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Virgin East Coast Forced To Apologise Over 'Sexist' Tweet

'Utterly disgraceful.'
Sarah Ann Harris
By 

News Reporter, HuffPost UK

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Virgin East Coast has been forced to apologise after a message sent from its Twitter account was slammed as sexist.

A customer called Emily Lucinda Cole tweeted to complain about the behaviour of a train manager on her journey:

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 Lucinda Cole (@EmilyLucindaRC) January 2, 2018

In a now-deleted tweet, signed “MS”, the twitter account for Virgin’s East Coast franchise responded:

The tweet prompted a huge backlash.

Someone who overheard the conversation said the manager’s words were “highly patronising”.

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

Scottish transport minister Humza Yousaf said it was not “appropriate or acceptable”.

This is not an appropriate or acceptable response @Virgin_TrainsEC https://t.co/a9t7bYZlU3

— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) January 2, 2018

Journalist Claire Phipps labelled it condescending.

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

Feminist campaigner and journalist Caroline Criado Perez accused Virgin of “outrage marketing” - trying to be edgy to build an audience - but said the tweet was “epically stupid” and vowed not to be silent about it.

Already people invoking the “banter” defence for @Virgin_TrainsEC - won’t wash on this one, lads. This was straight up being rude to a customer. Epically stupid.

— Caroline Criado Perez (@CCriadoPerez) January 2, 2018

I’m so bored of this ridiculous type of outrage marketing. Also: what’s the bloody point of a train company doing it? It’s not like we have a choice of operators

— Caroline Criado Perez (@CCriadoPerez) January 2, 2018

Yes, just waiting for the “ha, you’re giving them attention so they’ve won” tweets. Because not pointing out sexism works so well

— Claire Phipps (@Claire_Phipps) January 2, 2018

The thing that annoys me most about that response is the implication that we’re actually dumb enough not to know that’s what’s up, rather than to have made the calculation, given they screw us either way, not to be silent.

— Caroline Criado Perez (@CCriadoPerez) January 2, 2018

Others also waded in, questioning Virgin’s “sexist shit”.

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

If only #everydaysexism would vanish in 2018 as quickly as this deleted @virgin_trainsEC tweet. pic.twitter.com/uBsNN5ZYXE

— Monica Lennon (@MonicaLennon7) January 2, 2018

This is utterly disgraceful, and a disgusting way to treat 50% of your customer base. Does MS still have a job?

— Az Treed (@disastrid) January 2, 2018

So wrong.
In this instance a simple sorry and we will ensure this is passed on would have sufficed.

— Known As (@Debeneesse) January 2, 2018

More than two hours after the tweet was sent, Virgin issued an apology and removed the tweet:

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

“MS”, however, has continued to tweet.

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