Hello, I am one of the customers whose card number was stolen or whatever. My credit card company replaced the card and I suffered no ill effects.

However, twice now, in State College, PA and Williamsport, PA, I have had good checks declined by your system. I nearly always used a credit card before, but I switched to checks because of the card snafu. I buy a couple thousand dollars worth of merchandise from your company yearly (in fact, just a couple months ago I bought over 150.00 dollars worth of things from the store in Morgantown, WV, paid by check, and nothing terrible happened).

Now, I know you have a new system, but both times it was personally humiliating and without precedent or purpose. There I am, a fifty-one year old tenured college professor, who paid back all my loans for the Ph.D, and also own a thriving jewelry and antique store. I always had my ID, never spit on the floor, or otherwise showed myself to be a risk. But I go to a store, gather up 128 and 178 dollars worth of merchandise (respectively), am asked for my driver's license, the poor helpful clerk makes a phone call, and both times I am declined by your system.

Both times I asked to speak to the managers, who, while apologetic, explain that there is nothing they can do (ah, corporate America), offer to hold the merchandise (what? so I can slink in later with cash to prove I have the money?), and generally I am made to feel like a potential thief.
I called the number myself, where I finally talked to a person, who said their computer says it is a risky purchase (!!!!)! My check numbers are somewhere in the 900's, I have mortgages on a home and a commercial property, and am a thoroughly upstanding literature professor who does not seem to fit into any of the risky categories (I don't spend 1500 dollars in checks in a few days, which manager # 2 thought might make that computer suspicious).

Here's the thing. I know you don't need me. But, by God, I want to know what is going on. First my credit card is at risk, simply because I used it at your stores. Then when I try to make purchases with a check, I am treated like a pariah. Frankly, I have had it. You have got to explain and make it right with me. I don't care if you don't have the information to explain--you should get it. When I spoke to customer service after the first check decline, the man simply parroted what the guy at Certegy said ("we don't have anymore information; all we know is that it is a risky purchase").

I also know you customer service folks work hard and don't need me either, but I burst into tears in both stores. It actually hurt my feelings that a company I have been so loyal to would treat me so badly. That's how "risky" I am.

There is a long term employee in the State College store who I have chatted with for several years about his family, his workday, and what he plans for holidays. He is a bit shy but a kindly man; since he did not wait on me the day my check was declined, I had to see him at the next checkout as I was sent on my way, looking embarrassed and sad that I would turn out to be a thief.


Dr. Sara Postlethwaite
[email protected]
Lock Haven University
Lock Haven, PA

If you, like me, are one of the hundreds of thousands of people whose credit/debit card was breached and cancelled because of TJ Maxx's lack of security, then get mad.

Read the condescending letter from their CEO on the TJ Maxx website, and it may just provoke you to do some real complaining.

TJ Maxx has passed this serious matter off to banks to handle. Some banks are cancelling and reissuing cards and some are just saying to 'watch your account for activity'. Either way, someone other than TJ Maxx is paying for the situation. Reissuing credit/debit cards is costly for the banks especially when it numbers hundreds or thousands. We as customers will end up paying for it. TJ Maxx won't. NOT UNLESS, you boycott them.

I've set foot for the last time in any of their stores because I've learned the hard way that a discount store uses discount security measures.

Why shouldn't their stock suffer? Why shouldn't their sales suffer? Buying at TJ Maxx only condones the poor business practices that they adhere to day in and day out. The breach has gone on for months, and consumers are just now finding out, and some of us the hard way. TJ Maxx has offered nothing to effected customers other than their pitiful attempt at a letter on their website. Try phoning them. There are operators who will take your call, but the conversation is scripted and the ears deaf to your problems.

Do you want to do business with a company like that? I don't.