Consumer complaint received 2017-09-14
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA
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: Was not notified of investigation status or results

Complaint:
I am writing to complain against Equifax and the recent incident of 'cyber security ' breach reported the week of XXXX XXXX, 2017 where millions of American 's private data were stolen. 

My family and I were impacted by this theft as we verified by following Equifax 's instructions. Later we attempted to enrol in the Equifax to receive their free credit monitoring they offered. We followed instructions provided on their website, using their two-prong method, submitting personal information including social security number, then waiting for XXXX email reply with a link to verify and finalize the enrolment process. Unfortunately, after five days, we have not received any emails back from Equifax and thus not able to complete the enrolments. 

Our multiple attempts to call their customer service line, XXXX set up specifically to assist customers ' inquiries pertaining to the cyber-attack and to address their questions, have proved to be an exercise in futility and very frustrating. Their website message states : " For consumers with additional questions, Equifax has established a dedicated call center. The call center is available at XXXX, every day ( including weekends ) from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Eastern time. '' First time we called, after waiting 45 minutes, the representative said she could not assist and hung up on us abruptly. Second time, the representative referred us to another Equifax number, XXXX ( would not answer ). When asked why they would not assist us since their own company had indicated this was the venue for helping consumers affected by the security breach, the person had no answer and said she could not help. Third call resulted in a rude representative lecturing us to use email properly and check our spam folder which we already stated, we had, and there were no emails for any member of our family who had tried to enroll. We asked for a supervisor, she refused to transfer the call. When we insisted she told us, it would be 15-20 minutes wait time. Finally, a supervisor, XXXX, took the call and said he was dealing with many issues like ours and to wait 3-4 days for the email reply. When we stated it had already been 5 days since our application, he said he had no answer and then hung up the phone too while we were still trying to express our concern! 

It is incredible that after such a fiasco and massive failure on the part of Equifax not protecting our personal, confidential and private data, exposing us to possible future fraud for the rest of our lives, now, they subject us to this horrible customer service response. The incompetence and lack of support or at very least courteous customer service is astonishing! 

How can Equifax be allowed to treat customers like this? We did not choose to have our personal private information in their database. They failed miserably to protect our date.There is even report published today, that they failed to install a programming patch that would have prevented this security breach : " The Equifax data compromise was due to ( Equifax ' ) failure to install the security updates provided in a timely manner, '' The XXXX XXXX, which oversees the widely-used open source software, said in a statement Thursday. '' They provide lip service to customer with empty promises of offering this so called " free credit monitory '' of only one year, yet create a cumbersome unsatisfactory enrollment process that is still not verified as far my family and I are concerned. 

I urge you to address these issue as I am sure it affects millions of others beside our family. Equifax ought to be held accountable and fined significantly to learn a lesson for their failure that could have been preventable. 

I look forward to your reply. 

Thank you. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation