Consumer complaint received 2019-02-13
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: DE
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:
XX/XX/XXXX I financed a vehicle with XXXX with a co-signer. XX/XX/XXXX I sold the vehicle to a private buyer for the pay off amount of {$10000.00} ( 10 day payoff provided by XXXX ). I sent two different checks. One for {$10000.00} and one for {$290.00} ( made the check for a little bit more than payoff ). I sent these checks with tracking to make sure it got there. After a few days it said the check had arrived at XXXX 's financing department but they said they never got anything. XXXX said they still could not find the checks so they suggested to cancel the checks and get new ones. So thats what I did. They said {$10000.00} was still enough to cover the payoff. I then received a payoff letter that stated the vehicle was paid in full and Delaware title with the lien released signed by XXXX by mail that was dated XX/XX/XXXX ( I will attach all of these documents ). When I opened the account I set up automatic payments, once I recieved the title and payoff letter I then canceled the automatic payments because the vehicle was paid in full. XX/XX/XXXX we received a statement from XXXX that said {$0.00} was due but the principle balance was {$270.00}. After the second or third time this letter came my dad/step mom called XXXX to ask why the letter was still being sent if it was paid in full and about the principle balance. XXXX said that if you received a payoff letter/title then the car is paid in full, so after that we didn't think anything of it but we were still receiving these letters and eventually stopped opening them. XX/XX/XXXX my dad gets a call saying you have a past due amount that is due immediately and late fees have been charged since XX/XX/XXXX. Hearing this I immediately thought this was a scam ... how can you tell someone they owe $ 300+ over three years later after XXXX told me the car was paid in full and I received title/payoff letter. I called them several times to fix this problem and everyone was extremely rude. I talked to one supervisor and she kept cutting me off saying would you like to pay the amount today because we are adding another late fee and then sending you to collections and then hung up. It took 10 days to receive a call from the head person of XXXX XXXX. I told him my situation and his response was " you owe the money ... .as soon as our customers say they are paying the vehicle off we automatically start getting titles/payoff letters ready in hopes we have loyal trustworthy customers ''. He then proceeds to tell me the check bounced and was put back in my checking account ... the {$290.00} was a money order, therefore nothing would bounce back into my checking account. His next excuse was well you stopped your automatic payments. Mind you, I stopped them when I received a title/payoff letter. Nothing XXXX says adds up and they are making different stories up. I should not have to owe them anything with a payoff letter/title. I then filed a dispute with XXXX, Equifax, and XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX through XXXX XXXX. All three bureaus said it would take 30 days to process and I notified them all that I would be sending documents to support my dispute via mail. By XX/XX/XXXX I received emails that my dispute was completed and updated as accurate information. My credit score then went from XXXX to XXXX and my payment history went from 100 % to 99 %. I then made another dispute for all three bureaus again and contacted them by phone and let them know they didn't give enough time for me to even send over my documents to support my dispute. All three bureaus came back with accurate information and nothing changed. I got nervous because of my credit score dropping so much and I paid XXXX {$320.00} ( only help they would give me was one late waive fee charge ). I called XXXX and filed a dispute with them last week and asked them to take the late payment off of my credit report. I simply said I shouldn't have had to owe you any money in the first place because your company messed up somewhere but you won and got your money so I would appreciate if you do me the favor and contact the bureaus and taking that off my credit. The customer service representative agreed with me and said I would receive a letter with their decision via mail soon. Yesterday, I received a letter from XXXX that said the information was accurate so there is no change necessary. I am getting no where with either XXXX or the credit bureaus and this should not have been my fault.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation