Consumer complaint received 2017-07-28
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: CA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with fraud alerts or security freezes

Complaint:
One of my client needs to do a background check on me in order to allow me to work on their project. I have " credit freeze '' from all 3 credit bureaus ( XXXX, XXXX, and Experian ). When I freeze my credit, I meticulously double-checked, triple-checked my passwords and PIN provided by the bureaus. And for years, I have never had any problem thawing my credit online with XXXX and XXXX. However, this time, my client uses Experian and over-and-over again ( over 1 month ), Experian will not allow me to thaw my credit using their online request and require me to mail in the request. Hence, the start of the problem. XX/XX/XXXX I mailed the request to thaw my credit for 14 days to Experian. Their form only allows me to specify XXXX days, but not which date the thaw should begin or end. I never had to use snail-mail to lift my credit with XXXX or XXXX so I expected Experian to get back to me to ask me for the beginning date once they receive my mail. Well that did n't happen. XX/XX/XXXX Experian sent me a letter stating that my credit freeze was lifted " ... .for the time frame ( 14 days?!?!? ) you selected. '' Their letter was dated XX/XX/XXXX with no post-mark date and it was NOT received by me until XX/XX/XXXX. See attached file.
So if Experian lifted the freeze starting XX/XX/XXXX, which I suspected they did at that specific date. Then, that means I ( or my client ) have until XX/XX/XXXX ( next Wednesday ) to check my credit report. Since I ca n't respond to my client until XX/XX/XXXX and over the weekend. This means that I ( or my client ) have until next Wednesday to check my credit before it is " freeze '' again. Knowing the corporate-culture of my client, a XXXX company, it is not reasonable to expect their employees to put my case as the top priority when they are handling hundreds of other credit check cases. That 's why I put in a 14-day period, but what I got was a 3-day period of " thaw '' due to Experian 's inadequate form and slow processing time. So herein lies the problem : 1. Why Experian did not allow for online " thaw '' of my credit? I am positive that I have filled in the correction information, but received messages stating that my request ca n't be verified and therefore, I have to mail in my request. 2. The mail in form did not state the " starting '' and/or " ending '' dates of my request. How I am ( or other consumers ) to judge or know when they will receive U.S. Post Office mail and process my request on what date? My letter was mailed on XX/XX/XXXX, they stated it was processed on XX/XX/XXXX, and I did n't receive their letter until XX/XX/XXXX. Is n't this a big problem? I would not want to lift my credit freeze longer than necessary or it would defeat the purpose. So I put in 14 days and that looks like it is not enough. This is ridiculous. I hope CFPB can do something about this. Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation