Consumer complaint received 2020-08-19
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: NJ
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: Investigation took more than 30 days

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX, I took out an auto loan to purchase a vehicle, from XXXX XXXX XXXX. My identity was stolen around the same time that year, which has been reported to my local police department, all of my creditors, and credit reporting agencies. Because of the cost associated with handling the identity theft, I fell behind on auto loan payments. I contacted XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX to see if their hardship department would work with me. They disagreed, and my loan was defaulted on inXX/XX/XXXX. 

In late XX/XX/XXXX/ early XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX repossessed the vehicle, without any written notice. The repossession agent never left any notice that the car was indeed repossessed. I called my local police department ( thinking it might have been stolen ), and they told me to try calling my bank, and one of the officers saw " a car being towed '' while in my neighborhood for another reason. I called XXXX to see where the car was, as I had valuable and personal belongings in the car, and to ask why I never received anything in writing. They refused to speak to me, insisting that I would be sent a " Notice of Repossession '' in the mail. They then refused to give me the name and location of the repossession agent, and made it impossible to retrieve my personal belongings, all the information would be available in the letter they were sending to me. 

I eventually got the " Notice of Repossession '', which simply stated the date and time that the repossession occurred, and the delinquent balance of my auto loan. I called XXXX again, as I needed to get my belongings from my vehicle. They finally provided me the address of where the car was, and gave me instructions on how I could retrieve my belongings. Theyinstructed me to bring the keys to the vehicle to surrender to therepo agent, or it would cost more for me to get the car back when I had that opportunity. I went to the location, prepared with an itemized list of my belongings to collect, and to deliver the keys to the car that I had in my possession. However, when I got there, the owner of the place denied me any access to my car or it's belongings. He wouldn't even agree to take the extra keys to the car. He said I was legally not allowed to be there, and that I would need a court order to collect my belongings. I knew this was not true, otherwise XXXX wouldn't have instructed me to go there. 

The value of the items in the car were worth ~ {$1800.00}, {$700.00} of which was cash. Some other items included a pair of sunglasses, XXXX, phone chargers, CD collections, etc ... There was also a video camera that had the only videos of my sister 's wedding, and my late fathers pocket watch, which had an incredible amount of sentimental value. Those are just some, not all, of the items I neversaw again. Not being able to retrieve them angered me, so I called an attorney to see what my options were. He said there was no point in making a scene at the repo agent, and suggested I call XXXX again. At this point, XXXX refused to speak with me over the phone anymore, and insisted that they would be communicating with me through certified mail. 

I spoke with the attorney further, and he explained to me that under New Jersey law, XXXX had to send me a " Right to Redeem '' notice, giving me the opportunity to pay off the loan ( or bring it current ) and the repo charge within a certain period of time. He said that If they are planning a public sale, then they must state the scheduled date of the sale ; if a private sale, then they must give me at least 10 days notice. 

While waiting for this notice, I had finally gotten my identitytheft situation sorted out, which took a huge financialburden off of my back. In the first week of XX/XX/XXXX, my mother decided to gift me the money to buy back my repossessedvehicle from XXXX. This would have allowed me to repurchase the vehicle without having to leverage bankruptcy towards XXXX. I notified XXXX of this through certified letters, and over the phone. I was told that I would have to wait for the " Right to Redeem '' notice in the mail.I waited and waited, still paying insurance on the vehicle throughout this entire process. I sent a letter everyweek to XXXX, stating I wanted to make the loan current, repurchase the vehicle outright, and that I've yet to receivemy " Right to Redeem '' notice.Each timeI called, they said that I had to wait for the notice, and there was nothing they could do until then.I never got any letter from XXXX. They never sent me a " Right to Redeem '' notice. 
The first letter I got from XXXX after that, came in XX/XX/XXXX. The notice stated my balance due, after the sale of the car. Infuriated, I called the attorney who helped me before, when I was unable to retrieve my belongings from the vehicle. He had me call XXXX, on a conference call. We were transferredto the escalation department, where we spoke to a supervisor, detailing the entire situation. He confirmed that the vehicle was sold in a private sale, and that a " Right to Redeem '' notice was NOT sent to me. He also confirmed the date of the sale, which was well before XXXX gave me the repo agent 's information. Meaning, XXXX had already sold my car when they sent me to the repo agent to collect my belongings from the car. That is why the repo agent denied me access. At this point, I threatened a lawsuit, because of not being able to retrieve my belongings from the vehicle, and not having the opportunity to pay off the loan. My attorney agreed that there was enough evidence to file a suit against XXXX for their negligence in the matter. 

Because XXXX acknowledged their wrong doings at so many instances, they agreed to forgive the remaining balance, and close the account as " Current ''. I wasn't happy about it, as I still wanted my personal belongings, and the chance to have my vehicle back. The value they sold it for was significantly less than the market value of the car, and it was illegal for them to not notify me that they were selling the car. However, my attorney reminded me that it would be virtually impossible to get my belongings back, let alone the car, and that this was a pretty generous offer from XXXX. So we both agreed to accept the deal. 

To this day, XXXX never honored this deal. I've hired other attorneys ( the original one I consulted with has since passed away ), credit repair agencies, etc.. and XXXX has yet to do anything. They have been reporting this account as " Derogatory '', " Charged off as bad debt '', and " Profit and loss write-off ''. What's worse is that they have been reporting this debt with a balance of {$4300.00}, which was originally agreed to be forgiven. I've disputed this information with the three major credit reporting agencies, and XXXX has not provided any documentation, only stating that the reported information is " correct ''. I've sent them certified letters, requesting proof of this debt, which have all gone unanswered. Even after disputes, credit bureaushave not included my statement when reporting this account. It'sunacceptable. What bothers me the most is after one dispute with Equifax, XXXX added a remark saying " fixed rate '', with nothing else. This remark alone dropped my credit score by 49 points, and it was triggered by a simple dispute. 

In summary, XXXX can not provide evidence that they notified me of my " Right to Redeem ''. In fact, their records show that their own representatives confirmed I was never notified about the sale of the car. They have acknowledged this was illegal on their part, according to New Jersey law. They have been refusing to respond to direct disputes I've submitted personally, and through credit bureaus. Most importantly, they have not honored the deal made with them to drop a civil suit against them in the matter.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation