Consumer complaint received 2019-04-17
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: Problem with personal statement of dispute

Complaint:
I have had a XXXXXXXX XXXX credit store credit card for nearly 5 years. In that time I have never once missed a payment, usually paying off the balance to avoid interest charges. In the last 7 years, I have never once missed a payment on anything ever. 

I set up automatic payments sometime in early XXXX with my XXXXXXXX XXXX card. I had not used my card in a long time and carried a {$0.00} balance and went shopping in XXXX on Black Friday as I do every year. 

For reasons that have never been explained to me, XXXX XXXX credit card failed to make the minimum payment through automatic payments even though I had long ago provided bank account information in order to process payments. 

What's more, I was never once notified about anything regarding a missing payment. I never received an email, letter or phone call alerting me to there being something amiss. 

Then one day in XXXX I was alerted by XXXX, which I subscribe to in order to monitor my credit score and detect and fraudulent activity, there was an issue with my XXXX XXXX card. I was shocked to find I had been flagged with a 30-day late payment. I immediately called XXXX XXXX credit card department to correct the situation. I was told for some reason my payment had not processed even though I assured the representative I had already signed up for automatic payments. 

I was walked through the steps on the phone to ensure with absolute certainty I was signed up for automatic payments and something like this would never happen again. I can only imagine what would have happened and how long this would Because of the error which I am certain was not my fault, I asked XXXX XXXX credit department to issue me a Goodwill Adjustment. I felt I deserved one as up until this point I had never once failed to pay them on time and was confident they would take me payment history into account as well as my stellar history of never missing a payment, much less one as small as {$27.00} in over 7 years, roughly 643 consecutive payments of all my accounts tallied in a row. 

I finally reached someone at the head of the credit department and told unequivocally that they would do nothing for me to resolve the issue and that I was solely to blame for the error. She also imparted to me XXXXXXXX XXXX credit department bears no responsibility to notify their customers if they are late, are not required to send a letter, email or to call anyone in case someone has missed a payment. To me, this seems unconscionable and can only wonder what would have happened and how much worse this circumstance would be had it not been for my subscription to XXXX alerting me to there being an issue. 

I was left feeling very angry about her decision, which she assured me was the final word in this matter and there was nothing I could do about it. I decided to see if I was the only unfortunate person to have this happen. After a quick XXXX search, I found hundreds of complaints by people who were having the same issues I was having their processing automatic payments. Some people being overcharged, others getting hit with 90 late payments on their credit report who hadn't used their card in years. And nearly every single one of the complaints ran into the same stone wall of denial from the credit department, many citing the same lack of professionalism, courtesy, and a coherent explanation as to why they were being overcharged and their credit ruined. 

I am a XXXX XXXX XXXX and run peoples credit every day in order to qualify potential renters buyers toward purchasing a new home. I have seen many people lose out on a new apartment because their credit score was marred by collections and late payments. The sole reason I subscribe to XXXX to monitor my credit is so that this never happens to me. 

XXXXXXXX XXXX credit card department and their web page is an absolute mess and I'd welcome any agency to investigate their practices. I have many credit card accounts and never have I ever encountered and bank or lender making such heroic efforts at avoiding all responsibility for their obvious inability to management accounts, but absolutely no concern whatsoever to the peoples lives they affect. 

After reading the endless comments from so many unhappy customers with legitimate concerns dawned me that to corrected their mistake with me would mean to have to take responsibility to all the others. Better to deny any wrongdoing to any lest you open the door to a class action lawsuit. 

This company is engaged in underhanded predatory practices and has a blatant disregard for their mismanagement and negligence and I find it outrageous te need to go through all these hurdles to correct a negative remark on my credit report. They refuse to answer for any of their unforced errors which are negatively affecting the credit of those whose only mistake was wanting to get a good deal on gifts for the holidays and trusting the institution to process the scheduled payments.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation