Former Rare Staff
A train company was forced to backtrack a bit when it had a rude response to a woman’s complaint.
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Train user Emily Lucinda Cole tweeted at Virgin Trains to accuse an older train manager of being patronizing.
“When virgin trains mess up and the older male train manager in the resulting conversation dismisses you with that hideously patronising word women shudder at in contexts such as these: ‘honey,'” she wrote on Twitter.
When virgin trains mess up and the older male train manager in the resulting conversation dismisses you with that hideously patronising word women shudder at in contexts such as these: "honey" @virgin_trainsEC.
— Emily Cole (@EmilyLucindaRC) January 2, 2018
And, well, it’s safe to say that they might have gone about the next step a bit better.
“Sorry for the mess up Emily, would you prefer ‘pet’ or ‘love’ next time?” read a now-deleted tweet on the official Virgin Trains EC Twitter page.
Wonderful to see that @virgin_trainsEC take complaints of rude and misogynistic behaviour seriously. Stunned. @EverydaySexism @VirginTrains pic.twitter.com/q26EdDoegR
— Emily Cole (@EmilyLucindaRC) January 2, 2018
A while later, the train company tweeted an apology.
“We apologise unreservedly for this tweet and any offence that it may have caused,” they wrote. “To avoid causing more offence we have deleted the original post.”
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.
— London North Eastern Railway (@LNER) January 2, 2018
But the damage was already done.
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://t.co/i75FhY7siS
— Ayesha Hazarika (@ayeshahazarika) January 2, 2018
There’s quirky social media customer service and then there’s condescending #everydaysexism customer service… @Virgin_TrainsEC pic.twitter.com/5Tht26nMtm
— Claire Phipps (@Claire_Phipps) January 2, 2018
Uh, @Virgin_TrainsEC, did you miss that bit of 2017 where tolerance for sexist shit reached an all time low? pic.twitter.com/HEWCyW1J4A
— Kate Devlin (@drkatedevlin) January 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/CCriadoPerez/status/948145566676148226
So instead of giving good customer service, you thought it would be best to mimick the behaviour being complained about? Does the whole company enjoy demeaning women or just you two?
— robyn (@robynmoffatwall) January 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/lovelyFayFoster/status/948149850247520256
https://twitter.com/horton_official/status/948138886613667840
(H/T Mashable)
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