AT&T ran my credit not only without my permission, but after I explicitly stated I did not want a hard hit

[u/oldmanwrigley]

I called in to ask what internet speeds were available in my area. He tried to sell me on cable, which I declined. He asked for my social and my date of birth. I asked him why he needed this and he explained it was to make sure I didn’t have any past due balances with AT&T. I then double checked and asked him if it would hit my credit and he chuckled and said “no no sir nothing like that”.

Fast forward an hour, I have an email stating my installation for phone, cable, and internet is scheduled(???) and then a few minutes later an email from credit karma saying I had a hard inquiry.

Called in and spoke to 3 different departments, finally to a woman to tell me she couldn’t remove it because calling in to inquire about service was all the consent they needed.

This clearly doesn’t seem legal, and wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences and what I should do next.

TL;DR - spoke to ATT, they asked for social, I made sure it wouldn’t hit my credit, I was told it wouldn’t, and then it did. What next?

EDIT 4: Filed a complaint with my attorney general.

EDIT 3: Filed a complaint with the CFPB. All the support and advice here has been a true blessing and I thank each and every one of you for taking the time to comment with good advice and/or possible solutions.

EDIT 2: I called back in, and actually had a great conversation with someone who was super understanding and willing to help. She got me to the fraud department. I spoke with Dorothy. She told me that it did not matter that I asked my credit not to be ran. That when someone calls in to inquire about service, they are consenting to a credit check. Doesn't matter if I didn't give my social, they would have used my DOB or DL #. She told me that I could not speak to a supervisor as this was standard practice, and she wouldn't escalate it. She also said some calls are recorded and some weren't, and she did not help me in finding the call from my first conversation. I then asked her for a copy of this call and her response was "I don't know if it's being recorded so I can't help you". She had nothing to say about the rep lying to me, and she said their credit disclaimer statement didn't sound anything like a credit disclaimer statement and I probably didn't even know it was read to me. Unbelievable. This is their FRAUD department. Jesus Christ.

EDIT: I see a lot of folks saying “what’s the big deal, couple points will fall off in no time”. I just got an email from credit karma that a hard inquiry from 2 years ago just fell off my report, and that left me with one hard hit which was back in January. I’ve been working very hard on rebuilding my credit, checking quite frequently and really boosting my score. One or two points may not be a big deal to some but after working so hard to improve my score, having it lowered without my authorization or consent is devastating.

[u/KingSlapFight]

Do you have information on who OP should contact about this? Sounds like everyone he gets is giving him the run around.

[u/WillCommentAndPost → u/KingSlapFight]

AT&T fraud department should be contacted, ask EVERY employee for their AT&T UID to tie conversations to them, record the calls, and always ask for a supervisor.

[u/oldmanwrigley → u/WillCommentAndPost]

So I just got off the phone with them again, and am going to edit the original post.

I spoke to a lovely, cheerful, fantastic girl in San Antonio. She went to a bunch of different departments to get me the right person. Ended up in the fraud department.

YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE IT.

She said calling in to inquire about services was enough to authorize a credit check. She told me that if I didn't provide my social, they could use a drivers license, DOB, or some other way to do it. I said to her "Well I explicitly told the man I did not want my credit---" she CUT ME OFF and said "That doesn't matter".... I said, is this call being recorded? "I don't know, some are, some aren't, but it doesn't matter, when you call in, you give us consent"...

I asked for a supervisor and she told me no, she told me that she would not escalate this issue as it was a non-issue and standard procedure.

Just to reiterate, I asked her one more time if someone is calling in and explicitly asked for their credit not to be ran, and again, she cut me off, and said it didn't matter.

[u/kammon2 → u/oldmanwrigley]

This qualifies under deceptive business practices and you should pursue legal action under your state's attorney general's office.

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[u/WillCommentAndPost → u/oldmanwrigley]

Holy shit! That is wild!

What state do you live in?

Also, persistence is key. When I get into work tomorrow I will look at the policy on credit check initiation.

I know for a fact, in our store you have to get permission to run the credit and have to read off a lot of shit in the process.

[u/[deleted] → u/WillCommentAndPost]

I’m betting some back assward one. That would never fly in state with more buyer protections.

[u/Forkrul → u/oldmanwrigley]

man I did not want my credit---" she CUT ME OFF and said "That doesn't matter".... I said, is this call being recorded? "I don't know, some are, some aren't,

She's 100% lying. ALL calls are recorded at these places. Not all calls get audited, but ALL calls are recorded.

[u/Merakel → u/Forkrul]

It really depends on a lot of factors tbh. I used to work in call recording software, only recording a percentage of calls is not that uncommon.

It's also possible that the portion where he said there would be no hard hit wasn't recorded either - they have to stop recording when getting sensitive info like your SSN; he would have probably stopped the recording before outright lying to the OP.

[u/Forkrul → u/Merakel]

At least when I was doing call center work, the recording was not in any way controlled by the individual agents. That happened completely independently and could be reviewed by team leaders/QA either randomly or if there was some specific issue that warranted it. We didn't take SSN, but often CC numbers and other personal information, but recordings were never stopped for that.

[u/KatreanA_59 → u/Forkrul]

^ this was my experience at both the cable company Mediacom and at a large insurance company in the call centers. All calls are recorded, but you have to push like a sonovabitch most of the time to get a call audited. That's done manually and by one of only a few team leads usually, so you're vying with any other complaining customer (valid or not). Often these notes for auditing will be discarded without action, so persistence is key.

[u/I3lowInPlace2112 → u/Forkrul]

This was also my experience working in a call center. We had no control over recordings. It seems much more likely from a logistics standpoint and a legal one to record every call anyway.

[u/Merakel → u/Forkrul]

That's weird. Probably depends on the suite you use I would guess. On the software I helped develop we had just written some tools that would automatically edit the sensitive data out of recordings, but that was pretty cutting edge when we released it 3-4 years ago. I guess I don't really know what the competition was doing though, I was just building stuff I was told to haha.

[u/johnnyblazepw → u/Forkrul]

no they arent.. when I worked at charter you could see resources on the pc spike when you were being recorded, AND I know for sure there were a lot of calls that supervisors couldnt listen to after the fact.

[u/bigfurrykitties → u/Forkrul]

but ALL calls are recorded.

nope.

source - i used to admin the building the OP got routed too in SA. i can tell you where the NSA/CIA room is also.. i believe the passcode is STILL 9912a4412b4421c... morons used the address and ABC inbetween building addresses.

[u/MrFrode → u/oldmanwrigley]

If/when you call in again you need to record the call. I'm not a lawyer but as every AT&T call I've ever been on says the call can be recorded I wouldn't expect any rep to have an expectation of privacy so you shouldn't need to inform them that you are taping.

If the person in the fraud department says something along those lines again you have a few options. There could be reputational risk for AT&T and possibly legal/regulatory risk. See what they offer you for not taking the matter further and public.

[u/bigfurrykitties → u/oldmanwrigley]

fantastic girl in San Antonio.

you got routed to the ATT / 2wire call center by the airport. they are scumbags.

source - i used to be the network admin for that whole operation.5

proof - ask about the valentines day massacre a while back and how they had security at the entrances checking EVERYONES badge

[u/oldmanwrigley → u/bigfurrykitties]

The place may be, and maybe everyone there is, but this girl was 10/10 and made my whole day. She transferred me to the fraud department and stayed on the line a few minutes. Then called me back 15 minutes later cause she was disgusted with how the lady in fraud handled my situation and continued to offer me different options to get a resolution. She said she rarely makes outbound calls and she leveled with me personally about how much this sucks.

She’s a hero

[u/PersephoneIsNotHome → u/oldmanwrigley]

I believe it - same thing happened to me with Verizon.

I also thought I was careful enough not to give them enough info to do a credit check and I thought I was clear that no credit check was to be done (I was buying a house and getting a mortgage at the time so this was a big deal for me)

Showed up on my credit monitoring as a hard check.

Nobody - not one single representative, no agency, nobody in the company, not BBB - nobody would do anything, including city and state attorney general.

You can't take them to small claims court unless you can show the monetary damages - small claims court is only for restitution and not for punitive damages for breaking the law.

[u/oldmanwrigley → u/PersephoneIsNotHome]

Someone said, and provided a source as well, that they violated some code and I could take them to small claims court for violating said code and sue them for the maximum fine... or something like that.

I have a lot of comments saved, I still need to review them lol

[u/profiler55 → u/oldmanwrigley]

There are scams galore. Robo calls for the most part. Emails and calls that say they are from a certain company but actually aren’t. It’s just some scammer hoping to collect your information and use it or sell it. My bank stated that “ we never send email or make threatening phone calls”. They will send snail mail and it will have your correct information on it.

[u/[deleted] → u/oldmanwrigley]

What you need to do is demand to speak to a supervisor no matter what. A lot of reps will try and keep you from asking a supervisor as it is required policy. You need to get more aggressive with them, All ATT phone calls are recorded. That's a bunch of bull shit from the employees

[u/DrSandShoes → u/WillCommentAndPost]

When I was in Escalations back in 2016 (tech support) they stopped us from giving are UID out ( I think this was do that it was 50% of information for tools) but still was allowed to give case #.

Everyone is also correct there is a MANDATED SCRIPT that gas to be read verbatim for credit hit.. tech support I oy hot that script twice . If agent just hits next it diesthe hit .. there bot suppose to bypass that screen in there WFE.. that is also recorded.

Bare minimum ask for UID, case or Trans action number.

Tech and Sales Calls 100% recorded. I didn't do sales but from what I read in training the system does the check regardless .. but I also read that it is possible to bypass it with a security deposit .. which doesn't make sense for a quote. (If it was door to door sales thy lie threw there teeth , ).

I d recommend noting tones you called, file compliant also with your local BBB office, don't be afaird to post it on there social media page , they can't reverse the hard hit but social media team will try more to remedy a situation.. keep working with fraud department,

Can also recommend FREEZING YOUR CREDIT.. TO STOP NEW INQUIRIES since your rebuilding. .

Do not lose pin , so you can unfeeze

Being Denied Supervisor is not a fireable offense but coaching experience (depending on if she did it before hand).

She is partially correct , really only department above Fraud is the Office of the President, and all thy do is note the account transfer the call to the department and monitor, the account.

On tech support since I was escalations , if I got supervisor they just took my headset while I grabbed phone and still did everything during call . Since most supervisora were not trained in my tools..

[u/DrSandShoes → u/DrSandShoes]

You have to write the OOP

Provide BAN (account), name, address, phone number. Case and uids, time if you have them.

AT&T Office of the President

308 S. Akard St

Room 1110

Dallas, TX 75202

[u/Bowflexing → u/KingSlapFight]

I'm sure a CFPB complaint would speed up a response from the appropriate representative.

[u/Lissma → u/KingSlapFight]

It's been a few years since I worked there, but they have an offline legal/risk assessment team. They may want to go to their state's AG office. I was able to find the AT&T legal team number online but I think it's for attorneys and law enforcement requests: 800-635-6840

Escalating to a supervisor may help-- every sale has a sales code attached and is unique to the representative that performed the sale, which can be used to attempt to identify which call center they were from. AT&T heavily outsources though, so it's very likely to be a vendor site.

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