Consumer complaint received 2020-01-13
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: ID
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: Other problem getting your report or credit score

Complaint:
I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this, but it has. 
I have a PAID credit monitoring services with EQUIFAX, known as " Equifax Complete Premier Plan '' which allows an UNLIMITED number of FREE EQUIFAX CREDIT REPORTS AND SCORE ON A DAILY BASIS with subscription. 

I have been subscribed with equifax for as long as XX/XX/XXXX. I Have since then NEVER EVER encountered this issue before and it seems despite my best REPEAT BEST EFFORTS to resolve this issue it remains to be UNRESOLVED. 

The issue is as of XX/XX/XXXX it has been IMPOSSIBLE for BOTH MYSELF AND LENDERS TO ACCESS MY EQUIFAX FILE. I HAVE JUST ABOUT HAD IT! Since XX/XX/XXXX whenever I attempted to get my FREE EQUIFAX REPORT UPDATE VIA MY PAID SERVICE It came up with UNAVAILABLE and to call customer service ( see attached ). 

Since XX/XX/XXXX I have called equifax more than 30 times in the past month now. I brought it to Equifax 's attention to which they informed me it was because I had " attempted to pull my report too many times and to wait a few days ''. I attempted to pull my report once. After 1 week of waiting on XX/XX/XXXX I got fed up and tried to pull my report again. 
I called again because once again I couldn't pull my report. Spoke to PERSONAL SOLUTIONS DEPARTMNET who handle credit monitoring services and products who after spending almost 40 minutes on the phone, they also seeing the error and after failing to manually pull my report informed me THEN it was an technical error on their end and they would escalate this to the right department. 

As of XX/XX/XXXX the issue was escalated to the IT Department. I asked on the phone if there was ANY indication that could result in no report being pulled. After waiting on hold for like 30 minutes. The rep advised that the adress on file wasn't up to date. Which would cause outdated information. Said there was a department who could update this. 
GLOBAL CONSUMER CARE DEPARTMENT.

I was transferred, I spoke to a genuinely nice guy, I explained the situation and then said he would help me, I verified my identity and everything, then told me to hold, instead of putting me on hold the call went silent and I heard " why isn't it updating the credit report ''. Then was transferred to the dispute department, not what I wanted. They informed me THE ONLY WAY to UPDATE MY ADDRESS IS TO DISPUTE IT. I ended up disputing it. 

I started to think outside the box since equifax wouldn't help me, I checked my previous reports and noticed as of XX/XX/XXXX my current address wasn't on file. OMG could this be the major issue. So I get in contact with the disputes department and tell them using the documents on file to update my adress profile. THEY FOUND MY DOCUMENTS UPLOADED XX/XX/XXXX and verified the address previously reporting and put in the dispute. The confirmation was : XXXX Told me would update within 30 days. XXXX. I was in shock, I asked couldn't they expedite this. They said no, I was so mad I hung up. I am not sorry. 

So I called the same department. Disputes resolution department. Demanded to speak to a supervisor. I was livid, explained the situation said it wasn't good enough, 30 days! Put me on hold, sympathized with me and said he talked with his manager to give an approval of expedited 24-48hrs. I took it, I mean it's not like they could update it straight away??? ... ..oh how wrong was I. 

Fast forward to XX/XX/XXXX. Still can't pull my report. What's worse is lenders can't find my equifax file.They said 24-72hrs to update, no update. I spoke to the personal solutions department again after being transferred and rudely hung up on MULTIPLE TIMES! Then after another phonecall to equifax, I'm told the worst possible thing. The idiots who APPROVED A 24-42HR PROCESSING DIDN'T UPLOAD MY DOCUMENTS! Argued with the rep that my documents were sent in XX/XX/XXXX and CONFIRMED beforehand with another complaint raised earlier that equifax allow 3 MONTHS to hold onto documents until they officially expire. And low and behold now nobody I'm talking 8 reps and 3 supervisors can find my identity documents! They simply vanished. I was livid at this point and shouted and yelled my dismay and demanded they fix this. 

The rep was quiet and apologized for the inconvenience, ( it's not an inconvenience its XXXX! ) told me the reason why I can't pull my report is because the information needs to be verrified with the Global Consumer Care Department. Gave me the phone number which had changed dramatically from previous reps. Told me to press 4 and then 0 to speak to a rep.

Transferred me again to this god awful department, which has an  absolutely waste of an automated system to which I WAS INFORMED OF INCORRECT PROMPTS where it hung up on me, then tried the number given and got a completely different company, I have been back and forth with this company and its employees and I'm disgusted as to how I was treated. I finally got the right number!!! 
But the terrible automated telprompts couldn't verify my identity and hung up. Tried it a 4th or 5th time and was told that nobody was available. Tried a 6th and 7th time got through to someone but once again confirmed no documents were on file. At this point I gave up. 

I then recovered from my horrific experience and ended up calling the department again because it was XX/XX/XXXX and as of XX/XX/XXXX I STILL COULDN'T RETRIEVE MY FILE. NOT MANUALLY OR EVEN BY POSTAL MAIL! I inquired about the escalated technical error. 

Unfortunately due to what can only be described as incompetence and negligence. The represensitive whom I spoke to on XXXX XXXX had failed to uphold my request and the issue WAS NOT ESCALATED. I was INFURIATED. I once again had to raise this along with a complaint but was not given a complaint reference number, go figure!. To which I was hung up on by alot of supervisors and reps during this time which is abysmal! Appaling! Again I remained persistent and said to THIS TIME SUBMIT THE ESCALATION AND RAISE A COMPLAINT OF YOUR GOD AWFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE. 
Along with this asked for an update on the request for change of address, still no update .... and yet again ask for them to find my documents sent in XX/XX/XXXX, now they've found them but I'm missing some. XXXX?! ITS BEYOND ME! 
Stating I have to resubmit it and itll take 24hr-48hrs to receive it and 7-10 BUSINESS DAYS TO REVIEW. I'm literally broken at this point. I say in defeat to transfer me to a supervisor AGAIN. Put on hold for 25minutes ( I'm not exaggerating ). Told the supervisor isn't available and to call back. Hung up.

It's just one big repeated viscous cycle. Up until XX/XX/XXXX, to still no avail a solution but did however finally get through to someone in the GLOBAL CONSUMERS CARE DEPATMENT, I got connected with an XXXX, I believe by the name of XXXX who listened to my situation very patiently, understood my situation, apologized up and down for the hassle, inconvenience and STRESS it had caused me. Went through and PASSED SECURITY, Told him that EQUIFAX has been nothing but a nightmare to deal with and the fact that employees and supervisors have lied to me and hung up on me REPEATEDLY and that I was at my wits end. I informed him the exact date and upload date I sent my documents to equifax to verify my identity in XX/XX/XXXX. HE FOUND THEM, THEY WERE LEGIBLE AND UPLOADED!!!! and put me on a short hold of less than a minute confirmed my CURRENT ADDRESS wasn't on file and added it and said would reflect within less than 24hrs. I sincerely thank that man. 

However XX/XX/XXXX I still couldn't pull my report, I'm at a loss! Nobody knows why this is happening. I HAVE NO BLOCKS OR FREEZES And then my equifax subscription cancelled XXXX XXXX so I had to once again PAY for something I couldn't get! By a sheer miracle ( a christmas miracle ) I finally got my equifax report pulled on XX/XX/XXXX in a 3 bureau report I thought maybe it just needed some time. 

I called and even asked for a copy of equifax report to be sent via MAIL because I had lenders believing I had no file. Said it would take 10 business days. 

The next day I tried my luck to pull a new report the next day to test to see if the problem was fixed. So once again the report was now Unavailable. Figures. Equifax lines are closed for the holidays and boxing day. 

Called back XX/XX/XXXX to see if the ESCALATION team had ANY update. Nothing. 
Its been like this since, everyday up to today XX/XX/XXXX. THERE HAS BEEN NO UPDATE FROM THE ALLEGED ESCALATIONS DEPARTMENT AS OF XX/XX/XXXX Since that time I have only been able to pull my credit report twice. 

XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX I'm lost, nothing on my credit file indicates why it is so XXXX difficult to pull my report. It just seems at random times and intervals I'm able to MAGICALLY pull my report. Nobody can give me an answer. 

I HAVE BEEN TRANSFERRED TO SAME DEPARTMENT 17 TIMES WITH SAME TUNE " You need to verify information on your file '' I've already done this 5 times in XX/XX/XXXX. There is no solution .... 
I have uploaded documents to verify my identity on XX/XX/XXXX and again on XX/XX/XXXX due to my documents being ILLEGIBLE AGAIN DESPITE BEING TOLD THEY WERE READABLE. AND THE EQUIFAX LETTER THEY SENT WAS IN ERROR. 

HELP ME! I CAN'T PULL MY REPORT ANYMORE AND NEITHER CAN A LENDER! ITS NOT ME, ITS EQUIFAX! FIX THIS ISSUE!!!!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation