Consumer complaint received 2021-08-06
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CO
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Information belongs to someone else

Complaint:
I started the process to refinance my home in XX/XX/XXXX and my credit score had dropped from XXXX+ to XXXX  because of a {$140.00} XXXX  charge in collections. I had no clue what it was, as I had not had an XXXX account in many year. I paid it quickly, not knowing what else to do. After realizing that a paid collection was still going to show as a collection on my credit report, I began looking into it and called many numbers at XXXX before getting anyone to answer my questions on what the charge was about. I was told the following : I opened acct number XXXX for cell phone number XXXX in XXXX as part of a XXXX  I owned. I believe this cell number was attached to a landline XXXX. I sold the XXXX  in XX/XX/XXXX and transferred all utilities to the new owner. He has since sold it to someone else. Apparently the cell number XXXX associated with the land line was never moved over to the new owner 's name. When the current owner closed the land line account in XX/XX/XXXX, the cell line did not get cancelled and ran up 3 months of charges and it hit my social security number as the account original owner. There was no contact info for me however. The address on the acct was Billing XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX CA XXXX - which I believe is an XXXX  address. I never knew anything about this until It showed up as a collections issue on my credit report a year later. I paid it not having any clue where it came from. 

My discussions with XXXX  : I talked to XXXX in XXXX  collections on XX/XX/XXXX who gave me a ticket confirmation number and said it would be handled in 30 days. It was not. I called XX/XX/XXXX and talked to XXXX employee XXXX number XXXX who said the complaint was still showing as open which was odd. I was on hold for several hours being transferred to various departments. They told me I had to go to a store location to be verified and get a PIN. The store was unable to verify me or give me a PIN because it was a closed account and I started all over. 3 or 4 hours total that day in run around. I later talked to XXXX EE number XXXX who said she submitted an escalation, but nothing else to be done and she could not call me with an update. She suggested filing a complaint with XXXX which I did XX/XX/XXXX and I have not heard anything back. I then submitted both a XXXX  and FCC compliant. XXXX  office of the president responded promptly and they said they would have it removed from my credit report, but 2 months later this has not happened and the issue is still on my credit report. 

I have submitted disputes with all three credit agencies and only one has removed the collections. They others have not removed the collection. I have very little documentation to submit to them, as I have not dealt with XXXX  on this account since XXXX. The letter I do have from XXXX  to the FCC is somewhat vague and does not do an accurate job of accepting responsibility for the issue. XXXX did document one line buried in the middle of a long letter which says " The balance was paid for the service that was supposed to be moved to the new owner and cancelled. '' Apparently that is not good enough for the credit agencies. Nothing has happened in the two months since I received the FCC response letter. The FCC closed the complaint 30 days after opening. I did not realize it would be only 30 days as the credit agencies take longer than that, so I am just now taking the day off work to deal with this again. I have updated the information with the XXXX, XXXX, FCC, transunion and equifax as well as filing this complaint.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation