People often write to us and ask “Hey do you have such and such a company’s email address? I didn’t see it on your website.”

The answer is almost always “No.” When this happens we have to guess.

Here is one method of guessing that often yields results. Instead waiting around for no reason, you can do it yourself!

You will need:

1) Google Finance

2) The Company’s Website

3) Your Brain

Step 1) Figure out the email address format. Either

a) Type *@companyname.com in Google and see what comes up in bold in results to figure out what they’re using as a format. This post has more on this technique.

b) Go to the company’s website. Find the place where they post their press releases. Open a press release. Look for an email address that ends with the company’s name. Do not email this person.

Step 2) Go to Google Finance. Enter the company’s stock symbol or name. Scroll down to where the top executives are listed.

Step 3) Using your brain, apply the email address format from the press release email to the names of the executives listed in Google Finance. It will probably be something like “FirstName.LastName@CompanyThatINeedToSpeakWith.com”

Step 4) Send a very short, very concise, very polite email to the executives explaining that your problem is not being dealt with adequately through the usual channels and that you would like someone with more authority to contact you to discuss the situation. Feel free to CC: tips@consumerist.com so we can listen in.

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