Consumer complaint received 2022-01-28
Company: Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FNIS)
State: WA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with fraud alerts or security freezes

Complaint:
Chex Systems , Inc. Security Freeze web page ( https : //www.chexsystems.com/web/chexsystems/consumerdebit/page/securityfreeze/placefreeze/ ) will not process submissions with valid Washington State Enhanced Driver 's License Numbers. I even tried truncating my license number to see if it would submit with some of the leading characters removed... no luck. I verified this multiple times on the page and then called Chex Systems. Note that the WA enhanced DL number is not new : it was issued more than a year ago. So, this is not some data synchronization delay. 

The Chex Systems agent confirmed there was a problem with the web page in terms of taking driver 's license numbers and offered to take my information over the phone. It took two minutes for the agent 's " system '' to become available. Even if the agent was working overseas, which I suspect, where latencies to US-based web sites/servers would be higher, that length of delay is absurdly long and may be intentionally in place to discourage callers from completing freezes. I asked the agent why it took so long and noted that the slowness was surprising given that freeze tasks are presumably a core element of the agent 's job ( i.e., wouldn't their system already be up? ). The agent did not have a cogent response to that. 

I finally decided to just mail the sensitive information required for the freeze placement and the agent provided what I needed to include : full name, SSN, DOB, current mailing address and a remark that I wanted to place a freeze. The agent also gave me the mailing address. I thanked the agent and ended the call. 

I decided to call back into Chex Systems automated system and navigate through the menus and voice response to see if the details the automated system gave on how to mail in a freeze request would match those from the agent. They did not. The automated system included all the items the agent had mentioned but additionally requested Driver 's License number ( incl. state of issuance ). Was this a purposeful exclusion by the agent so that a freeze request could be denied or stymied? Possibly. It could have also been an honest error. Or maybe they really don't need DL number ( curiously the web freeze page doesn't have a red star indicating DL is required but in fact you can't submit the form without it ). 

Another curious fact : Chex Systems does not just post the info needed to place a freeze by mail directly on their web site. They make you call to get that. Why? The only logical conclusion is that they want to make it harder to submit a freeze request. 

The sum of these experience suggests, at best, multiple acts of incompetence by Chex Systems. However, there is also the strong possibility of willful action by Chex Systems to complicate submissions of freeze requests, thus discouraging them, or even to facilitate erroneous or incomplete freeze submissions that can then be denied or pushed back to the customer, who may no longer have the patience to continue. In short, Chex Systems handling of this matter reeks of obstructionism.

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 explanation