Banana Republic

My 19 yr. old daughter went to this store to return a gift received for Xmas from her grandfather. The gift was originally ordered online and contained the original receipt, not a gift receipt. My daughter politely asked for a gift card and a confused clerk named Lauren waid she wasn't she how to process that request. Instead of asking for help she immediately credited the purchaser's credit card. When I arrived on the scene my daughter was aghast, trying to communicate to the clerk that this was a gift and that she wanted a gift card in place of it. I reiterated that and said the situation was unacceptable as now my daughter had no gift and my father was left with a credit on his card. A second clerk (Noah) got involved, telling me that this was store policy even though I had also come to the exact same store 2 weeks earlier and had NO problem receiving a gift card which I have already used on new merchandise. I explained this to Noah who told me I was wrong, , forcing me to tell her that in spite of store policy, she was mistaken and that Lauren had not listened to the request and should have asked for assistance. I further told her that she should admit the mistake instead of hiding behind store policy to cover her ###. I was polite and calm but Noah became angrier, insisting I should leave the store if I couldnt' be respectful. The bottom line here? Poor training, poor management, poor customer service, no Xmas gift for my daughter, all because these women couldn't do a simple job or ask for help from management. As consumers we should all boycott the mediocrity.