Consumer complaint received 2022-03-04
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CO
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Their investigation did not fix an error on your report

Complaint:
For six months, I have had collection accounts incorrectly reporting on my Equifax credit report as unpaid. There were three original accounts, all with XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX, Colorado from a medical bill I accrued during a period when I was unable to report to work due to the pandemic. In XX/XX/XXXX I disputed all three separate PAID accounts that were originally owed to XXXX XXXX XXXX. The disputes were considered " resolved '' without Equifax correcting any of the errors. All three false paid collection accounts continued to be reported unpaid by Equifax in XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX. 



On XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX XXXX XXXX and spoke with XXXX. She confirmed that I have paid all three collection accounts and that there are no remaining outstanding balances. While I was on the phone, she put in a manual request to provide Equifax with another proof of payment communication that included their permission to process a complete deletion of these accounts from my report. 



On XX/XX/XXXX I pulled my Equifax credit report and saw that two of the accounts had been fully deleted from my report - proof that Equifax received the communication from XXXX. The communication from XXXX specifically listed all three accounts with account numbers, stating that all three had been paid, and requesting a deletion for all three accounts. The person at Equifax who received the communication must not have read it properly, and mistakenly left the third account on my report in spite of the communication from the creditor that the information was incorrect. 



On XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX and spoke to XXXX, who manually requested deletion of that last account again. I checked back and pulled another Equifax report on XX/XX/XXXX, and the false account information was still on my report. XXXX 's good faith communications to Equifax were not honored, and Equifax continued to report known false information. 



On XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX once again and spoke to XXXX. XXXX verified that XXXX and XXXX had both requested manual deletion from Equifax. She stated that continuing to make requests to Equifax to remove the false information were not likely to be successful, since they had not acted on previous information sent to them by her company. XXXX requested for the letter stating all three accounts have been paid in full would be emailed to me without delay, and gave me the email address to request a deletion letter as well. I emailed my request, and XXXX responded directly with both letters : see attached. 



On XX/XX/XXXX I called Equifax to discuss the requests from XXXX that have not been acted upon. The Equifax representative advised me that there was nothing they could do other than to file a second dispute. I filed that second dispute online ( Confirmation number : XXXX ) on XX/XX/XXXX. I attached both letters from the collection agency verifying payment in full and their intent to have all three accounts deleted from my record. 



On XX/XX/XXXX I checked the status of my dispute, and no action had been taken. The status was listed as " under investigation '' and the incorrect information was still listed on my credit report. I called and spoke with a representative at Equifax named XXXX. He repeated many times that there is nothing that he could do to help me, and continued to blame the collection agency, falsely accusing PFC of certifying the debt as unpaid. After about 45 minutes of discussion, XXXX finally agreed to file a complaint internally. I was given no details regarding the complaint itself, which XXXX stated does not have a confirmation number. 



I believe that XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) has acted in good faith at every step of this process, and gone above and beyond the call of duty to correct this false information. Equifax has ignored many of the collection agency 's good faith attempts to correct the errors on my report. This complaint is not in any way directed at the collection agency XXXX XXXX XXXX. 



The repeated violations of my rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act have all been solely committed by Equifax. The one action Equifax took - to delete two of the three accounts- showed a remarkable inattention to detail because the instructions were to delete all three accounts, per PFC. All of my own attempts to dispute the errors have yielded no results, and calling Equifax to bring their attention to the letters from XXXX has not helped to remove this erroneous information from my report.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation