How to Cancel Your Macy's Card

http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/leaks/got-an-inactive-macys-store-account-heres-your-new-citibank-mastercard-290408.php





Here's a scary story (link is above)! Not suprising, though: Macy's sold all its credit card names to Citibank and Citibank is now "flipping" all inactive Macy's credit cards to a Citicard Mastercard. Macy's has sent letters giving inactive cardholders the opportunity to "opt out," but otherwise, they will get this new card.



The above link lays out the ways this could hurt your credit rating.





So who are these "inactive" card holders?





Based on my experience opening and selling to our accounts, the "inactive" include:





1) People who thought they had cancelled the card by cutting it up. This is nothing but a personally satisfying act of home theater, with absolutely no legal impact.





2) People who thought that if they just stopped using it, they'd be dropped as burdensome.





3) People with old May Company cards who somehow have not gotten Macy's updates.





4) Lost addresses.





5) People who opened accounts but refuse to communicate about them because Macy's uses the social security number to identify you. Biting off your nose to spite your face, as my mother would say ...





I now ask virtually every customer whether they have a Macy's card, or have had a May Company card. The minute they start rambling ("Oh, I did once, but that was so long ago...") I have their driver's license in my hand and am busily looking for them in the system. I use the New Account search engine, which is our best.



Amazing how often they are still there.





If you think you have closed your account by phone, or wish to do so officially at any time, send a registered letter and keep a photocopy of both the letter and the postage receipt, including the "signed for" print out to prove it was received.



If you are not sure whether you have such a card, for heaven's sake, call your nearest Macy's and switch yourself through to the credit information lines.

As a reasonably proud Macy's employee, I would also like to add that I've used this identification system many times to reactivate cards that customers were sad about having lost track of. It gives them many discounts and above all, guarantees returns at the price they paid.














Astounding how many times I find an old account.

The Perks

What a string of bad-mood posts! The other night it was all worthwhile. I had worked in Women's Better Sportswear the previous day, and spotted a great new blouse, a perfect match for the skirt I got there earlier in the spring. It is the third time I saw such a match and this time I did not waste time hoping for my size to last through the price reductions.

So I snapped it up! $5 Macy Money helped out. And the next night, after cleaning the bathroom and taking a shower, I jumped into the outfit and hosted a wonderful dinner party!

False Advertising?

I just caught a great series of exchanges on Macy's lack of "ship-to-store" service. That's the priceless convenience of having your Macy's sales associate (me) contact another Macy's -- or more than one -- to obtain your merchandise. We have it all sent to our store, where I or some other sales elf organizes it into one package and calls you to say, "It's here! Come on in!" For this, we charge nothing. That's because my subtext, when I call, is "And while you're here for your pick-up, why not check out the great new whatevers that just arrived throughout the store."


I accessed this exchange via my new favorite website http://www.customersarealways.com/, by Maria Palma. But Maria was actually referencing Elaine Fogel at http://www.mpdailyfix.com/, from earlier this month, and a post called "Are Old World Retailers Meeting Customer Needs?". What caught my eye there, aside from the excellent initial post, was a comment from Victoria in response:

"Taking into consideration the cost of advertising, mailing ..."

Yes, Victoria -- you are on to something ! One of the reasons Federated elimimated historic local store names was to standardize national advertising. But they have no parallel commitment to standardizing the stores! On the contrary, they have a grid of luxury levels and store sizes into which we are being sliced and squeezed like the toes of Cinderella's poor stepsisters.



Doh!



Most egregiously, up here on the northern outposts of the USA, they completely eliminated our furniture department. They still make major local ad buys for the mattress promotions and other furniture events. They mail out entire flyers which display not one item available in or through our store! This inevitably leads to at least one customer per furniture event -- often with family in tow -- who has come to make a major purchase -- only to find they have wasted their gas, their time, and whatever they promised their kids for being quiet while the parents selected furniture.

I once heard that the first rule of successful advertizing is to be sure you have the product. Looks like somebody slept through that particular session at B-school.

After the website

Today's New York Times has a must-read article for our Macy's management: how affluent "location-neutral professionals" are bringing their cultural expectations and higher incomes into communities like the primarily rural one in which I live and our Macy's is trying to survive. It's called "Off to Resorts, and Carrying Their Careers."



Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/us/13steamboat.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin



Here's a snippet:



In places like Nantucket, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Teton County, Idaho, the migrants are creating hybrid communities, implanting urban incomes, tastes, careers, ambitions, restaurants, cultural activities and networking opportunities into small towns that until recently could support none of these, and for which there has been little planning and still no consensus.
“You are seeing a transformation of rural communities,” said Jonathan Schechter, executive director of the Charture Institute in Jackson, Wyo., a nonprofit organization that studies small recreational towns. ..
Into quiet resort spots the migrants have come, laptops on their knees: fund managers from New York, software developers from California, consultants, proofreaders, engineers, inventors. “The same processes that led to the suburbanization of the United States after World War II,” Mr. Schechter said, “are now producing a virtual suburbanization in places like Jackson or Steamboat Springs.”


Why is this important for our Macy's? Because these are the folks who journey in to us from quiet little outposts to seek the quality of purchasing opportunity that they associate with the Macy's name in Herald Square or Kenwood Town Center or other really big up-market places. They come in before or after their leisurely dinners in restaurants that we low-paid locals enter only on special occasions. They drive up in cars we cannot afford and they don't worry about the cost of parking.



