Shawn is peeved. He’s in the middle of securing financing on a new house and the last thing you need during that time period are any surprise people looking at your credit report. These inquiries can bring your score down. But he got exactly one of those, a “hard” one, thanks to an unauthorized peek-a-boo Time Warner Cable decided to do on his credit report when called them up to ask about reducing his cable package.

Guess they got scared about your credit worthiness since you were trying to spend less money with them!

Shawn writes:

I called Time Warner Cable on 11/3/11 to inquire about what services I could downgrade to lower my bill. I wished to get rid of my Digital Tier Package, as well as the Sports package we currently have. My wife and I are building a house and are cutting back a tad to save money for the move in a few months. I even mentioned this to the CSR I spoke to Thursday night.

This morning, through my credit monitoring service, I receive an e-mail alert saying my Equifax credit report has changed — low and behold, TWC pulled my credit report on 11/3.

At no point during the conversation with the CSR did I consent to my credit report being pulled. There was absolutely nothing in our conversation that led me to believe it would be pulled, either. I called to reduce my bill and to terminate services and did not apply or even inquire about new services — yet somehow my Equifax credit report ended up being pulled.

I am beyond livid. I am in the middle of getting financing for a house and I cannot have any new inquiries on my reports.

Attached you’ll find the inquiries listed on my Equifax report. The initial pull (10/19/11) is by the mortgage company (and they’ll pull again right before closing), and yesterday was TWC. Sigh.

Tyler then used an email address he found on Consumerist, twc.cotp@twcable.com, to send his complaint requesting they immediately remove the inquiry. Within a few hours, he got phone calls from different three different Time Warner employees, apologizing for the CSR’s error in making an unauthorized hard credit report inquiry. They pledged to immediately contact each of the three bureaus and get the inquiry removed. He also got an email to this effect.

“Thanks, Consumerist!” writes Shawn.

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