sears...unbelievable

HOW CAN THEY BE SO MATH ILLITERATE???

 

I've got your answer here George!! When the Sears legal department called me to begin settlement negotiations for FCRA violations I learned all kinds of interesting 'facts' from them. The most intersting of which I thought was when she told me "No, you see that's Experian still reporting that as a past due account balance every month NOT Sears". I said, "but the account was paid in full 3+ years ago". She then told me, "you see WE DON'T DO MATH, we just report information about your payments to Experian and they take that information and use it in their formulas to come up with your payment history. So you see, honey, you've wasted a lot of our time and yours barking up the wrong tree here--your problem is really with them, not us".
I was laughing so hard by that time that I couldn't see straight. I strongly urged her to find someone in her department that was capable of 'doing math' to help her with this case. I said, 'you see, you take the number of violations and multiply it by $1000 and then I'll take that number and use it in some of my formulas and come up with a dollar amount that I am willing to settle for'. She wound up hanging up on me....LOL.
I'm eagerly awaiting my court date with them later this month. I know they'll wind up settling, but gosh part of me would just love to have some fun with them in the courtroom!

 

Unbelievable isn't the word for it! I can't believe that Sear's rep told you that and expected you to believe it.

Please keep us posted, as a little humor now and then would do us all some good.


FedUp2003

 

Random Debt Generator

 

piggybank:

I'm very surprised you got a response from Sears when you ITS'd them. I cc'd them on an ITS I sent to RMA last summer and they ignored it completely, then I ITS'd them directly last month and got a "we received your letter on mmmm dd and will investigate your complaint."

This afternoon is the time for me to file. I am thinking of calling them just to make sure their intent was to ignore me but at the same time I don't mind filing suit to ensure a response, plus getting on the phone isn't the best idea. And to think I would have accepted a counteroffer of $0 cash, just a deletion that would have cost them almost nothing.

I'll be filing in small claims but I am sure they will ask to have it transferred to County or Federal Court then immediately file a Dismissal motion based on the small claims complaint not being of the proper form. I orignally intended to file for about $70,000 worth of violations and damages; thus I have a full fledged complaint written, ready to be filed in County or Federal court if they do ask for it to be transferred. Asking for it to be transferred will result in the complaint being amended and the damages sought increasing dramatically, probably not the result they would have expected.

I know Sears reads these boards, but they'll know soon enough anyway. All they have to do is overnight me a copy of the UDF's deleting a TL and a check to cover my filing costs and it can all go away.

 

Oh, Sears was true to form--they ignored EVERYTHING from me, until I filed suit against them. I really got discouraged for a while. I sent them a total of 6 letters CRRR over the past several months. They never responded to me, however they did do some minor tampering with my reports after receiveing one of my letters (also pulled my reports with no pp after receiving 3 of my letters).
The thing that annoys me beyond belief about them is that I wasn't asking any favors from them. I gave them every opportunity to avoid going to court. Even up until the very day that I filed I made sure that they knew that they could settle this dispute with only a deletion--I didn't want their money. Well, they blew it. I had to file against them and I fully intend to be as difficult to deal with as they were.
It's really sad that they operate with such blatant disregard for the rights of their consumers. I wasn't the one who violated the law here--they were. Sheesh, if I had broken the law repeatedly and someone said to me 'look, all you have to do is go back and correct your mistakes and I'll forget about it--I won't even sue you for financial damages' I'd do that in a heartbeat. That's a no-brainer. It's called common sense. Something that Sears isn't too familiar with.
It will be a cold day in he** before I ever step foot in another Sears store again. Not only are they going to lose my lawsuit against them, they have lost me as a customer--for life.

 

Good one lol

 

You may be interested to know that Sears sold their credit card business to Citibank. I do not know if that will change anything or not.

 

Re: Re: sears...unbelievable

I was reading in another thread all about Sears' cc business being sold, and it sounded like the end consensus was that most 'likely' it would not change anything for awhile. But I wonder if the new representatives/agents will be more lenient with disputes than the previous employees at Sears. Something to think about, since it seems like 'ease of dispute' varies from company to company, and with this change, it most likely means a whole new group of people handling the disputes, and most likely, different corporate procedures to follow, different training for those who respond to the disputes, etc etc etc.

