I’m sorry. That all sounds terribly taxing, and I hope things will improve somewhat for you in the not too distant future. What else is there but hope?
Also, thank you for reminding those of us who’ve been bitching about a buck or two more for gas or other commodities of just how privileged we truly are. Keeps things in perspective - or at least it should.
I know, right? 
Sadly, some of the worst offenders often seem to be unaware of their own behavior.
Just heard about this (just looked it up b/c of your mention, I mean), and trying to figure out how it took so long to come to light. OTOH, reading deeper than just the headlines, I’m finding the repeated phrase that some of the scores were "off by as much as 20 points Edit - now I’m reading “as much as 25 points”, implying that many of them were off by fewer than 20 points 25 points.
So it’s most likely only folks who were right on the cusp of the accept/deny bubble (or on the cusp of a lower/higher rate bubble) who would have been harmed by the incorrect reporting.
Not trying to minimize the harm done by this screwup, just thinking through why if millions were misreported, it took several months to get noticed.
Exactly. If they could only avoid the prohibited topics (and when they can’t at least know what they are talking about). When will they ever learn?
Ok, now that reminds me of a song. Peter, Paul, and Mary - mid 60’s I think. I only know it from reading up on musical history lol.
“Where have all the flowers gone” by Pete Seeger was recorded by a number of artists.
Yes, of course it was, I wasn’t remembering the name of it right right then.
My guess is they knew shortly after the mishap and technology was busy putting in a fix to stop the bleeding and validating the fix worked.
Then management was then trying to get their hands around the impact by running countless analyses to find the right language to minimize the optics. Those queries and the analysis would not be easy.
What stood out to me was the comment by the chief executive Begor, “The impact is going to be quite small,” Mr. Begor said, “not something that’s meaningful to Equifax.”
Yeah, not meaningful. Great choice of words.
Lots of potential downstream pain will be shouldered by those relying on Equifax’s reports during that period.
Programs are wonderful pieces of technology because they can process millions of rows in seconds…and if the code is wrong it can create millions of errors in the same time frame.
Equifax had a data breach a few years ago too. Not good.
Edit: Some scores went from 0 to > 700 and from >700 to 0. Plus 20-25 points may be the difference between approval and denial and even more problematic between two different interests rates. The downstream lenders are in a pickle trying to clean up the wrong interest rate assigned especially since rates have changed several times since. But this issue is so small it is meaningless to Equifax according to Begor.
Thoughtful post.
I’m so hoping things improve for you and your countrymen. Very challenging times, but know we’re thinking of you.
Thanks for the earworm 
Another ear worm.
Reported!
My friend Lynn enlisted in the AF back in the 70s.
He hated it.
He got caught smoking dope and had to go through the normal brainwashing.
They told him you get caught smoking dope again, you’re outta here.
So he turned himself in anonymously and they did indeed
drum him out.
He was dancing in ecstasy.
Smart move. Wait, was he dancing IN ecstasy or ON ecstasy? 
Dancing on the ceiling 
Jeez, it’s earworm fucking central up in here today.
Lol. Both those songs are terrible ear worms. Next up, Row Row Row Your Boat.
Yeah, trust me, I know how large corporations react to something like this. What I meant was why on the consumer side it took so long to be noticed. For example, if 4 million credit reports were wrong and this lead to 4 million people erroneously being denied credit, I think there would have been a hue and cry from the consumer side that some news organs might have picked up on.
Woah, the tone deafness of that comment. The VP of the corp communications dept (if consulted on the statement) should be fired. But Begor himself should have known how bad it sounds. He’s talking at the investment community and completely ignoring the consumers.
You mention an interesting wrinkle in the problem. Someone applying for a mortgage in March (but erroneously denied) may have gotten their wrong score fixed, but that March interest rate is long gone and not to return for a long time. It’s not the lender’s fault, so they’re not going to voluntarily give the person the then-prevailing rate.
What’s the fix? Equifax needs to induce ($$) lenders to give the people the rates they should have gotten but for the screw up.
