Couple Orders Tie From Banana Republic, Gets Folders Full Of Sensitive Employee Info Instead

This is not a tie/pocket square combo. (Photo by Emily Dreyfuss, via Huffington Post)

This is not a tie/pocket square combo. (Photo by Emily Dreyfuss, via Huffington Post)

When you order clothing online, there’s always the chance you’ll get the wrong size or color. But you rarely get three folders full of sensitive employee documents containing things like Social Security numbers, addresses, and tax forms.

But that’s what one couple say happened to them when they placed an order with Banana Republic for a tie and pocket square. But when their package arrived, it was stuffed with the aforementioned documents, all related to employees of BR parent company Gap Inc.

The couple tried to bring the problem to the attention of Gap via the usual channels, but had no luck. The bride-to-be, CNET staffer (and daughter of actor Richard Dreyfuss) Emily Dreyfuss, says they had better luck getting through to the company through its Twitter account.

She says the rep she spoke to explained that these sorts of documents get mailed out in the same generic gray envelopes that their order would have been sent out in, so we’re assuming that someone at Gap HR is sporting a nice new tie and pocket square combo.

Rather than take a second chance at the documents getting mis-shipped, Gap decided to send someone out to pick up the folders in person.

“They’re actually being really nice now,” Dreyfuss tells HuffPo. “They feel terrible and they’re trying to make it better.”

As one would expect, Gap is… say it with us… taking it seriously:

“We take the confidentiality of personal information very seriously and we strive to deliver a perfect customer experience, every time… Regrettably, human mistakes happen and this was one of them. We’re taking immediate action to evaluate and strengthen our processes to prevent mis-mailings in the future and apologize for the error.”

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