Hammer or velvet--- A quandary

hey quixote, i noticed somewhere that you had used this technique with a macys paid charge off?? is this true? If so, what is there address to the credit department where you sent this?? I can't find it anywhere, and richs if you have that also? How did you go about getting it?

Thanks,
Gary

 

it was me(I) that had success with Macy's. here's the link with the contact information
http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&pgnum=&postid=200573#post200573

 

hey, would that address apply to richs as well? I know they are owned by federated. I just want to know since i have a paid charge off with richs as well.

Thanks,

 

dont know, i don't have a rich's in my area.
do a search on www.bbb.com, you may find something there.

 

Javan,

What exactly is a PFB? And could you post the sample letter that you sent to mr. zimmerman? I found out he is the CEO of federated, so i will be able to use that for richs and macys. Thanks for the help.

Gary.

 

PFB is http://www.planetfeedback.com

It's a wonderful resource. Do a search here and you'll see how many people have had success using it.

 

Use "Discovery" to enhance the effect?

I know this is an old thread, but the letter is still awesome and I'm planning to use it soon for a paid collection account.

What about calling the enclosures "discovery" and attaching the Nelson case and the relevant code sections?

 

Re: Use "Discovery" to enhance the effect?

A word of caution: The only thing worse than following the advice in an eight-year-old thread is sending a "suggested letter" from an eight-year-old thread. While I can't speak to the validity or inaccuracy of any of the claims made in this letter or thread, I can tell you that this dates back to a different era in credit management.

This letter is from a time when people advocated verbose letters peppered with legal references and both vague and direct threats of legal action. This time is long, long gone.

While there are different schools of thought on the matter, I -- and I think most people who take control of their credit -- suggest an entirely different approach. Keep all your communications to an absolute minimum. At the very least, a simple and direct letter is more likely to get noticed. Most companies these days use OCR to process written correspondence electronically, so the odds that an actual person will read your letter are slim to none. Thus, any legal threats you make aren't going to scare anyone, no matter how valid or invalid they may be.

But at worst, you could make an accidental typo and hang yourself. What if you inadvertently acknowledge the debt? What if the wording of your letter acknowledges that a remaining balance needs to be paid in full? A TON of caselaw has cropped up over the last eight years, and unless you're prepared to fully review it all, even the best advice from the best lawyer back in 2002 is no longer necessarily current, relevant, or even accurate.

Finally, CAs, CRAs, and OCs have become wise to copy/paste letters. They see them coming a mile away. I realize they're fun and satisfying to send out, but if they ever had any real impact to begin with, that's all gone now. Worse, the CAs / CRAs / OCs have had plenty of time to prepare theories, test caselaw, and hone their defenses.

If you can give us some details on your current situation, we can give you some more modern suggestions. Either way, the last thing I would do when dealing with managing my credit is use any information more than a year or two old -- and even that's really pushing it.