Verizon HP on my report!

[seetheworld1]

Hi, all,

I got an offer for Verizon FIOS in the mail yesterday and called them up for more info. It sounded good so I applied, but before I applied I asked whether they pulled a hard or soft pull. The woman said there would be no credit pull. She said to just give her my name, address and DOB and said she didn’t need my social because she would not be running my credit. Lo and behold, I get an alert today that Verizon pulled a hard on my EQ. I am beyond mad. I’m now going to cancel the not-yet-installed service because of the lie. Is there any way this hard can be removed? Appreciate any advice you can offer. Thanks!

[pizzadude]

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@seetheworld1 wrote:

Hi, all,

I got an offer for Verizon FIOS in the mail yesterday and called them up for more info. It sounded good so I applied, but before I applied I asked whether they pulled a hard or soft pull. The woman said there would be no credit pull. She said to just give her my name, address and DOB and said she didn’t need my social because she would not be running my credit. Lo and behold, I get an alert today that Verizon pulled a hard on my EQ. I am beyond mad. I’m now going to cancel the not-yet-installed service because of the lie. Is there any way this hard can be removed? Appreciate any advice you can offer. Thanks!

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Sorry to hear that this happened, but CSRs are notorious for being misinformed about the difference between soft & hard pulls, or even when their companies pull a credit report.    Also, they can pull your report with a SSN, using just name/address.

Not too sure that you can do anything about it other than calling back and escalaing to a supervisor.

[seetheworld1]

I did, and she said she was unable to help but she put me in touch with the department to call on Monday. I asked her whether they recorded calls and she said yes, they have 100 percent calls recording so they can listen to the call and what was said regarding any credit pull promise, which is comforting to me because they'll see that I absolutely did not authorize running my report. Now whether they will do the right thing and remove the HP, that's another question. We will see. Thanks for your reply.

[RobertEG]

Your initiation of a business transaction provided basis for them to do a credit inquiry as long as the transaction has an associated legitimate need to review your creidt.

Possibility of delinquency is one such legitimate business need.

However, while they had basis, it is certainly a poor business practice to assert one thing and do another. 

I would call their exec offices, and if no resultion can be obtained from management, file a formal complaint with the BBB.

[seetheworld1]

So just an update: I talked with Verizon's "Credit Verification Center" and they agreed to remove the hard pull. It cost me more than an hour on the phone talking to people who didn't seem to know what I was asking for. Finally I got to a supervisor who gave me the number for the verification center and once I called them they agreed right away (although they say it could take EQ up to 60 days too make the change. Grrr). Their immediate agreement to my request makes me think they must get these complaints often. I'm going to complain to the CEO about this also, since there is clearly a lack of training among their sales staff. And I also cancelled the service. I can't do business with such a dishonest company.

[blondy250]

I've also have gotten Fios offers in the mail, it clearly states (fine print) a credit check is required. Absolutely nothing unusual about it, you just happened to find an uniformed CSR who was probably confused by your questions. That doesn't make Verizon a "dishonest" company, and no I'm not a Verizon customer.

[takeshi74]

+1 A misinformed/mistaken CSR doesn't make an entire company dishonest.  If you can't do business with companies like this then you'll quickly run out of businesses to deal with as most of them have misinformed/uninformed CSR's.  It's nothing unique to Verizon by a long shot and demonstrated in many threads in this very subforum.  Not excusing them.  Definitely let them know.

[Repo-ed]

...always read the Terms and Conditions.

[apriestl]

I think this happens to a lot of people. It just happened to me last week. I asked more than one rep online and in store about credit checks and was told it was a SP. It was definitely a HP on my EQ in less than 24 hours.

My beef is being lied to. If you want to HP fine, but don't lie to the customer about your intent. I would have stuck with my old provider until I was done buying a house! I shouldn't have been misled after fully explaining my situation and asking for the information up front to make an informed decision about the service I was applying for. That to me is deceptive business practices. It isn't a coincidence that so many Verizon reps claim it is SP. Someone is training them to tell customers it is to get more sign ups.

[parakleet]

I think it's best to basically expect a HP whenever you're applying for anthing - be it a new cable/phone/utility/CLI/credit. Theres been too many instances reported when CSRs mistakenly stated that it would not be a HP. It doesn't matter how many times the CSR confirmed that it wouldnt be a HP. There's always a risk.