Dunn and Bradstreet, DNB, D&B requires paid membership to fix bogus information and sells unsubstantiated information to creditors. Internet

Three months ago I had some issues with my account with a manufacture/creditor. You see, although we were over our limit. Wed certainly been over our limit with a few large jobs over the years. So during a conference call, I tell the new credit manager we hadnt been late and were a thirty year old company with sales going up every year. Her reply was that basically the 30 year old companys history didnt mean much and she couldnt rely on what we did the past 10-15 years with her company but had to rely on what our DNB score was. Apparently we were spending too much money with this manufacture and Dunn & Bradstreet (DNB) said we were slow pay.

Although I didnt name the manufacture/creditor or the manager, to be totally fair, she ended up being a nice lady and I understand shes just doing her job to protect her employer from bad debit and at the same time protecting her job. I dont blame her, just odd that buying MORE than expected, with a zero balance in the late column, and took an early pay discount for that particular month.

So, we called DNB to see what our rating was and they wouldnt release anything without us joining. Okay, since it seemed like such a heavy part of a creditors decision, we ended up joining DNB just so I could figure out what was going on. After spending $449, I found out that they will not voluntarily tell me anything. I have to request information on each account. Our score was 55 and we were told it should be closer to 80.

So we go in to each account to see what is said. Without the venders name, its hard to tell whats what. Credit limit of $1000 Amount due $250 Past due $250 Payment habit slow 30. Okay, who is this? Since I have no idea whos who, I have to file a dispute just so we can see whos reporting us so we can then check and see if we really are past due. Understand, our credit is being questioned because of an agencys reporting and now that we joined them for $449, we STILL cant see who is claiming weve paid them late.

Each time we ask for information on the accounts showing us as late, the reporting company tells us they are going to drop the report because they do not want to disclose who they are. But, they have not dropped the report as we were told they were going to do.

What a scam! If we are truly late, all we did was make an inquiry to resolve the debit and the reporting company refused to reveal who they are so nothing can get resolved. DNB says they will drop that off our rating and it will raise our score and then some unsuspecting company gives us credit. DNB is charging creditors to give them that information!

In the meantime, DNB has contacted us a few times to offer ways to help build our credit. The last one was: Tammy Norman with DNB Street. 1-800-825-3867 x1781 $449. For a score builder where you can add up to 7 creditors that you have a credit limit with $1000 and up with good payment history over the last two years.

Wow! I get to give them the name of seven creditors that I KNOW will give me good ratings and then D&B will get to contact those seven venders and see about selling services to them! This is absolutely ingenious. Im jealous, green with envy even. As a recap, DNB sells credit information to creditors; buyers (like me) then have to buy a $449 to join DNB. However, you cant really GET any information, just see that some anonymous creditor says your late. And, for an additional $449, I can get to PICK my best venders to ASSURE I get a good rating (meaning the report the creditors is paying for is basically worthless) AND DNB gets potentially seven new companies to offer their services too. Hey, while the vender is paying to see about the credit of their future clients, they might want to sign up and see how their own rating looks.

Lets look at how bad our account was to give us a 55 out of possible 100 rating that caused a manufacture weve done business with since 1995 to be a bit over cautious. Six companies reported us slow pay. Okay, how slow and how much?

Creditor - High Credit Amount - Owing - Past Due - Payment Habit

Creditor 1 - $1000 - $1000 - $0 - 30 days

Creditor 2 - $1000 - $1000 - $250 - 30 days

Creditor 3 - $1000 - $1000 - $250 - 30 days

Creditor 4 - $500 - $100 - $0 - 30 days

Creditor 5 - $2500 - $0 - $0 - 30to60 days

Creditor 6 - $250 - $250 - $250 - 60 days

Total - $6250 - $3350 - $750

So here we are supposedly 30 days late with four accounts and up to 60 days late with two accounts. But wait, it depends on the terms of the account. With the particular manufacture, we have terms that say we get early discount on the 10th of every month, due by the 30th, and late after that. So if I order something on October 1, its actually due by November 30. However, when I ask about our payment history, they may say it takes 35 days to pay. That makes us sound like were late when in reality; we could have taken the early discount. Order October 1 and pay by Nov 5 means early discount...nowhere near late. Order October 1 and pay December 1 and Im technically 1 day late but the creditor may show that we took 61 days to pay.

And the grand total we were supposedly past due on? $750! Unreal. All that drama over $750?! Think about it, this is worst economic crisis since the Carter years from the late 70s and some economists say since the Great Depression and were getting beat up over six faceless creditors that say were 30-60 days and yet offer nothing to substantiate their claims but rather tucked tail and ran when questioned about their anonymous reporting.

All these nice pretty round numbers are kinda odd. Seems like $1K and $250 are magic numbers for some reason. I dont see anything remotely similar in QuickBooks so Im suspicious of these numbers.

So the point Im trying to make with all of this is, at a minimum, DNB provides an unsubstantiated and rather worthless service and I certainly hope creditors consider not using or dropping DNB services. Weve paid for a year and after thats up, Ill never waste another penny on DNB.