Consumer complaint received 2024-07-16
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Their investigation did not fix an error on your report
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc. (NY)

On or around XX/XX/year>, an unverified collections account appeared on my Experian consumer credit report ( among other credit reporting bureaus ) as a result of incorrect and incomplete information furnished by an entity appearing to be a debt collection business called " XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX IN ''. I was notified of this materially harmful change to my credit profile by XXXX XXXX ( who was kind enough to provide an automated credit scoring update, unlike Experian itself ), and I submitted a first dispute request to Experian, which Experian 's automated system confirmed receipt of also on XX/XX/year>. About a month thereafter on XX/XX/year>, I was notified that my dispute was " completed '' as defined by Experian, with the only detail provided on their report stating the following " Account information disputed by consumer ( Meets requirement of the Fair Credit Reporting Act ). '' No other details were provided. 


At this time, I sent XXXX XXXX mail to XXXX XXXX XXXXXX/XX/XXXX at the address provided on the account Experian placed on my credit report. There has been no response or incremental information provided from XXXX XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXXat all since then, and I am not able to independently verify that entity is a legitimate and licensed debt collector. That correspondence from me ( which again received absolutely no response from the alleged creditor ) is attached for the CFPB 's reference. 


Having received no information from Experian about the account and unable to get any response from the entity that furnished Experian with that incorrect and incomplete information, I called Experian at their consumer contact number on XX/XX/year> to inquire about what information Experian received in the process of its dispute to verify the collection account, as I was still in a complete information vacuum. I was informed on that call that Experian did not conduct any investigation of the account and simply asked the creditor entity on file, XXXX XXXX XXXXXX/XX/XXXX to confirm the account information, which they apparently did without further detail or explanation. The Experian representative I spoke to at this time told me that if I wanted Experian to actually do any reasonable investigation of its own, I would have to submit a second dispute specifically requesting that Experian do some form of investigation of even basic information about the account ( such as the dollar amount alleged to be owed, how/when/where it was accumulated, and why they think I am responsible for paying it ). I note that all of that is information that I have requested as well from the creditor on file, XXXX XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX by certified mail which I can prove the creditor on file has received ( that correspondence to the collection company is attached for the CFPB 's reference, and it was provided to Experian as well in this dispute process as they had explicitly requested ). Included in my information requests are details so fundamental that even a cursory investigation, if done at all by Experian, would necessitate these answers to verify the legitimacy of an account on a consumer credit report ( especially XXXX as harmful as a nearly {$1000.00} alleged collection account like this ). Shockingly, Experian 's representative explicitly told me on this phone conversation that they did not conduct an investigation of their own at all, and that all they did was contact the debt collector to have them " confirm the information is accurate '' ( which is just a dollar amount allegedly due ), ending the matter there, explicitly NOT requesting any additional verifying information and simply told Experian to leave the account on my credit report unchanged, with no further explanations. This ended on Experian 's side the dispute the identify with the " report number '' XXXX. 


So at the suggestion of the Experian representative I had just spoken with, I agreed to submit a second dispute on this matter, this time explicitly requesting that Experian fulfill its FCRA-required obligation to conduct a reasonable investigation into disputed accounts ( this request placed in a text box on Experian 's XXXXebsite 's dispute portal, where I also attached as an exhibit the information requests I had already sent to the creditor on file and to date have received absolutely no responses to ). I was promised by the representative that this request for an actual investigation by Experian into the amount, nature, and other basic facts about the alleged debt would be honored, so I was delighted to hear that Experian would actually conduct a reasonable investigation. This second dispute on the same matter was submitted on the same day as the phone conversation, XX/XX/year> -- again, this time explicitly requesting that Experian conduct its own investigation. This second dispute was tagged by Experian under " report number '' XXXX. 


Which brings us to today, XX/XX/year>. I was informed today by Experian 's automated system that once again my dispute request had been completed, and that there were no changes to the account. Confused, given that I have still received no basic information about the account from the debt collection business involved nor any information from Experian about their investigation into this matter, I called Experian again this same day. I was initially told by a representative that Experian does not, as policy, do any investigations of disputes on its own ( again, which seems like a flagrant contradiction of the Fair Credit Reporting Act XXXX broadly, and a direct contradiction to what was promised by the previous Experian representative had told me the prior month ). Confused by this apparent admission of wanton disregard for the FCRA 's dispute investigation requirements, I asked for a supervisor to confirm Experian 's procedures. I spoke to a supervisor who would only identify himself as " XXXX '' ( he declined to provide any other info like an employee identification number ), who confirmed for me that once again, contradicting what the earlier representative told me to expect, ( a ) Experian again did not conduct any investigation on its own, ( b ) Experian alleges to have no obligation with regards to dispute investigation besides self-admittedly " rubber stamping '' the collections account dollar amount provided to them by a third-party debt collector, and would not correct or remove the account from my consumer credit report unless the collection business known to me only XXXX XXXX XXXX ASSOCIATES XXXX XXXX XXXX to, and ( c ) my only recourse as a consumer would be to submit yet another dispute to Experian. 


Exasperated and demoralized by Experian 's sham " dispute '' process, I have given up on my fruitless attempts at getting Experian to - as clearly required by the FCRA - conduct a reasonable and actual investigation into this disputed collection account. As such, I am asking that the CFPB involve itself in making Experian conduct a proper investigation into my dispute as the FCRA in no uncertain terms requires. In the interim, with each passing day, Experian 's incorrect credit report is causing material financial harm to me and limiting my access to financial products because of unverified and incorrect information Experian continues to furnish to financial institutions ( which is tantamount to defamation as well ). Finally, it is worth noting that less unscrupulous consumer credit reporting agencies, XXXX specifically, did in fact conduct proper investigations into this matter and were reasonable enough to remove the incorrect and unverified information from my credit report.