Consumer complaint received 2018-06-26
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:
I have been trying to remove an Unauthorized Hard Credit Pull from my Equifax Credit report for nearly 6 months now. 

History details below 1. XX/XX/XXXX Applied for HELOC with XXXX XXXX 2. XX/XX/XXXX Updated HELOC Documentation for XXXX XXXX submitted Approved for the HELCO 2.1. Was guaranteed by the bank that there would not be a 2nd Hard Credit Pull with the revised HELOC Application as this was not authorized by me and was verbally refused to proceed if there was going to be a 2nd pull 2.2. However, the automated system automatically tripped a 2nd Hard Pull for this same account 2.2.1. Been fighting to have this removed since Mid-XX/XX/XXXX when this was found 3. ~XX/XX/XXXX Learned about the 2nd Hard Credit Pull from online credit monitoring program 4. XX/XX/XXXX Downloaded 3 Free Credit Reports and confirmed that there were 4 Hard Credit pulls for XXXX 5. ~XX/XX/XXXX Contacted the bank to have this 2nd Unauthorized Hard Credit Pull removed 5.1. Branch Manager submitted the electronic request through her system 6. ~XX/XX/XXXX Also completed the dispute process with Equifax directly for this Hard Credit Pull to be removed 6.1. Intent to pull in the updated detail from the Branch Managers submission 7. XX/XX/XXXX Received XXXX Branch disagree with removing the pull letter 7.1. Due to the failure of the Branch Manager to properly update the system as requested/agreed 8. XX/XX/XXXX Equifax Dispute Results for XXXX Hard Pulls being confirmed accurate ( which in fact were not ) 8.1. Parallel process that provided overlapping paperwork 9. XX/XX/XXXX Received Equifax Dispute Results for XXXX XXXX   Hard Credit Pull 9.1. Equifax confirmed XXXX XXXX Hard Pull is accurate per the details they have been given 9.2. This translated that the XXXX database system did not actually make the changes as requested and required 10. XX/XX/XXXX I wrote detailed explanation letter and faxed it to XXXX XXXX  Client Resolution Office detailing explaining why the situation and requested that that at least 1 Hard Credit Pull be removed from my Equifax report for being unauthorized 10.1. Also Provided the XX/XX/XXXX letter from XXXX XXXX on the original decline to remove this Hard Credit Pull 10.2. All later and materials were faxed the same day 11. XX/XX/XXXX XXXX Letter confirming that the XX/XX/XXXX would be removed from my Equifax Credit Report as unauthorized 11.1. The letter also stated that Equifax has been notified of this change at the same time 12. XX/XX/XXXX Continued to monitor my monitoring system 12.1. As I was informed that these update transactions were immediate updates per my conversations with Equifax 13. XX/XX/XXXX Refreshed my Online Equifax Credit Report 13.1. The XXXX   Hard Credit Pull and the 2 XXXX  Hard Credit Pulls were still showing on my report from that day XX/XX/XXXX 14. XX/XX/XXXX Several calls with detailed notes about the outstanding issues I have been continuing to fight with Unauthorized Hard Credit Pulls on my Equifax Credit Report 14.1. One call to Equifax confirmed that the 2 Hard Credit Pulls from XXXX   had been removed per their records, but that the 1 XXXX XXXX Hard Credit Pull was still showing 14.2. I was able to get a Free Revised Credit report from Equifax ordered that arrived XX/XX/XXXX that did confirm that the 2 XXXX  Hard Pulls have been removed 14.3. But the 1 XXXX XXXX Hard Credit Pull for XX/XX/XXXX has yet to be removed 14.4. Equifax repetitively told me that they have never received the Update/Delete Electronic Message from XXXX back in early XX/XX/XXXX 14.5. Equifax consistently blamed the issue on XXXX XXXX not sending the updated details 14.6. Equifax confirmed with several different managers I spoke to that these updates to Hard Credit Pulls were immediate updates and they would be able to see these transactions in their system same day, which is why they kept telling me that XXXX XXXX has not sent their updated message to remove this Hard Credit Pull 15. XX/XX/XXXX Called XXXX XXXX Again 15.1. Spoke with XXXX about the situation, and gave him the history yet again 15.2. XXXX connected me with XXXX in Savings/Credit/Cards in charge of Credit Reporting Challenges 15.3. XXXX indicated that he would help get the Deletion record sent a second time and this should be escalated to be completed in 3-5 Business Days 15.4. XXXX gave me a Call ID XXXX to track the progress of this request ( however, nobody in the XXXX Call Tree process was actually able to use this number to find the details of this case ) 15.5.  XXXX can confirm that I have been calling XXXX Support several times to get this issue resolved, which is very true 15.6. This is the second confirmed time that I have been told by XXXX XXXX that the Updated/Electronic Message would have been sent 16. XX/XX/XXXX Tried to write a dispute letter to Equifax regarding the 2 XXXX Hard Credit Pulls 16.1. But I talked with Equifax Support to help confirm the process, which is where Equifax told me again that a letter will not work to get this issue corrected, only an electronic record from the Creditor ( XXXX XXXX ) would get this record updated 16.2. I  explained that there have been 2 Electronic records sent by XXXX XXXX, but once again the Equifax Rep told me that they have received nothing from XXXX XXXX on this and that the change would be immediate from the day the electronic update record was received 16.3. Once again Equifax blamed XXXX XXXX for not sending the update message, despite XXXX XXXX having sent it twice in the past month 17. XX/XX/XXXX Equifax Credit Report received 17.1. Confirmed that the 2 XXXX Hard Credit Pulls had been removed this issue had been resolved 17.2. But the 1 XXXX XXXX Hard Credit Pull was still showing this was still outstanding to be resolved 18. XX/XX/XXXX Another Hour plus call to Equifax to review the situation and confirm that they have still not received any electronic record from XXXX XXXX and that the update would be immediate as soon as they receive the electronic record 19. XX/XX/XXXX Another Hour Plus call to XXXX XXXX to continue to explain that this issue has yet to be resolved, but unable to reach XXXX with the Call ID I had been previously provided 19.1. Left messages to try to have XXXX return my call and provide me a status update and next steps 19.2. Either the XXXX XXXX system is not sending the correct type of update message or the Equifax system is refusing the electronic updated message but can not confirm where the issue lies 20. XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Busy from work and only able to make some calls during this window 20.1. But best recommendation was to possibly go directly into the local branch for assistance with this 21. XX/XX/XXXX Additional Call to Key Support 21.1.  XXXX XXXX Agent ( XXXX ) had documentation to show that this request was completed per their details as of XX/XX/XXXX but this was still showing up as of XX/XX/XXXX 21.2.  XXXX was not able to escalate the issue any further and was supposed to have a Supervisor contact me back the following morning but that did not happen 22. XX/XX/XXXX Went into the local branch and started working with XXXX the Branch Manager 22.1. Have email communications and submitted yet another internal XXXX XXXX  Dispute form to be submitted and this this resolved 22.2. Reiterated and shared the copy of the XX/XX/XXXX Letter from XXXX confirming this would be removed but it is now 3 Months later and this is still not resolved 23. XX/XX/XXXX Emailed completed XXXX XXXX Internal Dispute Form to XXXX to resubmit the electronic dispute 24. XX/XX/XXXX Continue email follow up but XXXX was called out of the office and was not responding 25. XX/XX/XXXX Still no response from XXXX by phone or email, so called the main number and reached XXXX 26. XX/XX/XXXX Completed the 2nd copy of the XXXX XXXX   Dispute Form for XXXX to reprocess in order to try to get this issue properly resolved 27. XX/XX/XXXX Received yet another confirmation letter from XXXX XXXX Client Relations that the additional Dispute Form was approved and another transaction was to be sent to Equifax to get this resolved 27.1. It is understood that XXXX and XXXX can not directly fix this issue, but one of the Escalation team members inside XXXX had indicated that he had been in contact with Equifax and the Equifax representative confirmed the receipt of an earlier message but could not determine why it was not properly processed 27.2. The additional request that was being sent was supposed to be processed and taken care of 27.3. The Equifax representative shared his greatest apologizes for the challenges to getting this resolved, but gave indication that it would be finally taken care of and this XX/XX/XXXX Hard Credit Pull would be removed from my record 28. XX/XX/XXXX This issue is still not resolved and I am simply running out of options and can not get to the correct resources within Equifax to get this resolved, which truly seems to be either a process issue or technologic issue that Nobody is properly owning and/or addressing based upon the fact that this issue as of today is still not resolved 28.1. So, I prepared this detailed material to file the complaint with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 28.2. This has been wrong on my report since XX/XX/XXXX for 6 months 28.3. I have had confirmation that it would be removed and resolved since XX/XX/XXXX, but have since been waiting nearly 4 months 28.4. This Hard Credit Pull is NOT Authorized, XXXX XXXX has been Approved to be Removed per my rights, and sent in the details, and this has been promised numerous times to be corrected over the last several months, but after hours upon hours, week after week, and month after month, I continue to have this unauthorized information on my credit report pulling down my credit score 29. I have been repetitively told by Equifax that if they had received the update this would be an immediate fix but there is additional attempts to push back saying that this might take up to 45 days to resolve which is completely opposite of every individual contact I made on this specific issue with Equifax representatives 29.1 Even if there is a 45 day window required it has now been 138 days in the process to complete.

29.2 The XXXX XXXX is out of options at the branch level, but there is no other resource available to get Equifax Resources necessary to fix their issue to get these minimum 4 attempts that this has tried to make this happen.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation