Skip to Content
Home

The Many Ineptnesses of TransUnion Canada

Several weeks ago I fell prey to an urge to look up my credit profile — I think it was one banner ad too many noodling into my subconscious, with a dash of fear of imminent worldwide economic collapse. So I went to the TransUnion website and ordered their “TransUnion Credit Profile” product for $14.95.

After going through a series of identity-verifying questions (current address, former address, etc.) I was told that my identity couldn’t be verified, and that I’d be receiving a “Tracking Code” by postal mail that I could use to unlock my profile.

While I’m all for making absolutely certain that I am who I say I am, this whole process was handled clumsily, and there was no indication at any stage but the last that there might be a delay to wait for the post to arrive.

Today, seven days later, the letter arrived, and I followed the instructions to login to the account I’d created and “when prompted, enter the following tracking code.”

But I was never prompted: the website simply told me that I was going to receive a tracking code in the mail, but didn’t provide me with a place to enter it.

Fortunately their toll-free customer service line was still open so I gave them a call, and the agent had no information at all about why I couldn’t enter my tracking code and, indeed, seemed to dismiss the whole idea of a tracking code as unnecessary, but told me that if I answered some more questions over the phone he could unlock my profile.

So I answered a series of questions — credit card number, current address, former address, etc. Then, one question before payday, he asked me what the postal code was at the house where I lived in 1993. I told him I didn’t remember. He said “if you can answer this one question” then we could proceed. He asked me if I could look it up. I said that I could. So I went to Canada Post’s website and looked it up and, presto, I was me again in their eyes.

I was told to logout of the website, then wait a while, then log back in. A few minutes later I received an email with subject line “Your Identity has been confirmed”:

Detail from TransUnion Canada Email

Wow, that was fast (I thought), and I clicked. Only to be told that my identity couldn’t be confirmed and that I had to call customer service:

Detail from TransUnion Canada Website

But they closed 15 minute ago, and so I’m out of luck for another day.

Not only is this inept service, but it gives me pause when I consider that these are the folks responsible for maintaining the Big Credit Worthiness Database: if they can’t manage a simple web transaction, what else are they screwing up?

Update: Turns out customer service wasn’t closed — the letter said it was closing at 8:00 p.m. but the website said it was open until midnight. So I called back again, answered some more questions (name, date of birth), and then was told to, in series, (a) logout, (b) empty my cookies, (c) log back in, all of which produced the same result and then (d) try another browser (I had been using Firefox, I switched to Safari). And this final step did it. I have no idea why. You’ll be happy to know that TransUnion thinks my job is “S/E COMPUTOR CONSUTING” for Reinvented Inc.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009 - 10:16pm
|

