yeah i will.. i have the recipt and the gift card here in my desk!!
In of course the calm, respecful tone and language that we all always use, let them know you want this resolved immediately and that you will be writing the CEO directly about this experience. It can be a good letter, or an unflattering letter. Let them also know you will post the experience on this site about how the issue was resolved focusing on the facts and what happened. If I were you, I'd call in advance and let them know you'd like to have the name of the Store Manager, the SM's direct supervisor, and that person's direct supervisor all in advance so you know who to give credit to for a quick resolution or escalate to at your own immediate convenience.
I'll bet you get this resolved. I do this with virtually every "problem" I'm first told cannot be resolved and can't think of one that hasn't been resolved. I've even started the escalation calls right there in front of the SM's who appear to be the problem or say they're not authorized. So many of them stop me while I'm dialing or have a canary when I reach the next higher up and tell them I'm standing in a store with the SM who can't resolve a low-level problem. Tunes change so quickly, and I've never had to get loud when doing it.
By the way, this happened to me once and I'll always remembering it as the single most effective way to get things done. I was, in fact, prevented by policy but you can bet that policy changed on the phone when I ended up interrupting a VP over what amounted to pocket change.
