Consumer complaint received 2024-12-14 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Difficulty submitting a dispute or getting information about a dispute over the phone
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: CO

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year> I received a physical piece of mail from Experian, indicating that I had submitted a credit dispute and that the results were approved. The results of this credit dispute were apparently updating my telephone number. The telephone number that was listed on my new credit report and account with experience was not my cell phone number, I called Experian to indicate that I had received this dispute and that the dispute was incorrect and someone likely has hacked my account with experience and is trying to change the cell phone number. They indicated I should go online and log into my account change my account information and save it. I did all of this, XXXX days later on XX/XX/year> I received an automated email from Experian saying that my account information was updated. I tried to log into Experian to see what was changed with my Experian account and was unable to log into my account because someone had hacked my account and changed my phone number associated with my Experian account. Since my phone number associated to my experience account was updated to a number that was not my cell phone number, I was unable to access my account which has multifactor authentication set up with an SMS text to verify before allowing someone to log into my account. At this point I had no way to access my Experian account because someone had hacked my experience account. Over the course of the next few days, I started to receive calls from various credit unions around the country asking me if I was in fact trying to open up a line of credit with their agencies. In each case I indicated no, and that I believed my account had been hacked. I tried calling Experian using the phone numbers they provide on their website and and all I can say about trying to get someone on the phone through their phone is it was, and continues to be, the single worst customer experience I have ever had in my entire adult life. It took numerous attempts and a combination of random buzz words for me to finally get through to someone at Experian when I explain the situation that I had received a dispute from them, which I did not file, that my account had been hacked, and I was currently having someone using my credit information that they stole from the Experian site to contact various credit unions trying to open up an account in my name, and that this all resulted from somebody hacking my experience account. They said all they could do was put a credit freeze on my account and put a credit fraud alert on my account, there was nothing the representatives could do to fix my account. After a few days I received an email for my support call asking if I was satisfied with the service they provided. I of course replied no and gave them a low rating for the customer satisfaction score. Days later, I again called Experian and was told that I needed to talk to a different department, the member services department, because the issue was with my account and not with my credit report. When I spoke to somebody in the member services department, again took 20 to 30 minutes of trying to navigate their phone tree, which no way shape or form made it easy or possible to speak to somebody about my current issue, I was told that the only way that they could unlock my account was by providing them with certain information : a copy my Social Security card, a copy of my drivers license, and a copy of a current bill with my current address on it. I started searching online to see if anybody else has had this issue with Experian and found numerous online threads with people that had experienced the same problem with Experian 's security settings on their accounts. Most of the post indicated that after calling back multiple times, they were finally able to talk to somebody that would reset their account over the phone so they could access it and change their information to avoid the hackers from having access to their experience account. Again, I tried calling them and pleading with them and continuing to provide all the details of what happened : timelines and specific details of what was happening on my account, they again said theres nothing they can do unless I either mail, fax, or upload those three documents their team for review. I first attempted to upload the documents through their web portal. Each time I uploaded the documents their web portal indicated that the format of the documents was not correct and that I should try different file type or size. I communicated over email with Experian telling them that I could not upload the documents to the web portal they provided because it was continuously getting rejected. They also provided me with guidance on different file types or file sizes to use to upload the documents, I tried every combination of file size and file type that they provided. None of these worked. The support claim I had open indicated that I could also physically mail these documents or fax these documents. I mailed and faxed these documents to the team on XX/XX/year>. I did get a tracking number or anything for me to confirm that they received the documents, but I did get a confirmation from the fax machine that it was received to the number they provided. Since XX/XX/year>, I have followed up weekly on my claim via email asking if theyve received these documents. Every time I get the same response, we havent received them yet or we dont know if we received them yet and they might be in processing. At this point its been over a month since I first noticed fraudulent activity on my experience account, they have done nothing to try to make this process easy or to try to resolve my issues over the phone. Despite the fact I can provide them with any piece of information they need to verify my identity, and I have to imagine with their online system they have logs to indicate what the previous phone number and email address were on my account and what the updated phone number and email addresses are on my account now. Im incredibly frustrated that their security protocols allowed a hacker to access my Experian account to have access to all of my credit information, and the hacker made numerous attempts to open lines of credit in my name. Yet they are unwilling to do anything to assist me other than continuing to push me to upload documents ( which doesnt work ), fax documents ( which I already did ), or mail documents ( which I already did ). I am beyond frustrated with lack of Customer Service and the lack of urgency on their behalf of trying to fix a clear security vulnerability with their system that is currently impacting my account and my credit.

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