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Mar. 24th, 2008 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogA long time ago, late last year, I wrote about trying to get a copy of my credit report from Equifax. If you recall, I learned that Equifax mistakenly believed that I was living at my parents' address and that the house I'm living in now was my previous residence.
I got a list of documents required to update my information. I took a digital picture of my driver's license, blew it up to a full page to remove any ambiguity, and printed it out for them. I mailed it, along with a utility bill, to Equifax where, the phone rep had assured me, they would be examined and used to correct my report. It could take up to three weeks, I was advised.
Sure enough, it was at least three weeks before I heard from Equifax. Their response to me was in the form of a brief note that said, in short, that they do not maintain my credit report file and that they had forwarded the documents on to another company, CSC Credit Services, which had that responsibility. The note also indicated that it could take up to three weeks for action on the matter.
In about three weeks, I tried calling CSC directly to ask if they had received my update. I found myself on the losing end of a fight with a voicemail system that, quite literally, had no way to get to a real human being that I could find, including repeated tapping of the '0' key. 'Ok,' I decided, 'I'll try again when I've had time to research.'
I did a Google search for CSC Credit contact phone number and made a note of the various results. In a few days, during my lunch at work (I decided to actually take a lunch that day), I started calling them. I managed to find one that let me through to a human. I explained my situation breifly and was asked to confirm some of my personal information. Things like social security number, date of birth, and address. Address, eh? Well, that will be kind of tricky....
I did manage to convince them I was me only to find out that they had not yet received the paperwork. I heard the same thing when I called a few days later. I'd almost decided to try to resend the info directly to CSC when I called a third time, but they'd finally got my papers in the mail and had updated my account. They confirmed that my new address was on file and that they had mailed an updated copy of my credit report to me. It should arrive, I was told, within 7 to 10 days.
About fifteen days later, I called to report that I hadn't yet received it. I confirmed my personal information again, and made sure with the person on the phone that, not only had my address been updated, but that the mailing had gone to my 'new' address and not my 'old' address. But, since it hadn't shown up yet, the representative said they would mail another copy to me. I made sure to stress that my account had just been updated with a new address and that I needed them to send to the correct one.
Today, about a week and a half after my last conversation with CSC, I still didn't have a copy of my credit report. I called this morning and, once again, explained the situation. Their rep looked at my file and found that, the last two times it was sent, my report had been mailed to the wrong address. I just don't know what to say about that.
I have to wonder whether it's just in my head, or whether 99% of the people and businesses I deal with on a day to day basis really are horribly, disturbingly, incompetent. I really wonder if people think that about me. I don't think I'm incompetent, but I wonder if people in a service role, by virtue of being in that role, always end up looking incompetent. Maybe that's just the nature being in a service role. When you're a member of a large enough organization, it's simply impossible to rise above the pervasive mediocrity of the faceless corporate mass that has subsumed your working life. Maybe factors beyond your control simply conspire to make your efforts at doing actual useful work and providing real help, futile ones. I just don't know.
In other excitement, my COO, my CFO, and another senior exec are all having Blackberry problems at once and all want answers now. Whee times three.
I got a list of documents required to update my information. I took a digital picture of my driver's license, blew it up to a full page to remove any ambiguity, and printed it out for them. I mailed it, along with a utility bill, to Equifax where, the phone rep had assured me, they would be examined and used to correct my report. It could take up to three weeks, I was advised.
Sure enough, it was at least three weeks before I heard from Equifax. Their response to me was in the form of a brief note that said, in short, that they do not maintain my credit report file and that they had forwarded the documents on to another company, CSC Credit Services, which had that responsibility. The note also indicated that it could take up to three weeks for action on the matter.
In about three weeks, I tried calling CSC directly to ask if they had received my update. I found myself on the losing end of a fight with a voicemail system that, quite literally, had no way to get to a real human being that I could find, including repeated tapping of the '0' key. 'Ok,' I decided, 'I'll try again when I've had time to research.'
I did a Google search for CSC Credit contact phone number and made a note of the various results. In a few days, during my lunch at work (I decided to actually take a lunch that day), I started calling them. I managed to find one that let me through to a human. I explained my situation breifly and was asked to confirm some of my personal information. Things like social security number, date of birth, and address. Address, eh? Well, that will be kind of tricky....
I did manage to convince them I was me only to find out that they had not yet received the paperwork. I heard the same thing when I called a few days later. I'd almost decided to try to resend the info directly to CSC when I called a third time, but they'd finally got my papers in the mail and had updated my account. They confirmed that my new address was on file and that they had mailed an updated copy of my credit report to me. It should arrive, I was told, within 7 to 10 days.
About fifteen days later, I called to report that I hadn't yet received it. I confirmed my personal information again, and made sure with the person on the phone that, not only had my address been updated, but that the mailing had gone to my 'new' address and not my 'old' address. But, since it hadn't shown up yet, the representative said they would mail another copy to me. I made sure to stress that my account had just been updated with a new address and that I needed them to send to the correct one.
Today, about a week and a half after my last conversation with CSC, I still didn't have a copy of my credit report. I called this morning and, once again, explained the situation. Their rep looked at my file and found that, the last two times it was sent, my report had been mailed to the wrong address. I just don't know what to say about that.
I have to wonder whether it's just in my head, or whether 99% of the people and businesses I deal with on a day to day basis really are horribly, disturbingly, incompetent. I really wonder if people think that about me. I don't think I'm incompetent, but I wonder if people in a service role, by virtue of being in that role, always end up looking incompetent. Maybe that's just the nature being in a service role. When you're a member of a large enough organization, it's simply impossible to rise above the pervasive mediocrity of the faceless corporate mass that has subsumed your working life. Maybe factors beyond your control simply conspire to make your efforts at doing actual useful work and providing real help, futile ones. I just don't know.
In other excitement, my COO, my CFO, and another senior exec are all having Blackberry problems at once and all want answers now. Whee times three.
