Consumer complaint received 2018-03-06
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: WA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-issue: Reporting company used your report improperly

Complaint:
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX , XXXX, WA XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX Pulling credit without permissible purpose On or around XXXX XXXX XXXX we initiated the purchase of a XXXX XXXX XXXX at XXXX XXXX XXXX , XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX , WA XXXX . We had seen the XXXX advertised online. 

When we walked on the lot we told them it would be a cash purchase with a trade in if they would give us fair value for our trade in, otherwise an all cash deal. 

We came to an agreement, at which point we were shown to an office upstairs to do the paperwork. We were asked for all of our personal information including social security numbers, which the paperwork employee when we questioned needing the social security numbers he said the government required it because of " XXXX and increased security '', which raised eyebrows because we have never heard that before, but you do what you supposedly have to do that is required to get the paperwork done, and we kind of laughed and said if there was any concern about terrorists, what good would it do for the government to pull a credit report for a smart XXXX with a made up name and history. He never mentioned pulling our credit as there was no need for him to A few days after picking up our XXXX we checked our credit on XXXX XXXX which we do regularly and it showed the XXXX business office address had done a hard inquiry on both of our accounts on XX/XX/XXXX. 

We immediately returned to XXXX XXXX XXXX and made it VERY clear they NEVER had permission to pull our credit, it was illegal, and laws specifically addressing that issue have been in place for some time and they need to remove it ASAP. 

We were told they had the right to check our credit if they felt like it, said they take classes and have extensive training on what they are allowed to do as far as credit reports, and they were not going to remove the hard inquiry. 

We filed a complaint with Equifax that XXXX pulled the reports fraudulently, as there IS no " XXXX '' requirement and all they did was check with XXXX who said they had a reason to pull the report. 

That is not really the protection I expected for all the big deal the FCRA is supposed to be for consumer protection, and when we received the letters from Equifax saying our complaints of a fraudulent credit pull were denied we felt what was the point of fighting it, we felt doubly violated, as what was the reason it was pulled in the first place, and who now has access to the information? - writing Equifax was just a waste of time, they could clearly see we did NOT take out a loan of any kind with XXXX ( or anyone else ) that would have provided a " permissible purpose '' for the hard pull. 


( Name redacted as requested ) 's Equifax Credit Report Confirmation number xxxxxxx ( redacted as requested ) showing hard pull. 
Dispute confirmation # xxxxxxx ( redacted as requested ) ( Name redacted as requested ) 's Equifax Credit Report Confirmation number xxxxxxx ( redacted as requested ) showing hard pull Dispute confirmation # ( Redacted as requested ) So I am curious if there are any real protections, and if so, what steps can we take now? It is so frustrating dealing with this kind of stuff, I just set it aside to deal with later, and now it is time. Even if we did sign something due to the lie, they STILL did not have permissible purpose to pull it, It is seems they do this one a regular basis, as they have no fear about being caught in their lies and will battle the consumer at every step - it did not phase them to have two righteously furious customers in their store telling them they needed to fix an illegal action they had taken and have the hard pull removed, they knew nothing would come of it.

Thank you, Xxxxxx Xxxxx ( Name redacted as requested

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation