I just found a letter from a few years back that I wrote to Capital One. Back when I was in college, they kept sending me notices of pre-approval for a credit card. However, when I tried to accept the pre-approval, they denied me. Here was my retort, dated April 6, 2000.

Dear Ms. Kauffman:

I recently received a denial of request for credit privileges from Capital One.  Please note the reference number: **********202.  The primary reason for your decision was stated as follows:

YOU WERE NOT THE PERSON SOLICITED

The person solicited (and who was pre-approved for credit) was one Nate Sees.  I assumed this was meant for me: Nathan Sees.  Nate is the name I am referred to by my friends and family; a nickname, if you will.  On the application that I sent in, there was a word of instruction that gave orders to correct any wrong information with regards to my name and address.  This I did to the best of my ability.  I circled “Nate” and wrote “Nathan” on the application because that is the name printed on my driver’s license.  I am curious as to why I (Nathan) was not considered the same person as Nate.  If you believe there is someone other than myself named Nate Sees who lives at the same address as me and also shares my driver’s license and social security numbers, then I suppose you have proper grounds to deny me (Nathan) credit.  However, if I may attempt to persuade you differently, let it be known that there is no Nate Sees, other than myself, who resides at 982 E. Quincy, let alone in the great state of California, as far as I know.  If you still disagree, I would challenge you to search for him and let me know when you find him because I have been receiving his mail, phone calls, and e-mails for the past 21 years.

I do not mean to sound facetious or rude, but this is the second time I have been denied credit by your company for the exact same reason.  If I have not persuaded you that I am Nate Sees (the person you pre-approved for credit,) then I will ask you to please stop sending pre-approved credit notices to Nate Sees, because apparently he does not live here.

With utter sincerity,

Nathan “Nate” Sees

Now that i look back on it, I think I was lying about the utterness of my sincerity. Please forgive me, Ms. Kauffman.