Comments

Submitted by Fred (not verified) on Wed, 2009-03-04 04:51.
I have been told if you simply drop a note to them by Canada Post, or drop in their Charlottetown Office and show your I.D., all your credit information will be given to you free of charge, without all the red tape.
Submitted by Stephen Pate (not verified) on Wed, 2009-03-04 07:06.
It’s better not to ask.
Submitted by Isaac Grant (not verified) on Wed, 2009-03-04 09:49.
Indeed, you can get your credit report from both major credit bureau’s (TransUnion is only half the equation) for free by mail - its a bit more work, and the format they send takes a bit more work to read through, but strikes me well worth not paying them for something they legally have to provide for free. TransUnion form is here: http://www.transunion.ca/ca/personal/creditreport/consumerdisclosure/mail_en.page Equifax is here:http://www.equifax.com/ecm/canada/EFXCreditReportRequestForm.pdf New (to me at least - and I did this about 5 months ago), equifax says you can get a order a free credit report by phone now too: 1-800-465-7166. Also, life Fred pointed out, TransUnion has an office in Charlottetown, and you can go their and show your id and get your report too - I don’t believe Equifax does have a Charlottetown office - anyone want to correct me on that?
Submitted by hannah (not verified) on Wed, 2009-03-04 21:22.
There is an Equifax office in Charlottetown - 10 Prince Street. For both Equifax and TransUnion free reports on site while-you-wait, take 2 pieces of ID, one of which is picture (drivers license, passport) the other one a recent one showing your address - a bill, for instance.
Submitted by Ron (not verified) on Tue, 2009-03-10 13:14.
I read your commentary and agree. One thing is you should not of paid for your report, you are entitle to one free copy a year. Imagine paying for your own information. You should demand repayment, good luck with that by the way. I have spent almost a year with these people trying to get inaccurate info removed, every time they say it was has been removed, it was not. I am brewing for a battle about Rogers inaccurately reporting info to them, I am just going to file a small claim against both parties, I am tired of writing and calling, it is the only way to get their attention. I will keep you posted. Pissed off in Manitoba.
Submitted by Andrew (not verified) on Wed, 2009-04-01 17:03.
TransUnion has a horrible history of misleading customers. I have gone through hell just to get them to correct information on my credit bureau report for years. They constantly say it’s done, but really isn’t. I have contacted them numerous times by mail and telephone including all the information requested. They’ll never tell you that the information is not updated, neither will they tell you the reason why or communicate this in writing to you. There is really no accountability or responsibility on TransUnion part. I am appalled that they get away with this. The best option is to file a Better Business Bureau (BBB) complaint with the area their head office is located in i.e. Hamilton. It’ll get resolved faster than paying each time to check if updated or waiting for them to update it, because it never will, and they’ll constantly tell you to pay for another copy to check if the information is updated. I won’t do that because I have checked the free copy reflecting the errors and once corrected, they are supposed to send a free copy reflecting the changes. Equifax is far different and will always take responsibility. TransUnion should really not be operating a business.
Submitted by Dawna (not verified) on Thu, 2009-12-10 12:38.
Thanks so much for the tip on filing a complaint with the BBB. I did and I hope they do something abou this. I have never dealt with such an inefficient company in my life. I cannot believe they are the ones who can make or break you with your credit history and they can’t even get it right themselve. Who are the people who can give them a bad rating. ARggggghhhhh
Submitted by Kenneth (not verified) on Sun, 2009-06-07 13:19.
I was discharge from Bankruptcy in Feb 09. I have send all requested doucuments to update my file. every time I called them, some one in overseas office is telling me they have received nathing from me. I was asked to fax all documents. All documents were faxed in Feb 09 3 times 2 time in March 09 to fax # 905 527 0401. To date they kept saying nothing received. Now in June 09 not received a single responce from Trans Union. Equfax has update all my information with in a month and mail me a free report. This company should not be in Business. Very Very bad service. I would appriciate if any one know, how do I, get this done by thease people. After all this our responcilble to keep our record not this **>>,$$@@@ people at Tran Union.
Submitted by Albert (not verified) on Thu, 2009-09-03 16:08.
This is TRUE, I called Transunion to check some information one Bank told me to check, they at Transunion asked me several questions, after 15 to 20 minutes questions they make me wait 5 more minutes to tell me that their system is not working and I have to call back…. I, of course started to yield at the guy on the phone and very frustated I hang up … I call back after some time to start again 15 minutes questions, while I was answering questions the communication was lost only god knows why…. I went home and very frustrated I call back again, after 15 minutes questions, they make wait again to….told me that my account was BLOCKED!!!! because I called several times… Holly crap!!! They told me that I can get my report on-line for only 14.95 That’s it!!!! I realize that all these guys want is to mess your information in order to make you pay them for this Report that they should give you for free!!!! I sent them a letter asking for my free report and I still waiting after 3 or 4 weeks… Maybe is better not to ask as somebody said before…
Submitted by Dawna (not verified) on Thu, 2009-12-10 12:12.
I too have had many problems. First off, you don’t get anyone you can understand fully and when you ask for someone who speaks English without an accent there is nobody. I filled out an Investigation Request Form and faxed it in and they told me they couldn’t even tell me if they received it or not for 30 days. To access my file they ask you a million and one questions. They asked me to tell them which place I worked at. When I said none of them they told me that they cannot access my file because it wasn’t me. I told them that the freaking reason I filled out the investigation request form is because they are claiming that I am all these people and I am not so of course I cannot answer all the questions because they want me to answer for one of the aliases they claim I am. Arggghhhhh Am I making sense here? OMG They are saying I am all these people and how the hell they got this in the first place is beyond me. I have never dealt with such an inefficient company in my life and rude.
Submitted by Ken (not verified) on Mon, 2010-01-11 14:22.
I have submitted a request for my credit report by mail 4 months ago. It never arrived. I phoned back 2 months ago; they said it had been sent. Mysteriously it never arrived. I submitted another request to have it sent out. Today I phoned back, they have processed the application but it has not been sent out. All the Indian call center guy could do was submit another request to have it sent out. My understanding is that they are required to send the report. To me it is pretty clear that they have stopped doing so. They did suggest I purchase some of their credit protection services though. Thanks assholes!
Submitted by Terri-Lynn (not verified) on Sat, 2010-01-16 13:59.
Speaking of inept… a YEAR ago I received a coupon code to get my credit report if I siged up for a 14 day trial of credit monitoring service. I took my report and canceled the moitorin service a few days later. A couple weeks ago, a charge showed up on my Mastercard from Tansunion. I have since been on the phone with them 3 times to get the charge reversed. The first time they assured me everything was handled, but then I gave it a week and the charge was not removed from my card. The second time I called I was transferred to their “billing” department, which actually turned out to be some company called Privacy Protection Plus - the representative there actually ended up yelling at me, insisting I had spoke to her on January 8th of THIS year and got a free trial for their product, then canceled a week later on the 14th. Given that it was January 9th I was speaking to her on, I tried to tell her she was mistaken and that it had to have been last year. No no no no no! She looked up the rep ID, and it turned out to be here, that I had spoken to this morning! Well, if I spoke to her that morning,how did I cancel the service 7 days from now? She finally admitted she made a mistake, but then told m she couldn’t do anything about it, I would have to speak to Transunion. OMG. Who did I call?! So I tried calling Transunion back twice more this week, only to sit on hold nearly 10 minutes at a time. I don’t have free day time minutes on my phone, so I hung up and decided to try back today (it’s Saturday). The girl who took my call explained that I had ordered a trial of quarterly credit monitoring, but she said she could refund the charge. She then informed me that it would take a month from my next billing cycle to appear on my bill. I insisted this was unacceptable, so she transferred me to their billing department. Privacy Protection Plus, again! They are closed on the weekends. I hung up and called Transunion back, this time getting another female agent. She listened to me repeat myself for the third time, and then informed me she couldn’t refund the charge, but she could transfer me to billing! Good god. I had already told her if I was put through to Privacy Protection Plus again, I would lose my mind, so she said she would stay on the line to ensure I was put through to the correct department. Except it turned out they are also closed on weekends. So now I have to wait until Monday and call back, yet again. Here’s what I find terribly ironic: Transunion is meant to prevent these kinds of fraudulent charges, and of all things, I’m being fraudulently charged BY Transunion FOR credit monitoring! Ay ay ay!!
Submitted by Michael C.K. (not verified) on Sat, 2010-01-16 21:12.
In my current job, I have the “pleasure” of working with TransUnion. I find them to be the absolute worst service provider of all service providers I use.
Submitted by Mark (not verified) on Thu, 2010-01-21 12:16.
Are you surprised? Trans Union can only be contacted throughtheir call centre in India that cannot do much for anyone They are mostly incompetent and since your personal information is in India it’s free picking for thiefs, farud artists or anyone who is willing to pay Trans Union staff in India enough monet to get it. Also you have no protection under Canadian laws.