April 1, 2008 Experian asdfadfasdf adsfadfasdfd adfadfsdfadf adsfadfasdfasd RE: Dispute Letter of October 5, 2007 Dear Experian, This letter is formal notice that you have failed to completely respond to my dispute letter of October 5, 2007. I am aware that you may have failed to respond to it because of an oversight due to the high volume of the requests you receive daily. If this is the case, I'm sure you'll want to handle this matter as soon as possible. On October 5, 2007, you received the subject dispute letter from me. Seven items were disputed as being incorrect. This was sent certified mail (7005XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX). (See attached) You responded by sending a total of two reports. Only five of the erroneous items were addressed. (See attached) As you are well aware, federal law requires you to respond within 30 days. It has now been over that period since your receipt of my letter. As you are no doubt aware, failure to comply with federal regulations by credit reporting agencies are in serious violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and may be investigated by the FTC. From the Fair Credit Reporting Act �611 Part (A)(1). â??Procedure in case of disputed accuracyâ? [15 U.S.C. § 1681i] (a) Reinvestigations of Disputed Information (1) Reinvestigation Required (A) In general. Subject to subsection (f), if the completeness or accuracy of any item of information contained in a consumer's file at a consumer reporting agency is disputed by the consumer and the consumer notifies the agency directly, or indirectly through a reseller, of such dispute, the agency shall, free of charge, conduct a reasonable reinvestigation to determine whether the disputed information is inaccurate and record the current status of the disputed information, or delete the item from the file in accordance with paragraph (5), before the end of the 30-day period beginning on the date on which the agency receives the notice of the dispute from the consumer or reseller. (B) Extension of period to reinvestigate. Except as provided in subparagraph (C), the 30-day period described in subparagraph (A) may be extended for not more than 15 additional days if the consumer reporting agency receives information from the consumer during that 30-day period that is relevant to the reinvestigation. (C) Limitations on extension of period to reinvestigate. Subparagraph (B) shall not apply to any reinvestigation in which, during the 30-day period described in subparagraph (A), the information that is the subject of the reinvestigation is found to be inaccurate or incomplete or the consumer reporting agency determines that the information cannot be verified. Since Experian did not address my dispute within 30 days, Experian is liable for damages as the result of injuries to my credit report and credit score. Obviously, I am maintaining detailed records of all my correspondence with you. To remedy the situation, please delete these erroneous items from my credit report as soon as possible. OC, acct. 123-34567-ABC OC, acct. asdfadasdfasdas Please be aware if these items are not removed promptly, I will be filing a lawsuit for multiple violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. I will be seeking civil liability in the amount of $1,000 per violation. I look forward to hearing from you to resolve this in an expeditious and amicable manner. You may reply to FAX number 999 999 9999. Sincerely, Name SSN#
Just my $.02, quoting the law is a waste of ink. They know the law and they don't care. They'll do what they do for whatever reason. If you're looking for catharsis, then the letter is fine. If you're looking for action, you're better off calling them to see what happened or sending them a summons to a law suit that you've filed in court. Threats of a laws suit, veiled or otherwise, don't really carry much weight. These people are sued on a daily basis (literally) so they aren't frightened nor are they motivated by mere threats. IMO, cut all the legal saber rattling and just point out what they didn't do and that you'd like said deficiency corrected immediately.
I agree with ccbob. Long letters tend to be ignored. That's possibly why all of the disputes weren't investigated in the first place. Short, to the point. I previously requested investigation of seven items, but only received the results of five. If the other two were not verified, please remove from my credit report. Something like that. They can easily read and understand what you want. Remember this is probably being handled my a minimum-wage clerk, not a lawyer. And as bob said, they know the law. They are also threatened with it every day.
Most likely the letter is being scanned and sorted. I agree with Hedwig, keep it shirt and simple. Merely state the results your are seeking. Save the big guns for court.
It's worse than that. I read an article (I think it was in a testimony to Congress) that said most of this customer support is outsourced to India, the Philippines, or Central America. The document is scanned in here in the U.S. and then sent electronically to someone whose job is to resolve it in a minute or two. If it takes them that long to read it, then you can bet they'll find the quickest way to resolve it (e.g. "already investigated"). Short, clear, and concise will get you more results than long, wordy, and threatening.
