New insurance policy. As a matter of course, company runs a "mini" credit report on you. Fine. Nothing to hide.
Having done so, I guess they are obliged to allow you free access to that information (because they used it to make a business decision pertaining to you?).
Call or write. Of course, call is easier.
End up talking to a machine. Well, that's understandable. After all, this is a "routine" request, not requiring any *judgement* on the part of the machine!
"Please say and spell your last name" I do so. "Please say and spell your last name" I do so, again. Ennunciating even more clearly for the stupid machine. "Please say and spell your last name" A bit annoyed, I repeat the exercise -- wondering how many MORE times the stewpit machine will quiz me on this.
"OK, I've saved your response" Hmmm... that sounds ominous. OTOH, maybe it would be too hard for it to try to pronounce the variety of names it likely encounters (mine isn't "Smith" -- nor "Jones"!)
"Please say and spell your first name" Donald. D O N A L D "Great! That's Donald"
"Please enter your birthdate as MM DD YYYY" I do so. "Great! That's yada yada yada"
"Please say and spell your last name" Crap! Not this again! "Please say and spell your last name" I do so, again. "Please say and spell your last name" Jump through the hoop yet one more time...
"OK, I've saved your response" Ah, so that's code for "I don't know what the hell you said!"
"Please say and spell your first name" Wait! Didn't we already *do* this?? Do you think my name has changed in the minute or two since I *last* spelled it for you? Donald. D O N A L D "Great! That's Donald"
"Please enter your 5 digit ZIP code" xxxxx "Great!"
"Please enter your house number" yyyyy "Great!'
"Which insurance company refered you to us?" aaaaaaaa "Great!"
"When the insurance company contacted us, we assigned a 14 digit (!!!) identifier to their request for information concerning you. Do you have that number?" Yes
"Please provide that number" ############## "Great!"
"Do you have a driver's license?" (D'uh! Why would I be looking into car insurance WITHOUT one?) Yes. "Which state issued your license?" kkkkk "What is your driver's license number?" A123... (interrupted) "What is your driver's license number?" A123... (interrupted, yet again) "What is your driver's license number?" A12345678 "OK, I've saved your response" Sure, too stupid to sort out the LETTER in the "number", eh??
"What is your mailing address? ....
This went on for probably 10 minutes (though it sure felt like 15!).
This is the problem with American businesses, nowadays: they cut THEIR costs (i.e., not having a live human being ask me these questions in the course of *one* minute) by pushing those costs (in this case, *time*) onto their customers.
Consider: that 14 digit identifier is big enough to identify each man woman and child (in case any 3-year-olds want to buy insurance and need their credit checked!) 30,000 times over! So, *just* that number should have been sufficient to identify the person making the request. Add to that the ZIP code, house number, first name, date of birth, etc. and they've got more than enough information to UNIQUELY identify the request with far greater certainty than folks going to the gas chamber based on "99.9997% accurate" DNA evidence.
Of course, as I have only a short windo in which to get this information under this request, I'll send a written request also. And, some bozo at the receiving end will have to process that paperwork and wonder why it appears to be a duplicate. Maybe I can "waste" 10 minutes of *their* time?? :-/