Off the rails

Virgin Trains provides unique social media response to complaint

Off the rails
A Virgin train passes a canal in Stoke-on-Trent, central England Aug. 19, 2014. REUTERS/Darren Staples

ENGLAND – When Emily Cole took a train ride in England, she wasn’t overly impressed when an older train manager dismissed a complaint she had by calling her “honey.”

But the situation only worsened for Cole when she took to Twitter to say Virgin Trains messed up when the employee used the “hideously patronizing word women shudder at,” according to the Sun.

Instead of commiserating or offering a discount, the official Virgin Twitter account responded: “Sorry for the messup, Emily, would you prefer ‘pet’ or ‘love’ next time?”

In response, Cole wrote on Twitter: “Wonderful to see that @virgin_trainsEC take complaints of rude and misogynistic behaviour seriously. Stunned.”

Eventually, the company responded to Cole, telling her the tweet had been deleted: “We apologize unreservedly for this tweet and any offence that it may have caused.”

But social media users remained flabbergasted by the company’s original response: “So instead of giving good customer service, you thought it would be best to mimic the behaviour being complained about?” queried one user.

 

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