Consumer complaint received 2019-10-20
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: MI
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Personal information incorrect

Complaint:
Please forward this message to XXXX XXXX related to a credit- Hard Inquiry - done in error or there was a data breach against my ( Equifax ) account by XXXX XXXX on XXXX before XXXX XXXX. 
After being approached while I was shopping at your beautiful store located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, MI, by a promotional XXXX lady, I was asked if I wanted 10 % off on todays purchase. My reply was yes and she said, all I need is a little bit of information. She omitted the part about doing a credit application against my name to get the 10 % and I assumed it was some type of survey research. Looking back, it appeared XXXX was doing a sales promotion by the way of giving people 10 % off their purchases if consumer open up a credit card ; not initially telling the consumer ( me ) they are doing a credit application online with a tablet but collecting as much information about that consumer was a unique strategy to increase sales by opening up credit cards for the store. Once the data is in her tablet, some consumer later find out the process to get the 10 % and they go ahead and allow it to go through XXXX system. However, I stopped, instantly, giving any more of my information about me after she asked for my SSN and if I had a car because I thought she was getting too much detail for just a survey. When I said NO, I stood next to her and saw the promotional lady remove my information from the tablet. I never received real-time credit approval or the 10 % off my purchase because she removed all my information. She never received whole/part of my SSN. 

For some unknown reason, part of my information went through XXXX system and reached XXXX banks system. XXXX   strategy to increase sales caused ( 1 ) A communication breakdown between the consumer ( me ) and the promotional lady, ( 2 ) Materialized into an invalid hard inquiry for all my accounts ( 3 ) Caused the consumer ( me ) credit score to drop by 2 points and ( 4 ) Caused me extreme distress. Soon after whatever the promotional lady did or did not do on that tablet, I received a notification, the same day on my phone. I instantly alerted all three credit bureaus the same day and asked for a Fraud Alert to be put on my credit accounts. 
After my complaints early on XXXX to the credit-reporting agencies, two things happen : ( A ) On XXXX, I obtain verbal confirmation related to having a Fraud Alert on my accounts with all three credit-reporting agencies ( B ) On XXXX, XXXX XXXX wrote to Equifax : Inquiries are a factual record of the file access. 
( C ) On XXXX, XXXX bank wrote a letter and sent it to me, I quote, unable to approve your application at this time, because we could not verify the SSN you provided in your application against comparing information we obtained from the credit-reporting agency. 

In the above case, XXXX XXXX was talking about Equifax, Only, making it appeared the banks preference is with Equifax. The other credit-reporting agencies posted the hard inquiry but it instantly dropped off making it appeared that an error occurred was corrected in their system. Equifax 's system must not be updated. 

Although I never tried or knew that XXXX even issued out credit cards, I do not want or need another credit card. XXXX XXXX XXXX letter dated XXXX was confusing and insulting because XXXX XXXX have had all my personal information including my same whole SSN in their database for years and my information was and currently valid. Now XXXX, XXXX, all of a sudden, they can not receive verification with the same SSN comparing it against any of the credit-reporting agencies information. On XXXX, I went back to the same XXXX store with my complaints and documents. Since they saw me, maybe they think because I am an elderly XXXX lady, I must be Cognitive Delay and they can write anything to dismiss my complaints. 

A fair resolution should be two things : ( 1 ) I should receive compensation from XXXX for {$500.00} for extreme distress ( 2 ) Please send an electronic letter to Equifax asking them to remove the hard inquiry done on my account XXXX and noting some unknown system error. 

XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation