Inq from security company

[JuliaTN]

Last weekend I signed up for a home security system online. They asked for my SSN at which point I asked the rep (over the phone) whether they would do an inq. She said no, when I asked for this in the form of an email before I completed the sale she sent me the following:

THIS STATES THAT IN ORDER TO COMPLETE THE APPROVAL PROCESS FOR THE SECURITY SYSTEM WE NEED TO OBTAIN A SOFT PULL CREDIT CHECK TO SEE IF YOU MEET THE CREDIT QUALIFICATIONS.
 
THANKS,
ANTOINETTE MCCUNE
Protect America Inc.
877-230-1739 ext 8245

At this point I agreed to the sale and completed the transaction. Next day, sure enough, inq shows up and my score drops. I have spoken to a couple of different people since then, the kicker being what I received today from a different person:

I spoke with one of our VP's, and the credit bureau cannot remove the hit.  A "soft hit" involves address verifications and those types of things.  Checking someone's credit is always is a direct hit.

Am I an idiot for letting this happen and/or do I have a leg to stand on disputing this??

[haulingthescoreup]

You've got it in an e-mail, presumably sent from the company account, that they would do a soft.

I'd start raising polite hell all the way up their ladder.

They can most certainly recode the inq as a soft, and re-submit it to the CRA. They might tell you they can't; they might even believe it themselves; but they can.