Equifax Customer Service Sucks

UPDATE: Problem resolved! For more, and Equifax contact information please see here: http://blog.jameslick.com/?p=560

I went over to the Annual Credit Report web page to get my current US credit reports. The process was surprisingly painless for the first two, Trans Union and Experian. When I got to Equifax, everything went smoothly up to the point where I got my order confirmation and transaction code. Despite the order having been confirmed, clicking on the ‘view my product’ link resulted in a page saying that they were sorry I was having problems logging in and telling me to log in again.

They didn’t ask for or give me a username and password when ordering, but I have an Equifax login from previous orders, so I dug them up and tried them, but was told that the username or password are invalid. No problem; they have a password recovery link there. I give it the required information and get back: System Error. Lather, rinse, repeat. Same problem multiple times, even the next day.

Next stop would be customer service. Unfortunately, Equifax makes it approximately impossible to contact them by phone or online. They tell you to login to your account to contact them, which doesn’t do a bit of good if you can’t log in. All of their publicly posted phone numbers are for “automated systems”, and hitting 0 does not get to an operator. Googling for a contact number didn’t help either. I found a customer service number in an old email, but it has been disconnected. That email also had a customer service email address which I sent a request off to. We’ll see if that results in anything. If not, the only remaining option is to contact them by writing to a PO Box.

It’s really annoying when companies put up walls like this that make it nearly impossible to contact them for any reason, not to mention having such flaky systems that you have to contact them to get anything done.

If you haven’t already ordered your free credit reports (available to all but north-east states currently), go over and get copies through the above site. It’s a good idea to review your credit reports once a year, and work on correcting any negative items. Unless you are going to take out a large loan soon (house, car, etc.), don’t bother paying extra for credit scores. And let me know if you have any difficulty with Equifax too.

UPDATE: Problem resolved! For more, and Equifax contact information please see here: http://blog.jameslick.com/?p=560

42 thoughts on “Equifax Customer Service Sucks”

  3. i live in Vancouver BC Canada, and it’s the same up here… i can’t even get a hold of a real person unless i trick the system by going to the lost or stolen department and then get transfered through there. poor customerservice. i bet you anything there’s only a handful of people working there cause the hold time was ridiculous. i’m still on the phone with them right now after an hour.

    (http://livejournal.com/users/)

  4. I had a very similar problem, while viewing my credit report on Equifax my computer froze up and required a reboot before I could print it out. Can’t find one single number to call. They all say this is a fully automated line, or to talk to someone enter your username and junk, Very Very bad. The President of the USA said I can have it so give it to me.

    (http://livejournal.com/users/)

  5. I’m having that same problem right now, so if anyone is a “VIP” customer and has paid to get the customer service number, would you please pass it along to the rest of us who are too damn broke to pay for something that we are supposed to be receiving for free, thanks!

    (http://livejournal.com/users/)

  9. Pingback: James Lick » Blog Archive » Equifax Problem Solved
  10. Pingback: James Lick » Equifax Still Sucks

  11. Today is June 17, 2008, customer service is no better and probably worse than those reporting two years ago. Of the three reporting agencies, Equifax had my date of birth wrong, they had my son’s. My wife keeps a close eye on these matters and sent off a dispute. We received a report from Equifax with a confirmation number that stated this had to be done on the phone. I don’t know how many people are working in this department, but I had to get the lead moron. This gentlemen first told me that the information had been corrected, and for $8.95 per month I could be assured that these and other errors did not occur again. I told him that I couldn’t see paying $100 a year to the one company that had the error in the first place to guard against this happening again. This little idiot became so obnoxious and argumentative that I had to hang up on him. I know there has to be a better class of people looking for work.

  12. For those of you who are trying to find the Equifax customer service phone no. 1-866-640-2273 —Since they don’t provide it anywhere unless you purchase a product. When you get to the prompt which asks if you have a “confirmation” no. just hit 1 for yes and keep doing it until you get a rep. Once you get a live person (which sounds like they are in India) then you can let them have it…. They just sent me a letter saying that they were successful at placing an fraud alert on my file..Which of course, I never requested..
    After frantically going through their entire site looking, I purchased the $10 credit report and got the phone no. for customer service I needed. The rep tells me that they don’t know who placed it, but that it was done through the automated system…Hmmm,,,that’s funny,,,I guess the person who was trying to “steal” my identity placed a fraud alert on my file?? Guess she/he must be quite a thief… Equifax,,,what a bunch of idiots.. Last year again, for reasons unknown they changed my D.O.B. on record for the last 35 yrs from 1972 to 1951… Again, they don’t know who did it,,but it was done… After all of this,,,the rep on the phone was trying to sell me a credit monitoring service…What crack are they smoking?? They can’t even accurately keep their own records and they want to monitor the other ones for me as well????
    Anyway,, enjoy the phone no and don’t pay them a damn cent.

  13. Holy smoley- thanks for the number. This shit is hardcore- a person should be able to access their own numbers for crying out loud you are a lifesaver dude!

  14. It’s AMAZING the POWER over us that these credit-rating bureaus have; and the “high & mighty, self-righteous” attitude(s) they have, especially Equifax. I would be ashamed to tell anyone that I actually worked for Equifax (I NEVER WOULD !), for fear of the endless crap I would then get about being employed by such a bunch of bozos, and their “error-filled” data base. People who do work for them probably hide the fact, or, prefer to lie and say: “I work for the IRS”, which, in my mind, is a FAR kinder, gentler organization then these credit bureau pirates are.

    The hassle(s) I’ve just gone through simply trying to view & print my “FREE Annual Credit Report” copy through Equifax border on the ridiculous – a sham & a scam – unless, of course, you want to become a “Member” ( = PAY UP ).

    What a fiasco – especially if you know (or strongly suspect) that there are REAL errors in your file with these thieves. It’s apparent why they ‘hide’ the Customer Service #: otherwise, their phone lines would be JAMMED all day with people simply trying to get these [simple] types of issues resolved.

    Experian & TransUnion are no bargain, but both are INFINITELY easier to deal with than these fools at Equifax.

  16. Thank you for the phone number! I was stuck in automated response hell especially with the “log in” to get the customer service number so we can help you log in. How stupid is that?

  21. Copies of my childrens birth certificates and social security numbers were “lost” at a state social service office. Theya re 10&11. How would I protect their identities at such a young age since they don’t have credit yet? Anyone had this problem???? Should I put a fraud alert on them also?

  22. If you have ordered an Equifax credit report, you can call 866-423-1565. You will need the confirmation number found on the credit report to actually reach a credit specialist to discuss your issue.

  23. I am in total agreement that there is something wrong with Equifax. I have never been able to obtain my free report. They request I mail in the form and then tell me they sent me one which I have never received. I tried reporting it by e-mail and then again I am told that I have received one. I have never had a problem with the other two companies.

  25. I’m a software engineer and I haven’t seen a website as poorly designed (or worse, possibly intentionally unhelpful) as equifax.com since the 1990s. I kept ending up back at the same pages over and over again, and couldn’t figure out what to do (short of google for this blog) to get someone to help me with my problem (see below). These people are not customer oriented and want nothing but to extract money from as many people without any human contact as possible.

    In October I put a security freeze on my Equifax credit report, thinking I was doing something smart to prevent identity theft. This week my refi is being held up because I didn’t know I needed a PIN code I don’t have. The website told me it would cost $10 to replace it but there was no way to actually do this, since there were no phone numbers and I had no login. I finally found the phone number on this blog; after many calls (including me to one referring me to a number that didn’t work at the time) Equifax said it would take 48 hours to print and mail the PIN to me by first class mail from Atlanta, and could not expedite it. This means it will be 5 or 6 days before I can complete my refi. I spoke with supervisors who seemed knowledgable and said there was nothing – nothing – nothing – I could do.

    I appreciated the earlier suggestion to almost purchase something as a way to get a login created. That got me to the screen that, for the first time ever, exposed the 866-640-2273 number (which works as of this writing, btw). Also note that everyone who creates a login agrees to arbitration and swears off class action lawsuits.

    I also noticed that on at least two of the several calls I made the “product specialist” or floor supervisor I spoke with would not hang up willingly after our call completed; it was only after I politely but repeatedly said goodbye to them that they eventually disconnected me. I suspect their compliance metrics include counting how many times they hang up on customers.

    I didn’t used to hate Equifax but now I detest them and think them at best incompetent.

  27. Funny James. I am experiencing the same problem and I am a paying customer. I wouldn’t have their number if it wasn’t for you. No service is better than this type of service. I almost gave up but I said,”no”, I am paying them monthly for this credit report so I better find a number to contact them about my log in. When I click on log in help and key my personal information, it says that my information is incorrect. Thanks!

  28. im writing this letter one again, on be half of my credit report there are a lot of account that have been paid off, some that aren’t even mine. im sick and tired of. writingand calling to get these accounts removed.there is also some accounts that are repeated! you need to check and delete them. my credit score doesnt move up nor down.i cant purchase thing due to the score. also there are some collections that are NOT mine! i paid a lot of other accounts more then 3 times all they due is move the sameaccount under another, i’m not goingto keep paying the same accounts over and over again if these account and collection are notremoved i am going to hire an attorney and get these accounts . and collections removed!on the information listed as my ” previous residential addresses” are alsowrong i ve asked to please have these changed and they still appear. i ve send copies of all documents and to this date they remain the same. have one of your staff’s to please do their job correct!i want this to be the last time contact you!

    thank you for your help

    maria erives

  29. I stupidly bought the Equifax “ID Patrol” product for $15 per month. It sucked. The alerts were very vague and all bogus. There is no way to cancel it online, you have to call customer service. I have been on hold for an hour so far. Don’t ever do business with equifax if you can help it. They suck.

  30. My wife signed up for Equifax, used the service for a while and then canceled it. Equifax charged us the fallowing month, but we figured we did not cancel early enough the previous month so they charged us. The next month they charged us again, so we called again and asked them not to charge us anymore and credit our account for the charge that month, they agreed to do so. The next month we received no charge, but the month after they did charge us again and caused us a NSF charge of $35.00, so I called them again and they said they have no record of that transaction, so I printed our transaction summary and faxed it to them. They said it was them who charged us (which we already knew), but that they would have to do an investigation before they could give us a credit. We have still not received a credit from them, so if you are thinking of using their service I would strongly recommend against it.

  31. I just placed a $10 security freeze online and received no confirmation or pin number (the page was blank). Although it starts as automated, 866-640-2273 gets you an actual person. Mine gave me 888-298-0045 (‘File Freeze Dept.’) and another live agent told me I should receive the confirmation and pin numbers via email in 7-10 business days. Either way, I’m glad to have spoken with someone at Equifax even though they really poured on the sales pitches for other products. Good luck

  32. It is now May 21, 2009 and nothing has changed with Equifax. Like others, I ordered my free credit report from the other 2 and had absolutely no problem, but the web site for Equifax is so user unfriendly. With the help of someone I finally was able to reach, I was able to get my report, but while talking with her, I mentioned my name was spelled incorrectly. She said that would be fixed.
    I have now received 2 Equifax Online Notifications advising me my “dispute” has been resolved. I respond to all the required fields to get the results and find there is no way to continue and get the answer.
    The e-mail address they used shows my correctly spelled name, but their message starts “Dear Darrell”. So nothing has changed.
    I will never use them again.

  33. i really dont like equifax no wonder are credit scores a messed up and cant be resolved they cant speak very good english they give you the run around i called the 866-640-2273 number spoke with a live person that could not hardly speak english so if they cant speak very good english then i know they dont understand what i am talking about on my report so she gave me a wrong number to get a free copy of my report then i called back again then i was given this number 800-726-1811 which is a automated service line to order what should be a free credit report to find out i have to pay 7.95 to recieve it could not speak with no live person on this number it also told me to go to http://www.equifax.com/fcra which also wants you to purchase there other products and wants your credit card # or bank # they have found a way to make money off of all of us by keeping are credit reports screwed up so we have to purchase there services they offer i am hiring a lawyer to get the fraudulant mistakes off of my report i have 10 items that are not even mine and i have been fighting them now 5yrs to get them off this sucks that i have to pay a lawyer to fix what aint mine to start with and if the spoke and understood english i would not be here writing this good luck to everyone i hope you all get better results than me bobbie d

  34. Thank you so much for that number!! I waded through the labyrinth of their automated system four times (trying four different credit cards) all to no avail: after entering in all my information, I received an annoyingly cheery voice telling me that my credit card information was wrong… would I like to try the whole process again? Then, I tried the online version – same problem. I scoured the website, calling all the other numbers hoping beyond hope that I might actually be able to speak to a live person.

    FINALLY – I called 1-888-298-0045, and reached a customer representative… who proceeded to try to sell me all sorts of products.

    Here’s the thing: it just took me a little under three hours to temporarily lift a credit freeze – it’s laughable to think I would voluntarily do business with them!

  35. The same thing happened to me as James Lick and I feel the same as he does. All this false information is on my report and my credit is worth $200.00 so I would like to thank Equifax for this. I have paid every bill I ever owed during my entire life. I am old now and on social security.

  36. You can reach a “Customer Service Rep.” located in India, “I suspect”, Listen very carefully because you will barely be able to understand them. However, they will attempt to give you very limited help.
    866-252-4576
    Good Luck! They are most definitely “only” interested in taking your $$$$$

  37. The number that worked for me was 1-888-298-0045. I told the guy who answered that I did not have a confirmation # because I had a tri-merge credit report where there’s was the only wrong information. He supposedly put in a dispute, but we’ll see. They did not have my correct address or name (married for nearly 2 years now) and seemed to imply that it was my responsibility to call & update them. When there is such limited chances to actually talk to a HUMAN how do I TALK to them? Again, 1-888-298-0045 seemed to work.

  38. we have to lobby our governments to stop this EQUIFAX monster! Honest taxpayers are being held mercy by EQUIFAX. Shut em down if they can’t do their job

  42. Really suckered
    I applied for credit report. Now they have changed my new address to old old address that I can’t remember it address.weren’t asked them why you did it .simply they answer to me you should go consumer report and apply by fax.
    Really suck.

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