Consumer complaint received 2021-11-03
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: CO
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:
Hello, In XXXX of this year I had a XXXX security system installed. The whole installation process was rushed. My husband and I didn't understand that when we said we would be interested in the system, it was to be installed immediately. We had been talking to the sales person alone and when we agreed to the security system a van pulled up and here came the installers ready to install. My husband was leaving for work and I had another appointment. I asked if we could install another time, but was told they were only in our area for the day. The sales person was very personable, but we felt extremely put out. The sales person hurried through the cost and I was aware there would be two payments. One for the system and one for monitoring. I gave him my account information for automatic withdraws. They sped through the installation and instruction and left. 

In a completely unrelated matter ( in my eyes ) I received a few emails from Citizens One. I opened the emails and they were very vague, asking me to set up my account. I went at once to my credit monitoring system to see if I'd been hacked and someone had opened an account in my name. There were no unknown accounts and nothing saying I had a loan with Citizens One. So, I assumed it was some person 's deviant way to fish for my personal information and moved on. Then on XX/XX/XXXX I received an email from Citizens One titled " XXXX XXXX Home financed by Citizens One. '' I opened it and then I called XXXX to see what was going on. They did not tell me I needed to open an account with Citizen 's One. I did not receive any documentation on Citizen One, a payment booklet, or even a website address. Zero instruction!! I had given my account information to the sales person on the installation day and was told it would be a reoccurring payments automatically withdrawn. 

I told XXXX I thought they seriously dropped the ball during the sales pitch and then called Citizens One to get my account current. I payed up the account and set automatic withdraws for future payments. About a week later, I have an email from my credit monitoring system saying my credit score had changed. I logged on to find that Citizens One had reported a 120 day late payment to the bureaus on my credit. It dropped my score XXXX points!! Before this my report didn't even show I had an account with Citizens One!! Not a single email from them ever said anything about a late payment and until the email in XXXX did it even mention XXXX being tied to them. This is not okay!! I've never even had a 30 day late payment recorded on my credit let alone a 120 day. I've called Citizens One multiple times to talk to someone in the credit reporting department. They just say they don't have one and will not even allow me to speak to a manager or higher up. They've just said there is nothing they can do.

My credit is VERY important to me. I have a car lease ending soon and now I can't even buy it out with a reasonable interest rate. Essentially I can't buy anything now because these two businesses failed in their processes. 

Attached are what the emails looked like every month until the XXXX email that included XXXX in the title. 

Please help.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation