Equifax playing silly buggers - over public electoral roll information!

[dan.b]

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure where I stand on this one so any advice would be greatly appreciated. My problem is that I informed equifax that I moved addresses, I have credit at the new address in my name and yet they still will not update their information to show that I am on the electoral roll (which I am) without me first getting a letter which will require me to take a day off work, prove I am who I say I am and then post it to them!

Can they simply not just look at the public records like I can on 192.com?! They must have automated systems for this. Surely they cannot require that everyone does this every time they move :-x

 

I really want to nail this "customer support" robot to the wall for being so unhelpful but I guess first I want to be absolutely sure that I'm in the right.

 

Customer (Dan.B) 22/11/2007 10.59 AM The fact that I am listed on the electoral roll is still not listed on my credit file even though I raised this issue months ago.

 

Please update my file to show the 6 months I have lived at this property.

Check the electoral roll or the North Tyneside electoral office if necessary.

 

Thankyou.

 

 

Response (Natalie *****) 26/11/2007 03.44 PM Dear Dan.B

 

Thank you for your recent enquiry.

 

Please be advised that if you could please attach a letter of confirmation from your local council to this incident confirming that you are registered on the Electoral Roll at your Current Address.

 

Once we have received your letter of confirmation from you we will raise an Electoral Roll query for you with our internal Electoral Roll department and amend our records accordingly.

 

If you require further information on the content of your credit file, you may wish to visit: https://equifaxuk.custhelp.com. Here you can view our Frequently Asked Questions and submit an on-line query or attach supporting documentation via our "Ask a Question" facility, with no concerns about postal delays.

 

We hope the above details are of assistance to you.

 

Equifax Customer Services

Customer (Dan.B) 26/11/2007 03.54 PM Unfortunatly I do not have the time to chase things like this up as I have in the past in other dealings with Equifax. As the electoral roll is a public record it should have been checked by your company to keep my file up to date when you received new address information from myself. (Surely you do not require each and every person with a credit file to do this each time they move address...!)

 

Please could you pass this to the electoral roll team anyway, so they can verify this information as the onus is on your company as data controller to make sure the information you hold on data subjects is correct which I have indicated that it is not.

 

If this cannot be done, I may have to unsubscribe from the credit watch gold service as it appears to be causing me more work than being blisfully unaware.

 

Thanks for your time.

Response (Natalie *****) 26/11/2007 03.55 PM Dear Dan.B

 

Thank you for your recent enquiry.

 

Electoral Roll data is Public Record information, and is stored as supplied by your local Council office and cannot be amended by us unless we have been authorised to do so in writing, directly from the Council concerned.

 

If you require further information on the content of your credit file, you may wish to visit: https://equifaxuk.custhelp.com. Here you can view our Frequently Asked Questions and submit an on-line query or attach supporting documentation via our "Ask a Question" facility, with no concerns about postal delays.

 

We hope the above details are of assistance to you.

 

Equifax Customer Services

Customer (Dan.B) 26/11/2007 04.40 PM Sorry I think you mis-understand.

 

I am registered on the electoral roll which you rightly pointed out is public information. I have confirmed this with the electoral roll department at my local council after filling in a rolling registration form.

 

I am not asking you to ammend any records held by the electoral roll department of the council, and I know that you could not do this, I am infact asking you to update your own records on me which state I am not enrolled on the electoral roll.

 

If you check the public records of the electoral roll yourself you will see that I am registered - I can see this on a simple electoral roll search on 192.com so you should have ways of checking these things - you can then update your own records.

 

To re-iterate: it is equifax's data that is incorrect and needs changing - as far as the rest of the world is concerned, I am infact registered at that address on the electoral roll.

 

If you are unable to do this please escalate this matter, as I have previously said I work full time and simply do not have the time to go to my local council, get a letter and fax or send it to yourselves.

Response (Natalie *****) 27/11/2007 08.44 AM Dear Dan.B

 

Thank you for your recent enquiry.

 

Please be advised as previously stated in order for us to amend our own records we will need a letter of confirmation from your local council sent to us confirming that you are registered on the Electoral Roll at your Current Address.

 

Once we have received your letter of confirmation from you we will raise an Electoral Roll query for you with our own internal Electoral Roll department and update the information on our system accordingly.

 

If you require further information on the content of your credit file, you may wish to visit: https://equifaxuk.custhelp.com. Here you can view our Frequently Asked Questions and submit an on-line query or attach supporting documentation via our "Ask a Question" facility, with no concerns about postal delays.

 

We hope the above details are of assistance to you.

 

Equifax Customer Services

[mcjohnson]

I would respond to equifax, stating that, as the data provider, it is their reponsibility to maintain accurate records and, as such, their duty to investigate any inaccuracies that exist within their data.

I would also warn them that if they provide inaccurate information to any organisation which results in you incurring a financial loss then, as you have warned them of their inacurrate data, you will hold them liable for the losses that you incur and that you would expect appropriate compensation.

I would give them two weeks to amend the records accordingly, and provide evidence that the records have been changed. Warn them that, if they fail to comply, you will report them to the information commisioner and file a claim against them. I am sure there is a Data Protection Act guru on the site who could advise you of a suitable offence.

[buzby]

CRAs BUY the data, usually on an annual basis, so until they receive (and pay) for the next update, there's not a lot you can do unless you follow their 'manual' approach as suggested. Although many councils now have a fresh 'live' register each month, the fee remains the same, so a CRA isn't going to pay X12 the amount simply to catch a few updates. If you've actually been their from more than the 12 months (say 14) then their data file set is really out of date.

[make them aktiv runners]

Do you have any credit arrangements (on Equifax database) that you carried over from your previous address? By informing the creditor your new address, they will report that change to CRA's by linking your old address.

 

Your credit rating can be seriously affected if CRA do not hold current electoral role data. The role is updated monthly and CRA have a duty under DPA to hold accurate data.

[mcjohnson]

Buzby, I am shocked by your revalation! Does that mean, if I move house in February and notify my local authority, the details on the CRA's will not be updated until the following January??? That's outrageous as it's quite likely that, after moving house, an individual would be more likely to apply for some form of credit (usually LCD-TV inspired!).

 

Surely the CRA's receive updates to their files, a bit like anti-virus software? This would make a lot more sense, than simply a once-a-year upload?

[dan.b]

Latest email (to equifax)

 

Natalie *****,

 

Please escalate this to your complaints handling department (if you have one). I will be writing a letter to your head office quoting this entire conversation, and cancelling my credit watch gold membership due to the utter incompetence displayed here.

 

You may want to see this link for other peoples opinions on your obligations as a data controller, and your "manual" process for handling electoral roll data.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-consumer-issues/121976-equifax-playing-silly-buggers.html

 

If this email goes nowhere and does not get dealt with, it will further strength the complaint that I will be soon be putting in writing.

 

In summary, please DEAL WITH THIS rather than passing off a customer that pays you for the privelege of being signed up to your 'credit protection' service.

 

 

I've had it with equifax, all enquiries made to them on incorrect data seem to just end up with a standard "well - they say it's right, so it must be" response, the fact that this enquiry went nowhere is not a surprise.

 

Rather than using their online dispute system I guess I'll just have to file at a county court to get the information changed in future. No way am I paying a monthly fee for shoddy excuse for a 'service'

[dan.b]

Good news,

after asking it to be escalated I got an email from a different person who is at least being more helpful than the origonal owner of the issue.

 

Response (Amy ******) 28/11/2007 03.20 PM Dear Dan.B

 

Thank you for your recent enquiry details of which have been passed to me for investigation and resolution.

 

Electoral Register:

 

I acknowledge your comments regarding your Electoral Register data, following investigation with our internal Electoral Register department, we can confirm that our records now show you registered on the Rolling Register as a new load from August 2007 under the address of Flat 2 *********.

 

I would like to advise that the address supplied in your online Credit Report application is ******** therefore we would kindly request that you confirm your address including any flat location so that we may proceed with your enquiry accordingly.

 

I hope the above details are of assistance to you.

 

Kind Regards

 

Amy *****

Customer Relations

 

Hurrah! Now i've just got to make sure my electoral roll data tallies with their own data - at the moment it doesn't because of the inclusion of a flat number which was mistakenly registered, hopefully this will be easily sorted out.

 

 

Lesson learned - complain, complain, complain, hopefully then you'll get some kind of customer service. If not complain some more.

 

Companies these days really **** me off. I am gratefull for the eventually helpfull reply, but still considering cancelling.

Businesses should really consider that their front-line staff are more important than they realise, as this is the customers first and only line of contact and satisfaction, and actually train or monitor them. If they do a bad job, they are going to lose the company business.

[buzby]

This opens an interesting side-issue. When you apply for your credit report or just the £2 summary, ALL the companies state that they will use the data you provide in order to 'update' your record. (1) I fail to see why I should be giving them information FoC when they have to buy it in from everyone else! (2) Irrespective of you appearing on the ER, it appears from Any X's response that she's not prepared to deal with you unless you appear on the ER, showing at the address you supply.

[dan.b]

I registered at my current address when I moved in about 7 months ago.

 

I recently found out I "may" have registered at the wrong flat number as there is a bit of ambiguity with the estate agent and the landlord what the number of the actual flat is if you can believe that (because of the person downstairs claiming to live at the house number rather than flat 1 in the building).

 

 

I called the electoral register department and after my query as they were unable to verify where I lived they removed the record completely, now they are saying I have to fill in a new electoral registration document and I will be added after christmas (effectively starting again at 0 months at the address - ARGHHHH!)

 

Is there anything I can do about this - can I state that because I was registered origonally at the correct address that they (legally?) should reinstate my record?

 

D'OH!

[blitz]

If your worried about this for credit reasons get the reference agencys to add a note of what happened onto your record.

[dan.b]

A notice of correction doesn't really mean anything when your applying for credit I have found and doesn't fix the data either.

 

As data controllers - are the electoral roll department of the council bound to keeping accurate information - so if I can prove infact that I have lived there for 7 months (with a tennancy agreement) do they have to correct this information?