I've only ever shopped at this particular location once, and it was to buy a gift certificate for someone else.
Walked it, greeted by no one, could here two employees very inappropriate conversation with a customer who appeared to be a friend, walked around for a second, walked right up to the counter, waited to be greeted again, and asked for a gift card.
...then it all went downhill from there.
I asked to purchased a $250 gift card; however, the sales representative that was helping me, although very nice, had no idea how charge a gift card. Not only that, but she informed me that the store only had Christmas gift cards. I needed a birthday or plain gift card as it was going to be a birthday present. Well, they didn't have any so I just got a Christmas gift card. But, I didn't understand how they could only have Christmas gift cards. It was a Tuesday, granted they may have been busy during the weekend, but come on!
After paying for the gift card, the floor manager (I presume), walked behind the counter and said, "Oh, you're looking for gift cards, we have a whole draw here." She opened up the draw next to the draw with the Christmas gift cards. It was full of other gift cards so I was really annoyed after that because the sale rep that was helping me didn't even know...How do you not know what you have in store? You work there!
So, then she asked me if I wanted to switch the gift cards and of course I said yes. She again had no idea how to do the transaction so she asked another manager to help. The manager told her to swipe the new gift card and then pay for it using the Christmas gift card that had my money on it. It "worked" and I walked out of the store happy to be done with it.
I give the gift card as a present that night and the person tried to use it about 3 weeks later and found out that there was no money on it to begin with! I'm informed of this and immediately call this location and talk to a manager. She was no help at all as her response to my complaint was, "well you can come in but I'm just going to have to call the corporate office or you can do that yourself." Well, I figured why even bother dealing with the middle man, so I called corporate customer service line. How embarrassing do you think that was for me? To have someone tell me that there is no money on the gift card I gifted to them! And how embarrassing do you think it was for them when they had a handful of items at a Banana Republic store, ready to check out and realize the gift card they have has no balance on it? Thank GOD for the WONDERFUL customer service rep who couldn't apologize enough for the mistake!! Not only did she inform me that the store CANNOT make a gift card to gift card transaction. The only way to go about this is to call the corporate office and have them take care of it. HOW does a manager not know something like that? I realize that this situation may not happen often, if ever, but come on. If you aren't sure, call your corporate office!
Well, after this debacle, I will be expecting a full refund and never buying a gift certificate from Banana Republic again.
Can you tell I was really annoyed at this situation because now I have to wait THREE months to get my money back!!! Apparently, corporate has to do a full investigation into this situation to make sure there is no fraudulent activity that occurred on the part of the sales representative who helped me at this location. read more