 

LOL, crowmom, that indeed seems to be their standard position--it's never their fault!
The charming Sears rep that I spoke with gave me the spiel about Experian doing their own math, then proceeded to tell me that this problem seems to be a common occurrance. Imagine that!! She said, "I get a LOT of calls from customers who have problems with the way Experian reports. I don't know what their deal is". That's when our conversation took a turn for the worse. I told her that I had a theory about the problem originating with the furnisher of the information.........

I'd just like to know how many of those other customers to whom she referred actually believed that line of crap about them not being responsible.

 

Re: Re: sears...unbelievable

CRA~~"WE CAN ONLY REPORT WHAT THEY TELL US TO REPORT"

 

Re: Re: sears...unbelievable

Just MHO, but I would say that a procedural request is most definitely in order. Maybe it's EXP's fault, maybe it's SRS's fault, but they'll both play you against the other. The best advice I can give you is to start with the procedural request and start building a rock solid paper trail. EXP may not give you a complete response which might get you the deletion and a violation against them right there. If they do answer you in writing, as required, that should just help to add significant ammo to your case against SRS.
It's kind of tough to fight the battle on 2 fronts, but if you're like me I hated the idle time and waiting. I'm not sure what you have sent to SRS thus far, but it wouldn't hurt to tackle SRS at the same time with a dispute of account info or an additional ITS letter or 2. I've found that it can be very useful in building a strong case if you have given the defendant multiple opportunities to correct their 'errors' and they have continually ignored you (as SRS is notorious for)!

?BTW, did you by chance send SRS a formal dispute of acct information (before EXP verified)?? Did they ever mark the account as disputed?? If not, I'd do that ASAP. If you've got that in writing, then you'd have them on a(nother)blatant violation right there and I'd go ahead and sue the pants off of them.

Without giving away too many details, what is it that SRS is reporting wrong on this account? Do you have a well documented paper trail of the violations? When EXP verified in the past, did you do procedural requests and get a response? If so, than I'd say you have more than enough ammo to go to court right now. I wouldn't bother threatening SRS in any way--they don't respond until they have to (lawsuit). But a(nother) well written ITS letter couldn't do anything but strengthen your case.

You give these guys enough rope and they'll give you more violations than you could ever hope for. The downside for us is that it can take ALOT of time--they have all of the time in the world and we have not.......that's their secret weapon.
Not sure if I helped you any with my rambling, but I'm not familiar enough with all the gory details of what you have them on thus far! Maybe someone more experienced than I can give you a rock solid recipie for how to proceed here.

 

and while I'm rambling...

I'll share the beginning of my Sears/Experian conspiracy theory. After 2 years and hundreds of hours of searching here and the various other credit forums I've noticed more than a couple of strange coincidences that MANY people have had in dealing with Sears:
1) Sears doesn't like to play nice. Neither does Experian.
2) Most cases I have come across (including my own) deal specifically with Sears and Experian.
3) Sears will eventually update/correct/change information on EQ and TU reports, but they don't ever want to correct EXP reports--almost as if they don't care........
4) If you look to see which CRA's Sears pulls when checking credit, it is ALWAYS EQ and/or TU. NOT EXP.

Almost like they have a self-serving interest in maintaining some type of accuracy with TU and EQ. Almost like they knowingly use EXP to illegally trash the credit history of those who have 'sinned'. It's a win-win situation for all of them. TU and EQ get Sears' business. Exp gets business from angry customers who have been wronged by Sears. Sears gets to illegally squeeze money from unknowing consumers with past due EXP balances, while trashing their credit reports.

All of my extensive (and purely scientific) research has lead me to the obvious conclusion: Experian is Sears' bi***. Sears owns them. It's their only reason for existence. LOL.

OK, I admit it. Maybe they've finally pushed me over the edge. Maybe I really am crazy. After all, an upstanding business like Sears would never stoop to such lows to make an extra buck........would they?