Renata sent a message to Mark Parker President and CEO, Nike, Inc. – email address that said:
Hello. I am writing to tell you of a practice that your company has that goes against not only federal trademark laws, but it immoral given the tenacious lies and "juggling" that your CSRs do.
My son, Drake (who is 11) saved up money for a long time to buy a pair of "personalized" Nikes - Nike shoes with his name on them. We placed an order on Tuesday, November 15, 2016 for the shoes. He was SO EXCITED! Perhaps you have an 11 year old (or can remember how it felt to be that age). He could hardly sleep that night he was so excited.
When Drake opened his eyes to wake up for the school the next morning, his first words were "thank you mom, thank you SO MUCH" for ordering the shoes. He was so excited.
A couple hours later, I saw I had gotten an email that said that our order had been canceled. The reason? " It may be that the personalized text violates someone else’s trademark or intellectual property rights. Or it could be that it contains language that could be considered inappropriate, discriminatory or just inconsistent with what we stand for. " WHAT?????
I promptly called and spoke with a CSR and then a supervisor. I spent over an hour on the phone. This was the first of MANY calls. MInd you - Drake spent WEEKS researching the shoes, changing the colors, the personalization, etc. We put in a lot of time here. Apparently, there is a "rap star" named Drake and Nike agreed not to sell shoes with his name on them. Are you kidding??? Trademark law does not allow common names to be trademarked - including Drake. Has your legal team looked into this? I know mine will be doing so because I am so frustrated that I am ready to contact an attorney. (I am an attorney, though I don't specialize in Trademark law). I was also told you wouldn't sell "Jordan" and various other names. Now....if you had this on your website - as illegal as it would be (based on the "trademark" reasons), would i have wasted my time here? My money? Absolutely not. There are lots of other companies to buy shoes from.
In any event, the supervisor agreed that he would "approve" our shoes. He would send an email to authorize the purchase so that I wouldn't have a problem. He would also reimurburse $80 on a gift card that I had used. The shoes cost more than $100 but I purchased a gift card with $80 my son had in order to get gas points at the grocery store. I had already thrown the card out given that I placed the order so I had to wait for the card (in addition to the "authorizing email". I got the card quickly (via email). I never got the email.
I followed up the next day. On Thursday morning, we waited and waited while the CSR told us we would get the email within a couple hours. It never happened. We called back again and were told it would go out "immediately". Never happened. I just spent over 50 minutes on the phone AGAIN - and was told it would take up to a couple more days to get "the email" (that everyone claims is there.....but I frankly don't believe it anymore). Then, I was told it could take "a couple minutes or 24 hours". Huh???
WHY is it so hard to SPEND $100 on a pair of shoes??? For an 11 year old??? If I could have just gotten my money back rather than a card I would have gone elsewhere. I don't have that much money to waste. For us, spending $100 on a pair of shoes is a big sacrifice.
I wanted to let you know how horrible your processes are. I wanted to let you know that I will pursue this. And I hope you can change things. If you don't want to sell shoes to certain "names", why not post that right on your website? Many people would just ride along here and "go with it". I've tried. Now I want to act. I want this changed and I will continue to pursue until something is. "Mama bear" is mad.
I think that I should 1) be able to order the shoes without further ado; 2) be reimbursed for the vast amount of time I have spent (wasted) trying to order these shoes; 3) receive a discount on these "problem shoes"; 4) receive an apology; 5) see your policy changed so that it wont be so frustrating and waste people's time.
Looking forward to hearing from you. By the way,my Nike.com personalized shoe order number (in case you want to look it up)
I look forward to hearing from you. Perhaps I can now work with someone who has the ability and authority to act on this and actually follow through. Goodness knows I have tried.....
Renata
