Consumer complaint received 2018-05-04
Company: TRANSUNION INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS, INC.
State: GA
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: Investigation took more than 30 days

Complaint:
I recently complained to the CFPB indicating that no legitimate validation of debt took place at all when I formally requested a reinvestigation into several disputes that Transunion continued to " verify ''. As I 100 % KNOW that the information is incorrect, I have attempted to resolve this matter with Transunion time and again yet they refuse to remove information that was not verified or clearly found to be incorrect, and they failed to provide the requested description of the procedures used to determine the accuracy of the requested information in a timely manner of under 45 days as requested by law. I also personally feel they did everything in their power to intimidate me into not following up and demanding my rights be exercised. At this point, this is blatant negligence and a violation of the law. Additionally, per my complaint submitted to the CFPB on XX/XX/XXXX I have SINCE received additional erroneous information. I FINALLY received a letter from one the creditors ( XXXX XXXX - that Transunion documented numerous times that they " verified '' ) indicating they received a notice for validation. This letter was dated on XX/XX/XXXX. My initial request to Transunion to validate this debt was received by Transunion on XX/XX/XXXX. To add further insult to injury, the " validation '' was for a CURRENT XX/XX/XXXX bill from XXXX! 1. I absolutely do not have ANY active accounts with XXXX. 2. It's mighty coincidental that 6 days after my CFPB complaint regarding my suspicions of Transunion actually taking the steps to validate their reporting of customer accounts that this company FINALLY sends me " validation '' and 3. If I HAD an active account with XXXX, how is it that Transunion has been " verifying '' this information yet reporting this account as being CLOSED? 

Transunion 's response per my initial complaint was : " Each source we contact is provided all relevant information regarding your dispute, including your letter and all documents provided by you at the time the dispute, and is requested to verify the accuracy and/or completeness of the information reported. For public record information, TransUnion or a third-party we hire will check the applicable local, state and federal court records to verify the accuracy and/or completeness of the information reported. We store information in our records as it is supplied to us by your creditors. Contact information for each creditor is provided on your credit report for review. Once the verification responses are received, they are reviewed and the disputed information is updated accordingly '' Today I have uploaded documentation from SEVERAL creditors that have either explicitly stated I have no account with them, HAD no account with them, they couldn't locate my information or the information " verified '' was just plain WRONG. Yet, Transunion continues to " verify '' this information as correct, using intimidation and insidious tactics to dissuade victims from speaking out ( like adding a collector & erroneous addresses to your accounts when you complain - but when you follow up with the CFPB, make comments that there are currently no other addresses on your account effectively skipping over the fact that several letters, postage and time was spent in between to get them to remove said new false information ) as well as updating the date of last reporting whenever I RIGHTFULLY exercise my rights under the FCRA thereby continuously keeping my credit poor. With the receipt of this " validation '' letter of this non-active yet active account from this creditor ONLY SIX DAYS after my CFPB complaint, yet ONE HUNDRED AND THREE DAYS from my initial reinvestigation request to Transunion, clearly Transunion has NEVER attempted to validate this account. 

