Support Issues - "free" Annual Credit Report

[JDoors]

I'm gonna redact the company's name -- I just happen to be listening to a legal podcast so I'd rather overreact than not:

I have my computer's calendar set to remind me when it's time to request my legally mandated free credit report from each of the three companies that supply them. So, it's time to get one from company X. I fill out all the forms, submit them, and get a reply that they cannot give me a free form at this time since I have already requested on this year.

I printed it out last year so I dig it out and ... sure enough, it WAS a year ago. I have NOT requested one this year.

They have an e-mail contact help form and I use it, saying:

Subject: Denied because you say I have already ordered my free yearly report.

I haven't ordered my free yearly report this year. The last one I have from X is a year old, though the EXACT DAY is difficult to assertain since the date is not printed as part of the report I received from you last year.

Response from X:

Your question has been received. You should expect a response from us within 24 hours.

The next day, from them:

We will assume your issue has been resolved if we do not hear from you within 96 hours.

For further assistance with ordering your annual online FACT ACT report, please contact a customer service representative at 1-866-744-8221.

Umm, that's not very helpful. Knowing how pointless any further contact via e-mail might be, and being the smart-aleck I am:

What's the point of having an e-mail problem resolution option available if the only result is to refer me to a phone number?

To paraphrase your e-mail to me, "I will assume you are unwilling to resolve my issue if I do not hear from you, via e-mail, my chosen form of communication, within 96 hours."

Their reply (which came almost instantaneously):

This email service does not offer support for the online product you are attempting to order. For further assistance with your online FREE annual credit report order, please contact a representative at 1-866-744-8221.

[irregularjoe]

I fell for this BS myself when it was first "mandated". I had similar responses. ....ie: Not available at this time, please call -1800 etc.

Another one: Your submitted information does not match our records, please call 1-800 Etc. Another one : You have already used your alloted free credit report. You must send a written request along with a check in the amount of $:xxx for your credit report.

........Of course I never received any free credit report. The only thing I received was them telling me that they wanted MORE of my personal information, and a check. I sent neither.

My conclusion is that when this "law" was enacted "for the protection of the public" , the unregulated credit reporting agencies saw it as yet another way to build up their databases on every sucker that applies for or uses credit. And tried to reap a profit on top of it.

Think about the absurdity of this.

The financial / credit / insurance/ etc. industries mandate that you provide your personal "social" (as is the new code word for social security number, which by the way, was originally protected by law to NOT be used as a national identification system.) We all know what happened with THAT protection. Nowadays you probably could not get a library card without revealing your "social".

Back to the subject: They continually are building huge databases on you everytime that you apply for a bank account, apply for a mortgage, apply to rent an apartment, use any type of insurance, rent a car, etc, etc, etc. They then can legally SELL all YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION to anyone. Apparently you don't own it. They do. YOU have to pay them to get a report of YOUR information.

I just find the whole concept as being incredulous and rediculous.

Edited September 4, 2008 by irregularjoe

[JDoors]

I'm gonna hafta check to see if there's a place I can file a complaint.

I'm going to try again first as it's POSSIBLE they track it to-the-day and I may have put it off a day or three last year.

I'm with ya on SS numbers. In fact, back when I was a teenager (almost 40 years ago) I had a huge disagreement with my big brother over using SS numbers for anything other than social security. I couldn't believe he did not see the potential problems, he thought I was an idiot. For whatever reason I'm still ticked off about that (Paging Dr. Freud, paging Dr. Freud.).

As soon as the state allowed it I had them remove my SS number from my DL (Now? they WON'T put it on there).

I don't even like using that particular number for the IRS. What's the connection there? SS is a tax, therefore every taxable item you ever come across must be identified by your SS number? BS.

Which makes my job slightly more difficult as the law says I have to obtain people's SS number, which they sometimes do not want to give out (of course telling them they're not getting any money if they don't almost always solves that problem).

[baker7]

I'm gonna redact the company's name -- I just happen to be listening to a legal podcast so I'd rather overreact than not:

I have my computer's calendar set to remind me when it's time to request my legally mandated free credit report from each of the three companies that supply them. So, it's time to get one from company X. I fill out all the forms, submit them, and get a reply that they cannot give me a free form at this time since I have already requested on this year.

I printed it out last year so I dig it out and ... sure enough, it WAS a year ago. I have NOT requested one this year.

They have an e-mail contact help form and I use it, saying:

Subject: Denied because you say I have already ordered my free yearly report.

I haven't ordered my free yearly report this year. The last one I have from X is a year old, though the EXACT DAY is difficult to assertain since the date is not printed as part of the report I received from you last year.

Response from X:

Your question has been received. You should expect a response from us within 24 hours.

The next day, from them:

We will assume your issue has been resolved if we do not hear from you within 96 hours.

For further assistance with ordering your annual online FACT ACT report, please contact a customer service representative at 1-866-744-8221.

Umm, that's not very helpful. Knowing how pointless any further contact via e-mail might be, and being the smart-aleck I am:

What's the point of having an e-mail problem resolution option available if the only result is to refer me to a phone number?

To paraphrase your e-mail to me, "I will assume you are unwilling to resolve my issue if I do not hear from you, via e-mail, my chosen form of communication, within 96 hours."

Their reply (which came almost instantaneously):

This email service does not offer support for the online product you are attempting to order. For further assistance with your online FREE annual credit report order, please contact a representative at 1-866-744-8221.

JDoors:

I don't use "free" <insert service here> anything like this online because they make you have to sign up for other services that entitle you to a free service at the end. If they really wanted to provide a "free" service, they would not make you sign up for god knows what for years and years just to get something that you need. This sounds like a scam, or better yet, sounds like someone is saying that they don't believe you, or just plain don't want to deal with you.

This reminds me of the "free Xbox360" threads I have seen on other forums. Of course, we know that you just don't get a "free" anything anymore - You HAVE to do something, buy something, or try something before you get the "free" item. Most times, you click your life away, or you end up generating mail to your postal box, or to your email box. (Mostly spam)

If there was a way to get a FREE copy of your credit report, I would go directly to the company that you want to get the report from, and ask for it - this way, you have it, and you don't have all this junkmail cluttering up your box. Also, you can get the email address of a PERSON who would read it and realize that your right.

Good Luck!!

Brian

[JDoors]

The law states each of the credit reporting agencies MUST supply ONE free credit report annually. I've been doing it for some time, every four months getting a report from each of the three agencies in turn.

The trick is to ignore anything on their site that "suggests" a product for sale. No, I want my FREE report and nothing else, thankyouverymuch.

This is the first time I've had any difficulty, which I will assume is simply a date issue (though my calendar says it's time, I might have procrastinated last year and didn't order it until later, hence I haven't gone a full year without one from this company). I'll try again soon then be sure to update my calendar to reflect the new date of issue (if that turns out to be the problem).

If that's NOT the problem and they're just being jerks, well, well, I dunno!

-----

OK THEN! Tried again and everything went as expected. I have this year's free report from this company AND it contains the exact day and date of issue this time. I modified my reoccuring reminder to keep track of the exact day and date, added a "plus one day" option, so I hope I don't get rejected again next year.

Edited September 6, 2008 by JDoors

[Pete_C]

Reminds me of the guy who contacted the FBI to see if they had a file on him.

They responded "As of the date prior to your communication we did not have any record of your existence. In the future if you wish to correspond with us regarding this or other matters please reference file number......................"