New England Patriots rookie Rob Gronkowski is reader Alison’s new favorite player. Unfortunately, the NFL Shop sent her a jersey with the man’s name spelled incorrectly. Now they say they’re out of female jerseys and suggest Alison just keep her chin up and wear the (free) misspelled jersey.

Here’s Alison’s story:

My Uncle and I are long time readers of The Consumerist and he suggested I share this custom jersey failure with you. Maybe I am being a huge child about this, but I am going to write it anyways.

Last week I decided to order a jersey of my favorite new NE Patriots rookie, Rob Gronkowski #87. I went to nflshop.com, who I have made numerous purchases from in the past, and I ordered a women’s custom jersey.

I quadruple checked the spelling of this tight end’s name because who wants to look like a fool in a misspelled jersey? Not me.

I ordered it so I would have it for this week’s home game against Buffalo. I received it last night after compulsively tracking it on the UPS site. It fit perfectly and it wasn’t until my Uncle read it as “Groinkowski” this morning at work, that I realized it said “Gronowski”.

I immediately called their customer service and a very nice, but slightly confused customer service rep named Alison tried her best to help me. She informed me they were sold out of the female jersey blanks. She said I could keep the misspelled jersey at no cost to me. She offered to credit back my gift card, which is awesome, but I really want the jersey.

I asked if I could get in a youth size, which I can, but I had to cough up another form of payment because they cannot transfer or re-ship an item that is not the same.

She offered me a women’s jersey in a player that is already printed, Moss, Brady or Maroney (who was just traded). I own all three in men’s sizes and do not need them in women’s sizes. She also told me I can just wear the misspelled jersey, but I informed her that anyone who noticed would give me a hard time (these are New England fans and they can be assholes).

She seemed slightly confused and apologized that the NFL Shop would misspell a current player’s name. But really there is nothing she can do, but credit me back and hope that the blanks come back in and I can re-order at that time and hopefully get a new jersey before the end of the season. Which is useless to me.

I am a lifelong fan and loved them when they sucked, when they were good, when they lost their QB to a season ending injury, when they got rid of my favorite LB Willie McGinnest, and even now when they have a 1-1 record for the new season.

Thanks for reading my rather wordy and most likely full of grammatical errors, complaint.

Say, Alison…from one NFL nerd to another (Go Bears), did you know that there are people on eBay that sell NFL jersey lettering and number kits? It’s true. Some will even make any nameplate you need for a reasonable price. One you get it, you just sew the nameplate on and you’re good as new…

For example, you could get a refund, keep the jersey, wait until the NFL Shop has female jerseys again and, in the meantime, have a new nameplate made… That way you would end up with two jerseys for a little more than you would have paid for one.

Just a suggestion, but that’s one way to make the best of an annoying situation.

As for Mr. Gronkowski, sorry buddy. Keep catching touchdowns and maybe the NFL will learn to spell your name.

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