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A Greensboro man is a victim of Time Warner's identity confusion, reporting him delinquent for someone else's past due bill.
Greensboro, N.C. resident Keith Graves can’t buy a car with a reasonable interest rate. The reason? Time Warner Cable ruined his credit by reporting him delinquent for cable service they claim he never paid back in 2007, despite the fact Graves didn’t move to North Carolina until 2008.
The cable company still wants its $1,252 and apparently isn’t too concerned who pays it, attaching the debt to a credit report belonging to a different Keith Graves after not bothering to verify the account owner.
“I’ve been violated because of the fact that I hear so much about how other people’s identities have been stolen: credit cards, social security numbers, I haven’t been violated that way,” Graves told WFMY News. “But I have been violated now because of the fact that they literally took my name my good credit, and gave it to somebody else and in fact gave me bad credit.”
Normally, Time Warner Cable reports delinquencies based on the Social Security number attached to the account, but that didn’t happen this time.
The North Carolina Attorney General’s office reports identity confusion is not unprecedented in the state when lazy or untrained employees submit faulty information to credit reporting agencies. Most companies are not significantly liable for damages resulting from mistaken reporting, even if it results in ruinous declines in credit scores and leaves victims with handfuls of closed accounts or reduced credit lines at escalating interest rates.
In a statement released to the media, the cable company is now blaming the credit bureau for the problem, despite being the instigator of the initial negative collection report:
Time Warner Cable has worked closely with Mr. Graves to help him resolve this unfortunate mistake by the credit bureau. We have both contacted the credit bureau regarding its error, and we will continue advocating for him until his credit rating is restored.
Graves isn’t too happy with that response.
“If it only took them 15 minutes to create this situation, it’s now over six months,” Graves said in frustration. “And they still haven’t gotten it resolved. I’m just totally surprised that they can’t get this resolved as easily as it took to create this situation.”
[flv width=”640″ height=”447″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WFMY Greensboro Identity Confusion Leads to Credit Problems For Triad Man 3-14-12.flv[/flv]
WFMY in Greensboro talks with Keith Graves about his frustrating experience with Time Warner Cable’s identity confusion. (4 minutes)
Slow News day Phil?
Sloppy customer service with enormous implications for the customer on the other end. Even after this man straightens things out, creditors may have slashed his credit lines or increased his interest on future debt as a result of this kind of error. Getting creditors to relent on this can be very difficult as they are under no obligation to change their minds. As it stands, he’ll have to refinance his car loan to win a lower interest rate. Time Warner should have been able to correct this within weeks -and- remove the negative credit reference from his file within a… Read more »
“As it stands, he’ll have to refinance his car loan to win a lower interest rate. Time Warner should have been able to correct this within weeks -and- remove the negative credit reference from his file within a month. It happens all the time for other creditors. This man’s problems started last fall and we’re now halfway through March.’ It appears from the report that this debt goes back to 2007. That’s a long time to have not noticed that it was on your credit report. My Girlfriend had the same issue with one of the main chain of department… Read more »
It’s only natural that after Cable Companies have screwed all their existing customers they’d start increasing profits by expanding their market to levy charges against non-cable customers for their services. Brilliant!