Even Richard Branson Can Get It Wrong..

[John Taylor]

How one complaint letter can have a huge impact
on how your brand is seen by your target audience.

This has had air time on BBC News, it's been reprinted
in national newspapers, it's been tweeted about and
now you've heard about it on the Warrior Forum:

How an unhappy Virgin customer won an apology from Richard Branson | The Sun |Features

The consumer has much more power today and word
(good or bad) spreads really quickly.

How would you deal with what's being described as
possibly "The Best Complaint Letter Yet"?

John

[Thamisgith]

This was pretty funny and it's had an amazing amount of exposure - here in the UK at least.

What I haven't seen yet is the response from Virgin. That would be interesting.

[Kim Standerline]

First time I've seen it

Really funny tho, the chap must be related to Victor Meldrew lol

[Nathan Hangen]

Dude can write a funny letter, that's for sure. I LOL'd.

[Floyd Fisher]

First time I ever read that one....I actually laughed at the way he described everything.

Crime scene cookies, bird processed potatoes, lol. This guy ought to be a food critic.

And where did he get the presence of mind to take pics of this stuff? And why didn't anyone else notice this on the plane?

I wonder how many jobs were lost over this one?

As to how to deal with it. I'd have given him double his money back, and offered him a job as well. He's obviously way smarter than anyone currently working for Mr Branson.

[matthewc]

Entrepreneuship is all about taking risk and giving it your best shot... however you do make mistakes sometimes.... actually unless you are willing to allow yourself to make mistakes you will never succeed in any of your ventures!

[ExRat]

Hi,

I have to say I prefer these two, the first one particularly.

WARNING!

Both pages linked to contain strong language...

complaint written on napkin



complaint from child

[Talltom1]

OMG - that was absolutely hysterical. It's been getting exposure here in the US the past few days, but I hadn't read the letter til now. Absolutely awesome. That letter had to make even a guy like Richard wilt.

Talltom

[alexshelton]

Haha ExRat! They are funny.

I can imagine Branson having a good chuckle over it though, he's a cool bloke.

[ExRat]

Hi Alex,

I think it's my childish sense of humour but that napkin complaint is something that cheers me up even on my darkest days. It has some funny wording like 'stink-shield' and 'I am filled with a deep hatred for your plane designer' and the 1st picture is just so funny....

[alexshelton]

Haha Yeah!

I can just imagine him constructing the "Stench-shield" lol

Poor guy

[ExRat]

Hi Alex,

Sorry guys, I'll stop hi-jacking this thread after this -

I got it wrong, it was 'stink-shield'. I like the bit later on -

'...soon I will be able to tear down the stink-shield, but the scars will remain.' Lolol

I can just imagine him constructing the "Stench-shield" lol

I don't know for sure, but I always get the impression the 'author' was a woman.

[Asher]

My gosh, the replies were so politically correct
politicians should be grovelling in dirt! Heh. The
email reply was simply brilliant.

I absolutely loved it =) I'm going to be writing my
complaint letters that way from now on.

Asher

[Steven Wagenheim]

John, that was brilliant. Very well written.

As for how I'd deal with a complaint letter like that?

I hope to high heaven that I never put out a product THAT bad that I have
to GET a complaint letter like that because if I do, I have no business being
IN business.

If those photos are real, that airline should be shut down.

That is just disgraceful.