Consumer complaint received 2019-06-02
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: TX
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: Their investigation did not fix an error on your report

Complaint:
I resided at an apartment complex from XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX. I was signed on to the lease a few weeks after the original leaser ( my roommate ). After graduation, I left the apartment complex a few weeks before my roommate, as I was moving out of state. I called the complex and confirmed with the apartment complex leasing department that the account had been paid in full. My roommate was issued a refund on her deposit, though the complex had taken money out of the deposit, she still received a refund. Although the account was paid in full to the apartment complex, I paid my roommate {$150.00} dollars to cover my share of what was taken out of her deposit and any final utilities. 

Fast forward two years, in XX/XX/XXXX, I received an alert on my credit regarding a collections account from XXXX XXXX  XXXX apartment. Considering the account was paid in full and that I, nor my roommate, had never been contacted by the complex via phone, email, mail stating there was now a balance due, I have no knowledge of the account, nor believe it to be a valid debt. As such, I disputed the collections with the credit bureaus. XXXX and XXXX deleted the account from credit report within 2 business days. Equifax refuses to. 

I submitted my initial dispute with Equifax in XX/XX/XXXX ( Dispute # XXXX ). It took over 2 weeks from them to return to me stating that they confirmed the account belonged to me. I called on XX/XX/XXXX to inquire about their finding. I explained the situation above and asked if they had obtained proof of the validity of the debt, such as a final bill. The rep told me that they just confirmed it belonged to me. I then brought up the fact that the other two bureaus launched a similar investigation and have since removed the account from my report and asked about why Equifaxs findings were different. The rep immediately changed his story and advised that I had not filled out the dispute correctly, hence the discrepancy ; however, he would submit a new dispute ( correctly ) on my behalf to get the account deleted for me. I asked how I completed my original dispute incorrectly, as I followed all of the online prompts, and he essentially told me not to worry about it, since he was going to submit the dispute correctly for me. 

The rep submitted a second dispute on XX/XX/XXXX that concluded with the same results as the first dispute on XX/XX/XXXX. He submitted the exact same information as my initial dispute, which resulted in the same findings - that the account belonged to me, when I specified that I wanted them to confirm that the debt was valid. 

Though this particular complaint is primarily for Equifax, the apartment complex in question has a reputation for doing this to previous tenants and probably be investigated as well. I have attached numerous complaints from prior tenants ; however, I understand if this is outside of the scope of the CFPB.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation