Boycott Banana Republic

Dear Banana Republic and all other retailers,

I want to share with you a disheartening experience that happened to me over the holidays.

My sister and I exchanged gifts early this year because we were not going to see each other. Her gift to me was a $150 dollar gift card from your expensive store, Banana Republic, which I told her was way too much money to spend on me, but generous nonetheless.

However, when I went to use the card, the sales clerk told me that there was only $21.95 on the card. My sister and I thought that it must be an innocent mistake and someone keyed in the amount wrong, but it turns out that a purchase had already been made on the card at another store. So obviously it's an inside job - an employee provided the number to another employee who manually keyed in the card number. Now my sister has to file a theft report and go through a headache of red tape to get reimbursed!

All of us who have signed this petition feel that it's ludicrous that so much money is spent on savvy marketing and advertising to get us into your stores, but when we make a purchase (adding to your profits), there are no safeguards in place to stop theft like this from happening.

Therefore, we are specifically boycotting Banana Republic, and also boycotting buying gift cards unless action is taken against protecting the public from your own employees ripping them off!

Have a safe and theft-free Holiday!