Friday, July 24, 2009

Sweet Victory


Gymboree is reborn. Since my last post, I have spoken with the store manager of the Fashion Place Gymboree, the District Manager and someone at Corporate. I have been issued Gymboree and Crazy 8 coupons and received countless apologies and gratitude for my patience. The employee is being reprimanded.

Some of you have expressed interest in what happened. Skip the next two paragraphs if you're bored already. I purchased a swimsuit for Sammie online using gymbucks. I received the swimsuit. It didn't fit. I attempted to exchange it for something else, all within the gymbucks redemption period.


At the register, the salesperson only wanted to give me 11.00 credit toward the new item even though the swimsuit still retails at $22.50. Basically, I wanted to keep the value of my gymbucks and get the full $22.50 toward the new item (a full price pair of pants for Luke.) The salesgirl told me no, I expressed my dissatisfaction with the policy and asked what else I could do. She told me I could return the item without a receipt. So I said, "Okay, I'd like to return the item without a receipt." She then called me dishonest and asked me to return to the store when another employee was working who did not know I had the receipt. I couldn't believe it. She went on to call me dishonest several more times in a store full of customers and more importantly, in front of my children.

My whole beef with the situation was not the store policy--ridiculous as it is--it was with how the employee handled the situation and the name-calling she engaged in. Wanna know the kicker? When I spoke with the district manager, he actually told me I was right about the policy--during gymbucks redemption time, you do get the full price of the item toward something else on an exchange.

Vindicated!

11 comments:

leandparkermakes3 said...

Sweet justice, Brooke! Good for you.

Denise said...

Umm. I think that this could only happen to you in Utah...and MAYbe the somewhere in the Middle East.

Em said...

Vindication is sweet, indeed.

Way to come off conqueror!

Linda said...

I'm proud of you, Brookie! A customer service success story if I've ever heard one!!

Jill said...

Victory is yours! I may need to call you in for help the next time I have a customer service issue since I don't have these sort of skills at all.

The Mostess said...

Agreed with Denise. This only happened because you live in Zion.

Dave and Christine said...

Dave, Maria, and I had the same sort of experience at Anthropologie including the policy issue, the rolling of the eyes from the cashier, and lastly the accusation of being dishonest almost to the point of pretty much searching Dave. We complained to everyone all the way up to corporate and got a halfhearted apology but no coupons. No coupons means they are still dead to me (kind of).

Way to go on the victory! I need to learn a thing or two from you.

Ashley said...

Well done. I want to know more about the coupons. I'm planning a trip to Crazy 8 soon.

brooke said...

10 dollars off of 30 dollar purchase. You want em?

alexandra said...

That girl should have been fired. Really. People can't behave so unprofessionally.

I had to reread the explanatory paragraph a few times to see what I was missing: why on earth you would not get the full value of your gym bucks. It boggles the mind that the store would have a policy as the clerk understood it to be. It doesnt make sense and seems pretty dishonest on the part of the store.

But I agree that the worst part is to be name-called like that in public, and esp in front of your kids. Even though she was wrong and out of line, that owuld be so embarrassing. I am glad you took it to the top!

sheryl said...

And.... did they give you more than the 22 for your effort? The should have!