Can You Hear Me Now!… Verizon?

There is a little law that is intended to protect consumers from, shall we say less than equitable practices of merchants and reporting agencies. For the second time now Verizon Wireless has been caught in a suit for failure to correct material misrepresentation on their part.

Verizon Wireless has been hit with another Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuit.

The lawsuit, pending in Alabama federal court, asserts the No. 2 wireless service provider and TransUnion L.L.C. are ruining the credit of a wireless subscriber.

Plaintiff Johnny Howard said Verizon Wireless continues to try to collect more than $1,000 that he said he does not owe and to falsely report the disputed debt on his credit reports. Howard, who suspects he is the victim of identity theft, said he followed Verizon Wireless’ instructions to fill out a police report and send a copy to the carrier. A collection agency later received the police report, according to the lawsuit, but the problem was not resolved. The overdue account remained on Howard’s credit reports, prompting him to contact TransUnion L.L.C. and Equifax. Equifax eventually removed the account; TransUnion allegedly did not.

Sounds like TransUnion should be the one in the hot seat right? Well maybe. The game that is played by the system is that a consumer can challenge a entry in their report. But only the merchant can remove the offending material. Which is of course part of the purpose for the suit. An adverse ruling against VW would require them to remove the material entry.

This sort of thing might be a fluke considering it is only the second out of I am sure is thousands of accounts with this problem. That does not discount the possiblity that this is all computer scheduled and VW has no exception process for resolving valid challenges short of a loss in court.

Linky.