Consumer complaint received 2021-08-03
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: NC
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:
I have an issue where my credit reporting file in all three credit reporting bureaus was originally recorded incorrectly. A simple typo in the last four of my social got one digit wrong, recording instead the number right next to it on the keyboard. I have been utterly unable to resolve this issue with Experian.

I have spent more than two months ( starting around XX/XX/XXXX ) calling all three bureaus. I have finally resolved this issue with XXXX  and XXXX, but am having extreme trouble with Experian, rising to the level of abuse. I have been attempting to secure a loan to purchase a house and am proving unable to because of this ongoing issue and this issue alone.

First, I can not get to a live human following any of the phone numbers on Experian 's website. I am unable to raise this issue via their online forms. Their mailing address instructions include that they will not respond and because my issue includes difficulty clearly identifying myself to automated systems I can not afford to send documents blindly.

I have been able to get to a live human following a complicated set of instructions I found on an external website to speak with an operator and then get transferred into the correct department.

In the past two days ( XXXX and XXXX ) alone I have spent more than 8 hours on the phone. In the past two days I have spoken to 18 different people across at least 4 departments. I have been hung up on three times, with the call abruptly ending ( Without my carrier 's " lost connection tone '' )

partway through my explanation of my issue, or having been placed on hold and then the call ending, or being placed on hold and then directed to the " end of call '' customer satisfaction survey after 10 minutes on hold. Across the past two months I have spent an estimated combined total of 60 hours or more on the phone with the various bureaus. At least 20 of these hours have been with Experian to fix this particular issue. I have repeatedly been told by multiple representatives on the phone that the remedy they are putting forwards WILL positively fix my issue, but that I must wait 24-72 hours for it to take effect, or that I must wait 5-7 business days for the issue to be resolved. I wait the time period, call back ... and nothing is fixed. I have taken to calling to resolve my issue, taking down whatever details I can get out of the representative, waiting less than 24 hours and calling back just to verify that the process was really begun by that representative. More often than not, whoever I speak to says that it HAS NOT.
Every time I call I get a different answer on what the fundamental problem is and how it can be solved. I am told conflicting answers within the same series of transfers, with one person promising me that the only way to solve my problem is to do X, and the next person saying that I can instead do Y and X is not correct. I have been transferred from membership department to disputes, then back to membership, then up to a supervisor, who then transfers me back to membership who then hangs up on me.

I began to ask for numbers I could call to resume my progress in case I get " disconnected '' but stopped after discovering that the numbers I had been given did NOT go directly to whatever department 's specialist as promised.

I have utterly spent myself on top of working a full time job as a XXXX  affected by XXXX  ( which I myself contracted on the job ) trying to resolve this issue. I have lodged escalation tickets and disputes and had various accounts inactivated and activated and reset, and been absolutely given the run-around. I am promised that my issue will be resolved but it continues to persist and I'm told all kinds of details that I KNOW from previous interactions with this company and the other two bureaus are not correct.

I have repeatedly requested ANY documentation to support claims by this bureau that they are working to resolve the issue. Any documentation, correspondence, or email from them declaring that an issue has been lodged and will be resolved. I have been categorically refused. I occasionally will receive a dispute or escalation ticket ID number or confirmation number but when I call back and attempt to read this number to a customer service agent, I only sometimes get any result and it's not clear if the number really means anything or if they're just saying it does given that I've been frequently told that an agent will do some action but then a second agent says they did not or did it incorrectly.

It's not acceptable that I have such difficulty getting to a real human, or that I can not get this issue resolved. It was tricky but not impossible to resolve this issue with the other two bureaus who did not give me the run-around in this way.

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 non-monetary relief