Success!

(well... in part... we will soon see… and a step in the right direction in any case....)

last night... just as we were about to get into our taxi to go to Emma's birthday dinner...

I got a phone call from a very polite sounding English woman named Delia Holland of VisitScotland...(head of the Dumfries office)

A malevolent bit of me wanted to tell her that this was a bad time and to phone me in the morning... but I thought I'd better hear what she had to say....

(I may have missed a bit of the conversation... because I had the phone diverted to my mobile phone... and I was getting in a taxi... riding across town.. getting out of the taxi and paying the driver... while this conversation went on....)

She said she had heard from Elaine Murray MSP...

and... that the very day my letter of complaint was received it was acted upon... Mr. Matthews was 'spoken to'... according to Ms. Holland- he was very upset and had not intended any harm... he was joking, she said.... it was not like him to be insulting, she said…

she also said that an apology letter was drafted by her staff... (around March 1) and given to her... she made a few changes to the letter... and gave it back to her staff to be finalized... a few days later (around March 5)... it came back to her to be signed... she said she did not want the staff to use the electronic signature and that she wanted to sign it herself... then somehow it got misplaced by her... she took full responsibility for the letter not being sent...

she apologized to me for Mr. Matthews comments, for VisitScotland giving a negative impression to me (and Dee, Hamish, Derek), and also for not sending the apology letter to me.... she also asked if she should still send me the letter… I said yes. I expect I will receive it today… or at the latest tomorrow… I will update on this thread when I do receive it….

She asked if she should send copies to Dee, Derek, and Hamish… I said no… that I am in email contact and will keep them posted…. I did not mention that Derek had called her office and could not get a hold of her…

She said she hoped to meet me some day… I said she would… I said that I often am in the Dumfries VisitScotland office and will continue to use their literature for our guests to find things to see in the area…. I said that I was sure that I would run into her at some point….

I thanked her for the apology and the phone call… I told her I was actually more upset about “being ignored” after I sent the letter of complaint than I was about the comments Mr. Matthews made…

She apologized again for the letter not being sent and said that the phone call from Elaine Murray MSP was the catalyst to get her to realize this matter was unfinished….

She was very polite and apologetic throughout the phone call and we ended it by both saying thank you…. and I said I was looking forward to receiving the letter.

…

And I am looking forward to reading the letter… I hope it is exactly what I asked for…
“I expect a written apology from both Mr. Matthews and the VisitScotland Dumfries & Galloway Network Office for these malicious and hurtful statements. The apology needs to be address to me personally and also to Mr. Bicknell, Mr. Gibbs, and Mr. Kellett.”
if it is not… I will follow up with Ms Holland…



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