Consumer complaint received 2015-03-28
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA
Product: Credit reporting
Issue: Credit reporting company's investigation
Sub-issue: Inadequate help over the phone

Complaint:
I had a state tax lien on my CR. The state withdrew the liability and I was sent a letter to verify the withdrawal as well as a court filed CERTIFICATE OF RELEASE. I was assured by the state, once I sent that to all XXXX bureaus, the CB agency would delete the tax lien from my CR 's. I did as required. RESULTS? NOTHING DELETED! 
Equifax told me that a " certificate of release '' is not a withdrawal, and the attached withdrawal letter is not valid ( A FORMAL CA FTB LETTER that said I was not liable for debt and the balance formally reporting should be deleted as balance was {$0.00} by withdrawal ). I told Equifax it was supporting evidence with the filed Certificate of Release that was an official copy on record! They told me the tax lien stays and they verified it with the County. I called the county recorder 's office and they told me, " NO they do not verify with us because we do not report to any bureaus ''. The State XXXX also does not report to any credit bureau. So how do they get our public records? 
The bureaus get the info by sending 3rd parties out to county recorder 's offices and collect all public records filed in the court! That is how the bureaus get public records. More importantly the county also told me, if they verified info on me, they would have seen there is a release and it should have been deleted from CR. 
After 2 hours arguing my case with Equifax, I was angry and frustrated. I told them, I gave you Official State, Federal and Local Govt documents stating the lien is released. I gave you supporting evidence. Now, you ( Equifax ) give me the law that says the lien stays on my report with a withdrawal of liability and a release of lien! They told me " If you paid ... '' I said, I DID NOT PAY BECAUSE IT WAS WITHDRAWN! They told me, they would file another dispute and 'verify with the county '. I told them, that is useless because you actually do n't verify because if you did, you would know that State of CA only has XXXX legal certificate they file with the courts for withdrawal : THE CERTIFICATE of RELEASE. Yes, I verified this for the XXXX time with CA XXXX which they told me that is the only certificate they have ever sent out and they did not understand what the CB 's are doing! They also mentioned that they send them out daily but they do n't delete from records after the certificate of release has been sent out. And it is n't the county who is has to delete it ( because the court recorder 's office is like a library only archiving what has been filed in court ; they can not delete anything from credit bureaus if they wanted to ). The only one who can do that with all supporting evidence of proof ... is the CREDIT BUREAUS! 
Let me also mention, that Equifax has outsourced their phone agents in the XXXX and that 'supervisor ' could not comprehend putting all evidence together to prove my dispute! When I forced he state to me the XXXX. Code Section law that says a withdrawal and certificate of release is not valid proof for deletion? He stumbled over ambiguous robot wording that is printed on the back of a Dispute Results page. Basically, he tried to push me off the phone and told me I had to call the county ( AGAIN ). I said NO! Transfer me to higher managment person in the XXXX! 
I was transferred to a gal in XXXX Georgia. Again, she told me same thing even after I told her " My Fed, State and Local Govts all said you have to delete that off my records and they stand behind me ... what do you got? '' She also could not show me law that says it stays and I told me, " Ma'am, I will re-open dispute and verify with county ''. 
In the words of the County : " That is just circular thinking! Tell them to delete it '' In the words of CA State XXXX : " We only file a Certificate of Release ; the bureau has to delete the lien off your CB ''. 

In the meantime, CB is over 90 days for correction!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation