Monica Russ sent a message to Barbara Rentler that said:
Good morning Ms. Rentler:
I'm so happy to find out that you're a woman heading the organization of "Ross Dress for Less". I'm writing you to voice a concern, and that is the inability to use a company phone while shopping at any of your stores.
The reason that this is a concern of mine is because I was just released from a federal prison camp in Bryan, Tx after serving 8 months and 10 day for a trumped up charge of receiving raises for a doing a good job as the CFO of a non profit. I received and never question the raises and found out in the end that boss never got any of my raises approved with our board.
I was terminated and ultimately charged with a federal crime of receiving those raises. I tried to fight it paying an attorney $30k only to find out that it would cost another $50k to go to trial with a 2 to 3% chance of wining a case against the US Governement. I will also tell you that my integrity or moral character has never been question before and at the age of 56 when I entered prison, I thought I was living a nightmare. I was released on April 10th and went to a Halfway house in San Antonio and since then have been release to home in Seguin, TX and will be fully released from the BOP on June 13, 2018. Anyway, that's a little bit about me and why I'm sharing my story.
So, about your company, I'm sure you don't know that many women come out of prison have to seek employment. Some do have money to buy new clothes and so many of us would like to go to your stores "Ross Dress for Less" to go find that "right" outfit for a new interview but also know that we are required to check in and out once we get to any store/restaurant, etc. and must use the phone from that location.
Many of the girls from the Halfway House in San Antonio have tried to go to Ross to go shopping but were denied because we were told by your employees that the store phones can not be used to make outside calls.
These calls made from any location will take approximate 30 seconds to 1 min. at the most and so I thought you should know that we as women would love to shop at your stores but simply cannot with because of your current rules that the "phones are to make inside calls only".
My case manager asked if "emergency calls can be made on your premises as well and was told no."
So, I hope you can help on this because in the end we're all just looking to look and feel a little better about ourselves after coming out of a difficult situation just as I have described about myself.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Monica L. Russ
503-891-7342
