Last night BBC Watchdog exposed the shocking conduct of ‘Rogue Trader’ Virgo Healthcare, a company scamming vulnerable elderly people to buy mobility equipment, a company Virgo HEALTH (we, the good guys) are in no way associated with. It’s odd hearing your name on TV, especially in such a damning report. Jaws dropped and then the phones started ringing. Quite quickly we realised we had to put a plan in place…
In any issue, speed and clarity are paramount. Minutes later a statement was written and distributed on our website, Twitter, Facebook and blog. Despite the initial excitement (every PR professional secretly loves an issue – at least on the odd occasion!) the situation was neutralised quickly. Yes, we took a few angry calls and abusive emails but we reassured people we were not connected to Virgo Healthcare in any way, and offered to direct callers to the Derbyshire Police.
It’s vaguely flattering that somebody would want to use the good name we’ve spent years building up in this way. However, having an evil twin is in no way one of our business objectives for 2010. On the plus side, we now have our very own issues management case study to talk about, but more importantly, we hope justice will be done for those poor people who have suffered at the hands of these cruel imposters.
Finally, a big thank you for the understanding and moral support shown by our clients. One short response we received simply read “You’re more Vogue Traders than Rogue Traders…” We like to think so anyway!
Tags: BBC, BBC Watchdog, Virgo, Virgo HEALTH PR, virgo healthcare, Watchdog