Letter from my bank

Here's a letter from the TJX Companies CEO (from their web site):

Their stores include: TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, AJ Wright, Winners, HomeSense, TKMaxx and Bob's Stores. Basically retail junk stores.



LETTER FROM TJX’S CHAIRMAN

January 29, 2007

To Our Valued Customers:

In light of our recently announced unauthorized intrusion into our computer systems, as the Founder of our Company, I want to say how deeply I regret any difficulties our customers may experience due to this incident. Since the inception of our business thirty years ago, our customers have been our top priority and I can assure you that you will always come first. As a Company of 120,000 dedicated associates, integrity is at the center of everything we do. Our business is about relationships – with our customers, our associates, our shareholders, and the thousands of communities we serve around the world.

It is because we value your trust so deeply, that I want to reiterate the measures we have taken since the discovery of the computer systems intrusion. We immediately engaged two leading computer security and incident response firms to investigate the problem and enhance our computer security in order to protect our customers’ data. We also notified law enforcement authorities who began an investigation of the crime. We have worked closely with the major credit card companies, providing them with the information they requested to protect customers whose credit and debit card information may have been compromised. Further, we have established customer helplines in three countries and made available a great deal of helpful information on all Company websites.

I have recorded a video message which is posted on our website in which I address some of the key questions our customers have been asking via our helplines. I hope it is helpful and clarifies some issues for you. I also urge you to check our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section in which we are providing periodic updates.

Additionally, I encourage you to access the information we have provided on this website to learn more about steps you can take to protect your credit and debit card information, or to contact our special customer helplines. We have provided those details below.

Our absolute priority is for customers to feel safe shopping in our stores and we want you to know that we believe it is. Again, I want to say that I am very troubled by any difficulties this incident may have caused and we have taken significant measures to strengthen the security of our computer systems. Thank you for bearing with us in this challenging period and thank you for your years of loyal patronage.

Respectfully,

Ben Cammarata
Chairman

 

My wife got one of those. It was, indeed, a TJ Maxx thang.

 

Happened to me last year, and it was a PITFA, because I had several of my recurring bill payments (utility bills, car payment) set up online by debit card number, and of course the new card had a new number, so one by one, I had to reenroll all those accounts, which was also a PITFA.

And, most of the accounts required the reenrollment had to be done by mail, so I had to play mail tag, which took a couple weeks to get done, so several of the accounts didn't have payments credited on time, so all of a sudden I'm getting "late payment" calls again (which happily I hadn't gotten for about the last 10 years).

And, as I recall, it happened right before a holiday weekend, and I was going out of town. So the day before I leave, I get the letter in the mail, informing me my present debit card would no longer be operative, and the banks were closed for a few days so I couldn't go in and get money from the bank, so I had to go bum gas money off my siblings for 3-4 days until it got all straightened out.

A complete PITFA.