Equifax Needs A New IT Department like Computer Recycling London

So I got my credit report the other day to check my FICO score and such and discovered a (small) error on it.  No big deal, I’ve disputed stuff before – pretty painless.  Well this time it was -uh- a little less smooth process…

  1. Dispute the error.  Equifax has a web site just for this (https://www.ai.equifax.com/CreditInvestigation/jsp/ECC_Welcome_User.jsp).  Fill out some info and search around a bit to figure out how to dispute the negative info (why it doesn’t default to that section of the report I’ll never know) but not too bad.
  2. Get email saying it’s processing and it could take 45 days to complete
  3. Get email a few days later saying dispute process complete and to go to equifax.com/CreditInvestigation with dispute # to see results
  4. Follow link and find yourself at the same welcome screen from step 1… no problem look for place to login with dispute #… find none
  5. Check FAQ and find link to check dispute status
  6. Follow link and find yourself at the same welcome screen from step 1…
  7. Try contact us link… which sends to back to main equifax site and requires login (need to protect those 800#s)
  8. Login and check to see if credit report is update… nope
  9. Find dispute status link on main site
  10. Follow link and find yourself at the same welcome screen from step 1…
  11. Waste time clicking on anything on the page that could possibly take you somewhere you can login
  12. Find phone # on main site and call it
  13. Select option 1 at prompt for disputes
  14. Select option 1 at prompt that I have a dispute #
  15. Listen to long description of how one can dispute items on credit report: online… mail… telephone… which then repeated.  Apparently the fact that I’m on the phone punching buttons for dispute is not enough for this system to believe that I want to continue  my dispute on the phone unless I listen to this long spiel about how the process could work so I know what button to push  (never mind the fact that possessing a dispute # means that I have already initiated the dispute process so this info is pretty useless at this point).
  16. Get a real person.
  17. Explain situation.
  18. Be told I need to contact the dispute department!!!
  19. Explain how many dispute choices I had to select to reach said person
  20. Take new phone #
  21. Select option 1 at prompt for disputes
  22. Select option 1 at prompt that I have a dispute #
  23. Enter dispute # at prompt
  24. While waiting on hold the computer says this can all be checked online at investigate.equifax.com (a different URL) so check that while on hold: said web does not exist.
  25. Get a real person
  26. Give dispute # to real person
  27. Hear that my dispute has been resolved in my favor!

Scary that a company that holds a country’s credit lives in their hands can’t coordinate a web site or a phone system effectively. That’s why they need to make sure that the data they posses are well-secured with the help of experts from gigacycle.