Consumer complaint received 2018-09-18
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: MA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-issue: Received unsolicited financial product or insurance offers after opting out

Complaint:
PUNCHLINE : A SIMPLE QUESTION ABOUT INTEREST RATES TO XXXX MORTGAGE BUSINESS RESULTED IN A NIGHTMARISH BARRAGE OF CALLLS AND INQUIRIES FROM COMPANIES I NEVER HEARD OF AND NEVER EXPECTED TO HEAR FROM. THEY WERE SET IN MOTION BY XXXX   UNILATERAL ACTIOPNS. THE PROCESS CRASHED MY CREDIT SCORE. 

XXXX XXXX arm had made numerous unsolicited and unwanted calls to me about refinancing my home. I had no desire to refinance. Since they represented themselves as the best and biggest mortgage company in America, I casually asked out of curiosity what their loan rates were. I expected them to answer within a minute. Simple question, simple answer. WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE they contacted multiple independent financial institutions that subsequently bombarded me with requests for information as well as making HARD INQUIRIES ON MY CREDIT HISTORY. This CAUSED MY CREDIT SCORE TO DROP SIGNIFICANTLY. I had no intention to refinance. A simple by the way question about rates ended up as a fiasco based on unauthorized actions unilaterally taken by XXXX. Getting these many third parties to stop calling me was a nightmare. I couldnt get them to stop. They would call back after I delivered a version of READ MY LIPS, STOP CALLING. Some swore they wouldnt, only to have somebody else from the same bank call back two weeks later. Since none of them were from XXXX, there was no easy way to get the Gremlins back into the cage. Each organization was acting independently to aggressively sell something nobody had asked for. No one organization could understand what the cumulative effect was of these calls. EXCEPT XXXX. Unless, of course, Im the only person in America this has happened to. Hmmm .... I doubt it. How can you uncage multiple Gremlins by farming out to multiple organizations a selling opportunity and not know that a customer is going to 1 ) be called multiple times, 2 ) have their credit examined, 3 ) be confused because they thought they were dealing with a single entity : XXXX What is maddening is that XXXX never answered my basic question about what their interest rates are for different mortgage sizes. If they actually do issue mortgages, I saw no evidence of it. What is undeniable is that XXXX   CREATED A NUISSANCE FOR ME that resulted in actions from companies I had never heard of CRASHING MY CREDIT SCORE, something I have worked to keep high. 

From XXXX mortgage businesss advertising and phone calls it seemed clear to me, and I assume others, that THEY issue lots of mortgages in a manner that earns them high customer satisfaction. I used their software and other online services for years and WAS very satisfied. My experiences suggested they were a straightforward, honest company and that any product they delivered would be a ) a good product, and b ) delivered in a manner consistent with customer well-being, and c ) would be what they represented it to be. I wasnt looking to refinance so my concern isnt about product quality it is about their ethics. My experience with their mortgage company DID - beyond hurting my financial score - leave me with the impression that they DO willfully misrepresented what they do, abuse customers privacy, waste time, create aggravation, duck accountability, cant stop the processes they themselves set in motion, and are no longer the company I once trusted. From my point of view, I wish they would stop doing what they did to me and promise to never do it again. Cease? Desist? From my experience in this nightmarish disaster, yup, sounds about right. MISREPRESENTATION? For me, you bet.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation