Pregnancy Week 37: Full Term!

This week little miss is considered full term :D She's still about 19-22 inches long, but weighs around 6.5 pounds now. This is the size of a ~winter melon~

8 weeks	37 weeks

I'm beginning to wonder what on earth baby girl is doing. She make a lot of very large (and painful) maneuvers. She's been head down for weeks, so I'm kind of nervous that she's shifting into a not so great position. She was sitting like a frog for a very long time (super weird), but I can feel both of her feet up around my left rigs now. We shall see.

A lot of people comment that she isn't very big. I feel like a house, but I also realize she's fairly small looking for how far I am into the pregnancy. I decided to have some fun. From certain angles, she can look quite gigantic. These pictures were taken within minutes of each other.

I also got baby girl's curtains! The nursery is almost complete :D I'm just waiting on some items to arrive from Toys R Us then I can take pictures.

This brings me the absolute nonsense that is Burlington Coat Factory, the other place I registered. I received a BCF giftcard at my baby shower. I was visitng family for quite an extended amount of time, so I figured I could go to their local BCF if I needed to exchange anything. My actual home address is not anywhere near a BCF. In fact, the closest BCF is 71 miles away.

Now that I am back home, I assumed I could use my BCF giftcard online. Apparently not so much. BCF has two kind of giftcards: the kind you purchase from their store and the kind you can get at Walgreens and other stores (from that giant wall of giftcards to various stores). It should not matter where the giftcard was purchase, but apparently BCF feels otherwise.

The kind you get from them directly has a PIN, which is required to complete online transactions. The kind you can get anywhere else does not have a PIN. Why BCF decided to let places sell giftcards without this necessary PIN is beyond me. I checked their site and they are clearly aware this issue exists.

Their FAQ instructed me to call a number, which gave me a canned recording instructing me to call another number. That number was not available over the weekend, so I sent them a Facebook message (for some reason emailing customer service never works, but social media does?). I also decided to try the number on the back of the card.

That number resulted in me getting transferred 5 times just to ultimately end up on the line with the original person I was talking to who had no clue what I was talking about or how to fix the issue. He told me to call BCF on Monday. So I did.

The woman I spoke to was actually very polite and tried to help me. She told me to try the number from the website; I told her that gave me the number to her. She put me on hold to try it herself; sure enough, I was correct. She then told me to try the number on the back of the card since it is a third party card. I told her I did and they ultimately referred me back to BCF. She put me on hold to try that number herself as well. When she came back she agreed they most certainly do refer you back to BCF.

At this point she informed me that I am pretty much SOL (but in a much more professional/polite way than that). She said I could try sending the card back to the person who gave it to me originally. That was the only option she had. I get it. The card came from a third party, BCF can't issue me another card since they don't actually create the cards not sold in their physical stores.

Another representative contacted me in response to my Facebook message and told me to send an e-mail with my contact info, so I did. I received a phone call that covered all of the same territory with the same end result.

What makes me angry is the fact that they obviously know this is a problem. Their site wouldn't have an FAQ dedicated to cards with PINs otherwise. Instead of fixing the problem (ensuring all cards have PINs or doing away with the demand for a PIN for online transactions) they have chosen to completely and utterly screw over those of us with the other type of giftcard.

I cannot drive to a physical location, nor can I use the card I have online. Even if I had a physical location near me, BCF's baby section in store is not nearly what it is online. They would not have what I want. I could try ship to store, BUT OH WAIT you have to prepay for that. Which I can't do with this kind of giftcard. Of course, this speculation is all moot because I don't live anywhere near a brick and mortar BCF anyway.

I've called my friend who got me the card and thankfully instead of being extremely offended (because holy crap Burlington, it is not polite at all to tell people the gift they got you isn't going to work) she is going to get me a card from their physical store using the card she got me initially. This, of course, involves me mailing the card back to her, waiting for it to arrive, her having to take time out of her day to drive to BCF to get a different kind of giftcard, then sending me the card info.

This kind of nonsense is unacceptable from a major company and I am extremely dissatisfied. Thankfully, what I want to order from BCF isn't something I need OMG RIGHT NOW for baby girl (crib sheets and a side table), but it would certainly be way more helpful to have it before she arrives. Now that seems unlikely. Thank you for your astoundingly terrible service Burling Coat Factory.

Update: BCF has sent me an e-mail now claiming the number on the back of the card should be able to provide me with a PIN. I as well as the original customer service person I spoke to tried this route once before, but we shall see.

Update 2: The number from the back of the card has disconnected twice. I'm just going to try again in a little while when I am not filled with rage.

Update 3: I finally got through to the number on the back of the card. She had no idea what I was talking about and was going to "forward me on to escalate the claim." The number she forwarded me to? Burlington. The same number I used originally that told me I would have to call the number on the back of the card. Unbelievable.

Update 4: After leaving a very disgruntled public post to their Facebook wall, a customer service rep called me back. I am now being sent a replacement card that I can use. Amazing how many hoops I had to jump through to reach this point, but oh well. All's well that ends well. Side note: the customer service rep I spoke with was actually really helpful and tried very hard to get the situation rectified for me. If you ever have issues with Burlington, ask to work with Emily. She's the one who managed to get me the replacement card.