These customers don't want us to tell them to "look on the website." That is how they spend their lives at home, and now they've come to handle the stuff that looks good in the pictures. How solid is that glaze on the china? How long is the staple on that towel? What does the difference between 500 and 600 count sheeting really feel like, and would 800 really be worth allt hat extra money?



Although the Women's Departments have been good about serving more of these customers, I am a little worried that our Men's Furnishings have pretty much nothing for "metrosexuals." We have only traditional business suits, no collarless high-count dress shirts. and no tuxedo shirts, no vests and suspenders. The answer is not to throw out what we've got -- which serves a vital need in our hardworking town -- but to double their floor space and commissioned staff, making sure there is always someone on hand -- and on the weekend, always more than one -- to be sure these pioneers of lifestyle find plenty of supplies to lay in for their foray into our new century.



These are folks for whom technology is a tool, not an alternative. We need to be able to meet the needs they find at the end of each websurfing path.

Registry Opportunity

Today's New York Times has an article summarizing the astounding wage-surge among unmarried young professional women in big cities. It is the first time a group of women have wages that surpasses their male peers. It's called For Young Earners in Big City, a Gap in Women’s Favor and you can read it at www.nytimes.com.

Here's the key quote for me:

Diana Rhoten, a program director at the Social Science Research Council in New York, said well-educated women were migrating to urban centers where there are diverse professional opportunities and less gender discrimination than in smaller cities and suburbs. There may also be nonworkplace factors at play, she said.
“Previously, female migration patterns were determined primarily by their husband’s educational levels or employment needs, even if both were college-educated,” she said. “Today, highly qualified women are moving for their own professional opportunities and personal interests. It’s no longer an era of power couple migration to, but one of power couple formation in places like New York.”
Dr. Beveridge, based his findings of young women’s earning power on data from the census bureau’s 2005 American Community Survey used to analyze people working at least 35 hours a week 40 or more weeks a year.

What does this mean for Macy's? Why does our gift registry literature still state that marriage marks the beginning of a woman's major shopping life in the Home Store? Note that Macy's headquarters is NOT in one of these "major cities," but the good old flyover zone of Cincinnati. I am a single professional woman who left Cincinnati precisely to join these urban wage-earning ranks (and pretty much failed, due to inabilty to focus on money). In Cincinnati, a woman's life DOES begin with marriage. Men, too. It's a traditional city -- a GREAT place to raise kids and practice citizenship.

But our registry needs to serve all consituencies (we're now in every state except Alaska). So it's time for Macy's Gift Registry language to follow the lead of such organizations as Home Depot and Crate and Barrel. Diversify your occasions -- or make the occasion optional. Be sure the consultants know it's a GIFT registry with a HOUSEWARMING category. But from corporate -- PLEASE REDO THE ADVERTISING FOR US SINGLES!

Registry Opportunity

Diana Rhoten, a program director at the Social Science Research Council in New York, said well-educated women were migrating to urban centers where there are diverse professional opportunities and less gender discrimination than in smaller cities and suburbs. There may also be nonworkplace factors at play, she said.
“Previously, female migration patterns were determined primarily by their husband’s educational levels or employment needs, even if both were college-educated,” she said. “Today, highly qualified women are moving for their own professional opportunities and personal interests. It’s no longer an era of power couple migration to, but one of power couple formation in places like New York.”
Dr. Beveridge, based his findings of young women’s earning power on data from the census bureau’s 2005 American Community Survey used to analyze people working at least 35 hours a week 40 or more weeks a year.
It is not clear whether this is the front edge of a trend

Martha's bedding

Last night in the Home Store, Macy Mae started paying more attention to who's looking at the Martha Stewart line. I engaged them more, and listened to what they're saying. Martha's getting good marks on quality and design in the textiles, and I would be the first to say the compliments are well deserved. 100 per cent cotton comforters -- where have you been? And the new lace sheets and bedskirts that came in yesterday meet a need we've been without for far too long! On the whole, as I wandered through her rapidly-filling display, I felt the return of my girlie affection for the late great Laura Ashley. These are bedroom furnishings to make you feel like a princess..





... and therein lies the problem. Princesses, you may have noticed, usually do not sleep in queen and king sized beds. Indeed, as we all learned in "The Princess Diaries", once they become a queen (whether or not with a king), princesses have to tone down their girlie style. I once sold a beautiful field of Ralph Lauren flowers to a loving husband of later years, who watched silently while his wife shopped, and then stepped to the register saying, "She gets what she wants." Can he be cloned? Because this doesn't happen very often. More often, the bride -- of whatever age -- says "he doesn't want too many flowers," or, at best, "He can live with that Calvin Klein."




So "princess" is for most of us a great but lonely life. Already, the refrain has arisen. "Do you have this in twin?" "Do you have this in full?" "Could this queen comforter cover work for a double bed?" Macy Mae predicted yesterday that this line would appeal to single women, and based on the size requests, I hit a bullseye on that call.





I hope Martha will quickly start shipping in full and even the occasional twin. The minute she does, she's going to kick up Macy Mae's bedding sales. Indeed, MM has already identified her OWN next summer set (Vintage) -- except that Macy Mae still sleeps in a double bed.