Consumer complaint received 2019-11-16
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: OH
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Unable to get your credit report or credit score
Sub-issue: Problem getting your free annual credit report

Complaint:
I was a victim of ID theft several years ago and froze my credit histories at the three bureaus using the PIN identification system.

Since then we have also checked our credit reports using XXXX three times each year ( every four months ) for each of the three major bureaus. 

After the Equifax breech of XXXX, Equifax implemented major changes to the free credit report process. At this point no one in my family has been able to get an Equifax credit report using XXXX since XX/XX/XXXX. And use of the PIN to freeze/unfreeze no longer works. 

Equifax claims their new system, an account at myEquifax.com, is better. It now appears to be the exclusive way to freeze/unfreeze credit histories and get the free annual report. 

Except the account creation for myEquifax.com is error-prone and subject to major failures. A week ago I tried to create my account at myEquifax.com. After answering the verification and knowledge-based authentication ( KBA ) questions my login attempt said to call a specific number for customer support. 

Instead of giving me customer support, that number forced me into an automated KBA process. No matter what I tried I could never reach a human being in customer support to solve the login failure at myEquifax.com. And each time I went through the KBA it said I failed to validate.

Over the course of a week, many phone calls, and literally hours on the phone, I collected over a half dozen phone numbers for Equifax customer support, and every one of them but one went to the same automated system, which always failed me at the KBA test.

At least three times I was able to get to a human AFTER the failed automatic KBA test, and was successful with a verbal KBA test using the same questions.

The one number that didn't fail was for Equifax Global Consumer Support. The initial person I spoke said he could not resolve the myEquifax.com login issue ( different support group he said ) but he was able to apply a 24 hour unfreeze ( which was one of my goals to get onto myEquifax.com ).

One person said that once you fail the automatic KBA test you can not try again until the next day. Most claimed that I could solve the authentication problem by mailing in personally identifiable information ( PII ) documents, which I refuse to do. Sending copies of my SSN, drivers license, and bank statements through the mail or fax is not safe and it is unreasonable to make that demand.

Equifax even sent me through the mail a requested verification code. I used their site myEquifax.com/pin to validate using the code, then they STILL failed my login attempt, saying " call this number ''.

Finally after a week, and after another failed automated KBA test followed by a successful verbal KBA test, I was able to get to a supervisor at Global Consumer Services who reset my failed test, got me to a myEquifax.com support person, who confirmed and fixed what was going on.

Turns out when I created the myEquifax.com account the system glitched and created a shell account with no data. Every attempt to login and use the auto KBA to validate was going to fail because the record in the database was only partially populated.

To summarize the complaints : 1. PIN method of freeze/unfreeze has been discontinued, replaced exclusively with the myEquifax.com account process.
2. The myEquifax.com account creation process is prone to failure. No one in my family has been able to create an account without getting the failure message and " call this number '' message.

3. All Equifax support numbers but one force users into the automated KBA process. There is NO option to get to a human being without first going through the auto KBA.

4. The auto KBA process is prone to failure. EVERY attempt at authenticating using the auto KBA failed this week, while EVERY attempt using a verbal KBA with a customer rep worked USING THE SAME QUESTIONS.
5. With one-time-your-out logic after failed auto KBA, and forced use of the auto KBA process failing every time, I was stuck in a vicious loop until I finally found the right supervisor and rep who could reset my credit records to allow a verbal KBA to complete the login to my myEquifax.com account.
6. At no time during any login failure or auto KBA failure did Equifax provide any details or hint of what was wrong and how to fix it.

7. The demand for paper records to prove identity via mail or fax WOULD NOT have solved this problem, yet I was constantly told that that was my only option to get past the validation step. Validation was not the issue - a bad account creation by Equifax on the myEquifax.com site was the problem and no amount of ID verification would fix it. 

Equifax has built an almost impenetrable fortress of phone automation that keeps customers from getting to real people who can solve real problems, especially unexpected problems like this glitch. 

My XXXX adult children tried to create myEquifax.com accounts at the same time I did and failed, and I'm confident they have glitched accounts as well. I will have to work with them using the Equifax Global consumer support to resolve. 

This is not right, it's not better, and has been a tremendous strain and time consuming effort to fight my way through this company to get to the very few people who really seem to want to help and know how to resolve problems at Equifax.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation