With the financial meltdown and its impact on financial institutions across the land, financial services companies are trying hard to boost revenues. Banks raised credit card rates and fees before the new law to remove abuses, and now we have the venerable credit ratings agency D&B looking to sell more of their services to the little people.

So, what do you do when a credit reporting agency like D&B calls you for information to “update your file?” If you’re like most small business executives, you talk to them because you want their report of your business to their subscribers to be accurate and favorable. Helps them and helps you. What if their inquiry methods include a subtle pitch for a product you don’t want to buy but don’t recognize right away that it’s part of the “update” package? If you’re like us you contact them as soon as you realize what has happened, preferably the next day, to inform them that you didn’t want to buy anything, you were simply providing information, and please cancel any order that D&B thinks they received.

Well, we did that, couldn’t get to a real person so we left a detailed message at the appropriate number. We got no call back and apparently no action taken in response to our call. Several more tries with the same result. Now we’re getting collection letters from the credit reporting agency for a service we don’t want or need. And when we finally saw their report it had material inaccuracies in it! What would you do? Ignore them and risk angering the reporting gods? Pay the bill to get them off your back, having gotten nothing of value in return?

As always, your comments are welcome.”