This is how not to handle a complaint about misogynist behaviour
BY RACHEL THOMPSON From MashableSadly, this isn’t what happened when a woman complained to a UK train company about the dismissive and patronising conduct of one of their train conductors. Instead, her complaint was met with a snarky and completely tone deaf response.
Emily Lucinda Cole tweeted a complaint to Virgin Trains East Coast that an older male train manager dismissed her in a “patronising” way, calling her “honey.”
But, the social media manager behind the Virgin Trains Twitter account chose to respond with more patronising language.
“Sorry for the mess up Emily, would you prefer “pet” or “love” next time?” they wrote, before signing off with the initials “MS.”
Sorry for the mess up Emily, would you prefer “pet” or “love” next time? ^MS
— Virgin Trains EC (@Virgin_TrainsEC) January 2, 2018
Cole tweeted a screenshot of the tweets, stating that she was “stunned” at the response.
“Wonderful to see that @virgin_trainsEC take complaints of rude and misogynistic behaviour seriously. Stunned,” wrote Cole.
Wonderful to see that @virgin_trainsEC take complaints of rude and misogynistic behaviour seriously. Stunned.@EverydaySexism @VirginTrains
The tweet by “MS” was later deleted, and Virgin Trains posted an apology stating that they deleted the tweeted to “avoid causing more offence.”
We apologise unreservedly for this tweet and any offence that it may have caused. To avoid causing more offence we have deleted the original post.
But the initial tone-deaf response didn’t go unnoticed on Twitter.
Wow. Not sure old fashioned unfunny sexism is a smart way to reply to a customer complaint @Virgin_TrainsEC Especially when the taxpayer is going to have bail you out for being crap. Think an apology to @EmilyLucindaRC is in order.https://twitter.com/virgin_trainsec/status/948119132427386880 …
Holy Crap, really @Virgin_TrainsEC
Wow, just Wow!
I hope you let MS use the flux capacitor to go back to 1955 where their comments might be considered normal
But seriously, I hope you have apologised and stopped MS tweeting!#wow #badcustomerservice https://twitter.com/virgin_trainsec/status/948119132427386880 …
Virgin Trains did not respond immediately to Mashable’s request for comment.
For more on this story go to: http://mashable.com/2018/01/02/virgin-trains-sexist-tweet/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29#Q7_O55UDfsq4