Below is my previous complaint : There are several glaring inaccuracies on my Transunion credit report that I have submitted quite a few online disputes including documentation in the past few years with no recourse. On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent Transunion a formal ( notarized & certified ) request asking them to reinvestigate and verify several of these accounts. I also requested the description in which they would be using to verify these accounts as it seems my requests for a legitimate investigation have simply been blown off. In response, not only did I basically receive a copy of my unchanged Transunion credit report ( dated XX/XX/XXXX ) stating the accounts were " verified '' ( with no information on the description they used to " verify '' any of the information ) but they also attached an address where I've NEVER resided ( in a state halfway across the country from my residence ) AS WELL AS a new mysterious collection account on behalf of a utility company I had never heard of - for my troubles. Please note, prior to Transunion receiving my initial formal request on XX/XX/XXXX for them to verify the specific accounts listed, I had already personally reached out to a few of these creditors directly and had in my possession documentation that several of the accounts Transunion for years listed as being derogatory had already either been PAID - as well as correspondences going back over 3 years where the creditors stated they reached out to Transunion on several occasions and yet nothing happened. I even have copies of my receipts of payments to one of the main creditors that I have vehemently disputed for years - ALL of which were already previously sent to Transunion. In addition, I have letters from creditors stating outright that they themselves could not locate my accounts in their database. Yet somehow Transunion is continuously able to " verify '' the information with these very same creditors? It is not unreasonable to doubt that any investigation/reinvestigation of ANY of these accounts ever occurred. I then sent my second request ( notarized and certified ) to Transunion on XX/XX/XXXX exercising my rights under the FCRA further insisting on their methods of verification. I also requested a copy of the original creditor 's documentation that by law they are supposed to have on file. If they had neither method nor documentation on file, not only did I insist on my right to have the accounts deleted, but I also included several of the above listed creditor responses AS WELL AS additional supporting documents from XXXX and XXXX XXXX ( one of Transunions own partners ) who both so happened to notify me on XX/XX/XXXX of the FIVE credit databreaches that I was reported to have been involved in during the past few years. I included these notices and creditor letters in my request as an effort of good faith hoping that someone would finally take my requests seriously and simply do the job of verifying the account information. However in early XX/XX/XXXX even after all of the supporting documents, I STILL received another boilerplate credit report. Nevertheless, I persisted. On my third attempt on XX/XX/XXXX, I mailed yet another certified and notarized request to Transunion advising them that it had now been 59 days since my initial request for a reinvestigation. I insisted that the unverified accounts be removed as they were now in clear violation of the FCRA, yet those accounts remained. Instead, what they DID do was send me a notice dated XX/XX/XXXX ( a full 69 DAYS from Transunion 's certified receipt of my first request ) inserting someone's name ( who that person is, I have no idea ) onto one account giving no additional details and filed a fraud alert on my behalf with another creditor. Several other accounts still remain completely unchanged. As if that was not bad enough, I contacted the mysterious collection account that seemed to suddenly appear on my credit report after my initial request, ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX on behalf of XXXX XXXXa utility company clear across the country from me ) and not only was I advised by the representative that they have no record of anyone from Transunion contacting them about verifying this account, they themselves caught this error MONTHS ago and reached out to Transunion ( as well as their client ) several times since the beginning of the year - in fact, as recently as XX/XX/XXXX ; each time requesting a deletion from my credit report. On my phone call today ( XX/XX/XXXX ) to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( I also called on XX/XX/XXXX ), I spoke with Account Representative, XXXX, and put in a 2nd request for them to mail me the official recall documents confirming the error, recall and dates that they submitted these recall requests directly to Transunion ; which I will be more than happy to upload to this complaint upon receipt. In the meantime, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ' phone number is XXXX and XXXX and her supervisor have been more than helpful and accommodating. Lastly, for good measure, although no new additional derogatory information has been added, immediately after my second & third letters, Transunion has decreased my score a few points ( only to bring it back up again a few points but never making any real substantial changes ).  Outside of the blatant FCRA violations, I also personally think the reporting of the ADDITIONAL ( false ) address/creditor/collection agency information on my credit, the shaving off of a few points here and there as well as the filing of a fraud alert to a company versus actually doing the job of verifying accounts upon request shows a deeper insidious pattern of Transunion intentionally using scare tactics on customers from demanding fair credit reporting on their part. With my documentation, I believe I can clearly show that even after a more than decent amount of communication and effort on my part, a reasonable person can see that Transunion did NOT do the reinvestigation they claimed to have completed since they received my initial request way back on on XX/XX/XXXX, that they aren't above using intimidation tactics to attempt to scare customers from following up and demanding their rights be upheld and they definitely did not handle this before XX/XX/XXXX which was the duration of the timely 45 days as required by law. Please note, after logging this complaint, I will also be emailing this to Transunion CEO, XXXX XXXX. Thank you.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation