not their customer nor do they provide service in my area. 

XXXX Complaint On XX/XX/XXXX, while checking my XXXX credit report online, I noticed that XXXX   had two birth dates listed on my credit report and so I initiated a dispute using their online system to correct the date. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a notification that the dispute had been resolved and on XXXX while checking on other credit report related discrepancies ( see above ), I decided to follow up on this one as well. After following the link to access the dispute results and entering their secret text code, I was re-directed to an advertisement for the XXXX Identity Theft Protection for the low, low price of {$19.00}. I clicked " No, keep my current membership '' because I thought, " This is not a problem I created, it is a problem that has been created for me by the lack of security on the part of those who harvest my information without my consent and who also sell said information at a profit, thus shouldn't these 3 credit reporting bureaus be obligated to protect my information which they sell without my consent free of charge? '' Then I remembered that this was the 21st century, an age of wondrous capitalist innovations, of convenience and subscriptions which slowly bleed your account until you are in the poor house and I saw a bully trying to take a kid 's lunch money. Trying to put these thoughts and images out of my mind, I proceeded to the notifications section of their website. My heart raced with excitement as I imagined an employee doing their job and I clicked the XX/XX/XXXX message entitled " Your Dispute Results Are Ready '' only to be told, " Your dispute results are currently not available online ''. The phone number, ( XXXX ) directed me to an overseas call center where not a single employee ( I contacted XXXX 's overseas call centers 12 times that day -- 4 hrs of my personal time! ) could locate my dispute results when given the " Report # XXXX '' as listed in Experian 's online system. Finally, I spoke with XXXX ( Employee # XXXX ) who referred me to XXXX who refused to give an Employee # probably because XXXX had told him I was angry. XXXX, supposedly a supervisor, said that no dispute had been filed with regard to my birthdate despite my having received a notification that the dispute had been resolved. He then initiated a dispute on XXXX over the phone. On XXXX, I received notification that my birthdate year had been updated as requested. When I checked the results, XXXX had resolved the dispute by listing the wrong birth year in my credit report. Whether this was a mistake resulting from spite or poor English, I will never know. I tried contacting the company again on Sunday, XXXX and was told that they were gone for the weekend and I thought, " Man, I wish I got to enjoy my weekend instead of having to clean up somebody else 's mess ... '' Then I remembered that for the low, low price of {$19.00} a month XXXX would correct the mistake that their employees had made for me on XXXX and again I found myself in awe of the economic wonders of the 21sXXXX century. As of this time, the inaccuracy stands due to the fact that the company can not be contacted during weekend hours which means I'll probably have to take some time off from work this week in order to correct it which means I'll lose money which is gon na make it hard to pay the {$19.00} a month to get that fancy XXXX subscription to fix the problem that XXXX at XXXX   created for me. 

Thanks XXXX & Equifax!

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief