Consumer complaint received 2022-02-02
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: MD
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: Difficulty submitting a dispute or getting information about a dispute over the phone

Complaint:
Good afternoon, My complaint is against each of the " big three '' credit reporting companies, but since I I spoke with representatives of Experian, my complaint is against them specifically. 

By way of background, a collections firm ( " Firm '' ) recently filed a small claims court complaint against me for failure to pay an alleged debt. While the Firm obtained my correct address from the original creditor, the Firm mailed the federally required 1692g verification notices to the incorrect address ( to the home of my neighbor ). After the suit was filed, the Firm also attempted to effectuate personal service at the incorrect address. 

For several months prior, I was receiving various mailers and unrequested solicitations from " credit assistance '' companies. In each instance, the mail was addressed to my attention at the incorrect address and, left in my mailbox. They were not formally forwarded by the USPS. After the complaint was filed, I checked my credit reports and discovered that the Firm had reported my address incorrectly upon acquisition of the debt. 

Once I countersued the Firm for failure to send me a 1692g verification letter, among other issues, the Firm contacted Experian and removed their incorrectly reported information. For Experian, this is an important act, since Experian would not allow me to file a complaint to remove the incorrect information until the Firm, and in this case the plaintiff suing me in court, reported to them that the information was incorrect. 

As explained on Experian 's website, there is no option for the consumer to challenge the information directly with Experian. Instead, Experian directs the consumer to the collecting firm - who has no incentive to correct the situation and is only attempting to collect on the debt. This is especially true in my case since the Firm was suing me in court. The only reason why the error was corrected by the Firm in my case, is because I filed a countersuit for damages under 1692g because of the error. In my case, the Firm has now claimed, amazingly, in pleadings, that they in fact never used the incorrect address, or reported the incorrect address ( despite the fact that the incorrect address is on the first page of their complaint! ) To address this, towards the end of XXXX, I contacted Experian again. I wanted to obtain any information about the companies that provided the incorrect information on my account. Surprisingly, ( or maybe not so much ), Experian informed me that NO RECORDS EXIST regarding my dispute and, that all such records were deleted once the corrections were made. To be clear, I was directly told that even provision of Experian 's own information about the dispute, such as the Address ID or the Report number, would be of no use. 

I was advised to find someone who had obtained a copy of my credit report prior to correction of the error and try to get that instead, a useless solution if ever there was one since those reports, even if they existed, wouldn't include the information directly related to the incorrect address. 

Federal law, and many states, require collections firms to send verification of debt letters to debtors. If a collections firm uses an incorrect address for the debtor ( with no fault or misrepresentation from the debtor ), and then relies on that incorrect address to send the verification letter, multiple courts have concluded that the collections firm has violated the law and, is liable for damages under it. If Experian is deleting this information and, does not provide it to the debtor, it is directly impinging on the rights of multiple debtors. The information, which may appear innocuous, could be vital to a debtor 's efforts to prove, in the face of an unscrupulous, aggressive collections firm, that the debtor 's rights are not being honored and, that damages are appropriate. 

For what it is worth, the Address ID provided by Experian is : XXXX, and the Report number is : 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