Consumer complaint received 2022-10-28
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: MA
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:
In XX/XX/XXXX, my wife and I received a letter from XXXX XXXX regarding the XX/XX/XXXX payment not being received. To our shock, we checked out records and confirmed that the check has not been cashed although it was sent via USPS mail as usual on time. The conclusion we got was that the USPS had lost the check. 

Immediately after receiving the letter about the missing payment, my wife and I rushed to set up an online account to allow for automatic payments to be processed so this doesn't ever happen again. 

Here 's the timeline of events that occurred : XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX We were charged a late Fee of {$39.00} XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX A letter was received regarding the XXXX payment being missing XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX a payment by phone in the amount of {$1200.00} was made for the month of XXXX and an additional payment in the amount of {$1200.00} was made for the month of XXXX. 
XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX An online account was set up to allow for automatic payments to prevent any delays going forward. additionally, the XX/XX/XXXX payment was processed in advance. XXXX XXXX Customer service was contacted to confirm payments were received and that no impact to our credit will take place due to late payment received. 
XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX XXXX Customer Service was contacted again to ensure that no credit damage will take place and confirmed no credit reporting will take place due to late payment received after explaining the lost check in the mail situation. 
XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX Credit reporting alerted my wife and myself that both of our credit scores have dropped significantly due to a " Delinquent Payment '' received by XXXX XXXX. We call XXXX XXXX Customer Service again and they apologized and confirmed that they would look into this and call us back. 
XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX After waiting a while and not hearing anything back, we submitted a letter to XXXX XXXX to explain our situation and try to reconcile what has happened in an attempt to reverse the severe damage that they've done to our credit and how that was going to hinder us from starting our Non-profit XXXX school that was in planning. 
XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX We received a letter from XXXX XXXX ignoring our request for reversing reporting and they simply claimed " XXXX XXXX does not provide courtesy corrections '' and told us to call our creditors. 
XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX We called XXXX XXXX Customer service again and they assigned us to specialist to further assist us with our request to fix the reporting. This person was very unresponsive to call and voicemails and only got back to us weeks later to inform us that they're not aware of any reporting to our credit. XXXX has been purchased by another company during this time and the account numbers were updated. This situation was explained to the specialist and they looked further into it. 
XX/XX/XXXX An email from XXXX XXXX customer service specialist stated the following : " Good afternoon, Thank you for your patience while we researched your credit concern. We reviewed your concern regarding the credit and we will not be adjusting the credit reporting. We made attempt back in XXXX to make contact with you to make you aware that we did not receive the payment. 

I deeply apologize we are not able to make a courtesy adjustment for the credit reporting. 

Warm regards, XXXX ''. 

Summary : No calls, voicemails or emails were ever received to alert us that a payment had not been received back in XXXX. After months and months of false hope to fix the damage done to our credit, XXXX XXXX seems like they could care less about any resolution that would help their customers. They claim to put their customers first and from this experience, we clearly determined that it's a marketing slogan and nothing more than that. We need resolution. Please help!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation