Virgin Trains reply to a complaint about sexism by being even more sexist
Just in case you needed another reason to hate Virgin Trains, a woman called Emily Lucinda Cole was upset at her treatment by one of its staff and took to Twitter complain about it.
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 this is how the company responded.
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
It prompted quite the debate online, giving the lie to anyone who thought 2018 might be even a tiny bit different to 2017.
You can’t assume the train manager was male. He could be gender neutral!
— Bradley Saunders (@BradSaundersPfc) January 2, 2018
He was male. I heard him. And it wasn’t regionally appropriate. She was (legitimately) complaining about something else and his response was highly patronising.
— Joe Cannon #FBPE (@JoeCannonLondon) January 2, 2018
Yup. It was obviously inappropriate. Context matters, even where there might be regionally acceptable words. If he’d called me ‘mate’ as I was complaining it would have been inappropriate. But obviously this is worse.
— Joe Cannon #FBPE (@JoeCannonLondon) January 2, 2018
Aw mate, you poor little delicate petal.
— Danny (@ifdanyt) January 2, 2018
Corporate social media fail of 2018 so far…
— Anna Doble (@annadoble) January 2, 2018
The response was later deleted by the pisspoor train company, but by then the train had already left the station.
We apologise unreservedly for this tweet and for the offence caused. To avoid causing more offence we have deleted the original post. ^SH
— Virgin Trains EC (@Virgin_TrainsEC) January 2, 2018
And just in case you’re wondering what it was all about, here’s what she told the BBC.
“They were telling passengers at the front desk and on the platform that they can sit in the basically empty first class coach and pay the weekend upgrade,” she told the BBC.
“It was only after the train set off that they told us they’d all made a mistake and we had to move to try and find seats with all our luggage in the packed train.
“The first person to check my ticket was very abrasive. His response to my explaining the situation, politely and honestly, and that I wanted to complain, was ‘you go ahead honey’.
“In the context and given his aggressive tone I can only assume he didn’t like being challenged by a woman.
“I wouldn’t have complained if he’d used the term in a familial or affectionate way. It definitely wasn’t that.”
And it’s not the first time the Virgin Trains Twitter feed has done this sort of thing. Remember this bizarre Twitter spat?
Looks like it was the same person as well. Do share your experiences with us in the comments (and let us know what you think of it).