Consumer complaint received 2025-01-24 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with fraud alerts or security freezes — 
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
Unlike the other XXXX credit bureaus, Equifax makes it incredibly difficult to lift a credit freeze. The purpose is not to prevent identity theft, but to discourage people from utilizing credit freezes, apparently because the service is costly to provide. They are placing their profit over consumer protection. After enduring a great deal of inconvenience every time I attempted to lift a credit freeze, I finally acquiesced and canceled the credit freeze permanently. I believe that the CFPB should investigate and verify this problem, then assess Equifax a very substantial fine for their unethical behavior. 
My last experiences are described below. 
XXXX. Equifax claims that you can remove a credit freeze online, however their online accounts always fail after numerous attempts. This is not user error, as several people of my organization have experienced the same problem repeatedly. Online lifting of credit freezes works fine with the other XXXX credit bureaus. 
XXXX. When I attempt to call the toll free number to resolve the problem, they start with a deliberately FALSE statement that they are experienced and they usually high column call volume and they try to redirect you to the online system that does not work. Every call you make at anytime of the day or night provides the same false claim that they have unusual high call volume. In other words, they are lying to their to the public. 
XXXX. If you dont take the bait and stay on the line, you get placed into a complex interface of automated identity verifications. Anytime your response does not match their records, which are often incorrect, the call terminates and you must start the maze over again. For example, they request my current address. I entered my current address, which doesn't match their records because their records are incorrect. They then hang up. I called in 4 times and went through the maze until I found the prior address that they still have on file. Then it went into other questions based on incorrect information. The other XXXX credit bureaus dont have this problem. 
XXXX. On my XXXX call into the phone maze, I answered every question by asking for " agent ''. After several requests for agent were ignored, it finally put me in a queue to speak to an agent. 
XXXX. When a real person finally picked up, some poor fellow in XXXX trying to do his best, he went through the same verification questionnaire. At least this time, he didnt hang up when I gave an incorrect answer. But finally he demanded that I send him scanned documents so that they could correct their records that the other credit bureaus already had. At this point, I demanded to talk to a supervisor. 
XXXX. I wrote most of this complaint while on hold XXXX minutes for the supervisor. When the supervisor in XXXX finally picked up and I told him that I was filing a complaint with CFPB, he was able to lift the credit freeze almost immediately. I told him to make the lift the credit freeze permanently because of the difficulty in arranging temporary lifts. 
In my opinion, Equifax is now responsible for any credit theft that I may experience in the future.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation