Gymboree Gymboree Stiffs Autistic Children San Francisco California

I shall allow the below email chain to describe our complaint:

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Dear Cori,

My thanks for your feedback, however I find your reply inadequate and, frankly, preposterous.

My wife WON these two certificates at FUNDRAISERS for AUTISTIC CHILDREN. Your franchise owner DONATED BOTH OF THEM to the fundraisers and received PUBLICITY within the large and tightly-knit autism community in exchange. It was PURE CHANCE that my wife and I, WHO ATTEND CHARITABLE FUNCTIONS RELATED TO AUTISM happened to win two such certificates from your franchise.

Now, your franchise gets to invalidate half of it's allegedly charitable donations because we were SO UNLUCKY AND UNFORTUNATE as to win two of them while donating money to autism support? You find this reasonable, rational and acceptable?

I do not.

I find Gymboree's stance on this to be disgusting. These certificates were allegedly donated in good faith and in the spirit of giving to a worthy cause. Now that someone has won these certificates as a result of charitable giving, you choose not to honor the donations? This reflects poorly on Gymboree and upon your franchise owner.

I will take this matter to your senior management team, whose names and emails I have already obtained.

Additionally, I will aggressively advertise Gymbroee's disgusting handing of this matter throughout the greater Long Island, NY autism community via the many fundraisers, meetings, forums and on-line discussions and events that I regularly attend.

I will also file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and RipoffReport.com in order to ensure that Gymboree's bad-faith approach to charitable giving is widely available for review.

I will also ensure the NAAR and other leading autism advocacy groups are made aware of Gymboree's treatment of our family in this ridiculous matter.

Congratulations. You have won your $80 battle against a family with two autistic children and a special-needs foster child.

Be proud.

Sincerely,

(name deleted)

----- Original Message -----
From: CSR Play&Music Escalation
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 7:08 pm
Subject: GYMBOREE P&M: St. James, NY, Customer: (name deleted)
To: "(email deleted)"

> Hello (name deleted),
>
> Thank you for your interest in Gymboree Play and Music.
We have spoken with the franchise owner of the St. James, NY location and we can confirm that the coupons state, "One per family". Although the location is unable to accept both coupons, they are more than happy to honor one of the certificates.

If you would like to redeem your certificate at this location, please contact them directly via phone or in person as they are currently unable to accept emails. The phone number for the location is 631-979-2881.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us -- we are available Monday through Friday, 6:00am to 9:00pm, Saturday, 7:00am to 3:00pm, and Sunday, 8:00am to 4:00pm Pacific Standard Time.

Cori
Gymboree Customer Service

Blork
Hauppauge, New York
U.S.A.