So you've drafted your GW letter, you've proof read it, you've made your husband, sister, aunt, and the family dog all check it for accuracy, you've posted on the many forums asking for advice, and now finally, you have your letter all ready to go. You send it to the address the credit card company has for "Cardmember servcies" and happily wait for a reply. 1...2...3 weeks pass by now you either have gotten no reply, or even better, have gotten a generic letter sent back telling you that A. They can't do it, B. They can't do it, and C. They can't do it. Why did this happen? The first mistake was sending it to "Cardmember services", this set group of employees (and sometimes computers) sole purpose is to help with common everyday problems, I've lost my card, My payment wasn't received, I'm done with this $%# card cancel it, and other mundane problems that arise in the business. You have to get your letter into the right hands and read by the right people. These people are typically senior agents, not front line customer service agents and their supervisors. How do you get to these senior officials? Glad you asked.
- Investigate the company website.
- Typically, you can find pertinent company contact information right in front of you.
- You want to look for their corporate website not their consumer website.
- For example, Kohls maintains ther main consumer website (www.kohls.com), but, they also have a corporate website. ( www.kohlscorporation.com).
- If you can't find a corporate website then maybe the company is a subsidary of a larger company.
- For example, Midland credit management (www.midlandcreditonline.com) is a subsidiary of Encore Capital group. (www.encorecapital.com).
- Other company sections to look into are: Investor Relations, About us, Contact us (look for executive office), and Corporate information.
2. Google it:
- I have found that one of the best ways to find an executive contact is just a simple google seach worded correctly.
- For example, "Who is the CEO of Macy's?" or "Macy's CEO email address"
3. Use a coporate directory:
4. Email guessing
- This is my least favorite yet still effective way of finding company contacts.
- This method typically works best when you already know the full name of the person you are attempting to contact.
- The process works like this:
- Name: John doe.
- Company: xxcorp.net
- Try sending your GW email to these emails:
- Jdoe@xxcorp.net
- John.doe@xxcorp.net
- doe.john@xxcorp.net
- johndoe@xxcorp.net
- doejohn@xxcorp.net
- and any other combonations you can think of.
- In my experience the first 3 are the most popular choices for a company.
5. Other means:
- Try asking forum members through private messages (try not to burden them though!)
- Try sending a letter to the executive offices with an Attn to the contact.
- If all else fails, call the main number and attempt to climb up the customer service ladder.
I wish you the best of luck on your journeys through credit repair. Look out for my other guides based on other topics of credit repair.
If you have any tips, comments, corrections, or improvements don't hesitate to post in thread of PM me on Myfico.
Cheers! Induction.
