Virgin Money Lounge

ONE RULE FOR SOME MEMBERS AND ANOTHER RULE FOR OTHERS!

*The staff in the virgin money lounge have a notice up telling members to "Tuck In but Don`t Take Out".
*The staff allow certain members to use the lounge`s facilities for hours on end nearly every day and eat all the biscuits and fruit and have all the hot and cold drinks they wish, even although this means other members can`t gain access due to the lounge being full up.
* Whilst allowing the above, the staff insisted that a close relative of mine`s restricted his green tea intake, and even removed the tea from the counter to prevent him from accessing it.
* They initially informed my relative they were limiting his green tea intake for the benefit of his health due to its high caffine content (when infact green tea contains much less caffine than black tea and coffee). When we complained about the unfair discrimination, Julie the customer relations manager changed the reason for restricting my relative`s green tea intake to " ensure that there was enough for everyone".
*Given that my relative only frequents the lounge for approximately one hour a couple of times per week during which time he eats no fruit or biscuits and only consumes a few cups of tea, why have the staff at the lounge applied this rule to him (simply because he has a disabillity) whilst ommiting to apply their rule to the many members who sit in the lounge nearly all day every day eating as much as they can and drinking large quantities of drinks, often preventing other members from gaining access to the lounge due to them taking up space in it for hours on end?
*It it quite obvious from the fact that on the one hand there is a notice up telling members to "tuck in", and then the staff totally contradict what is on the notice by applying restrictions to some members, whilst allowing other members to effectively abuse the facilities, that the Edinburgh Virgin Money lounge is totally mismanaged! On the many occassions we have been to the lounge in Glasgow we have noticed that management of the lounge is far more effecient, whereby all members are treated fairly, irrespective of whether they have a disability or not!

Some of the female staff who work in the Edinburgh Virgin Lounge have assigned themselves an importance which isn`t communsurate with their actual role. A close relative of mine was told by them not to drink too much green tea due to the high level of caffine in it (when in reality it contains much less caffine than black tea or coffee). They then removed the green tea bags to prevent him from accessing them, even although it clearly states that members should "tuck in but don`t take out". Unlike some other members who sit in the lounge nearly all day almost every day eating biscuits and fruit and drinking as many hot drinks as they wish including tea and coffee (when the latter contains high levels of caffine), and use computing facilities, it is absolutely appaling that certain female members who work in this loung have discriminated agains my relative just because he has a disabilitly, when he only uses the lounge about 3 days a week, and only ever has hot drinks for the hour or so he frequents it. I have written to management of the lounge querying why certain female staff have assigned themselves the role of health advisors, and have taken it upon themselves to give members they clearly percieve as vulnerable INCORRECT health advice. One has to question if the same staff would dare to advise someone who is overweight not to eat biscuits due to health issues? The staff who work in the virgin lounge should be trained to realise that just because someone has a disability doesn`t mean that they don`t have the intelligence to make informed choices about their diet. My relative is a highly intelligent young man who plays in two orchestras in Edinburgh, and he has an extremely healthy diet and unlike most of us never consumes biscuits or chocolate. For the female staff at the lounge to have deprived him of green tea (which is full of health benefits), whilst letting other members sit for hours drinking bucket loads of caffine and eating as many biscuits etc as they wish is a total infringement of his rights! We are waiting on a response from Management of the lounge whom we contacted over 2 weeks ago about the matter, and will update this post once we receive a response from them.

A peaceful haven in the middle of town, comfy seats and lovely coffee and biscuits

Nice place for for a break in the city centre. Friendly staff and comfortable environment.

Very nice coffee!

All you need is any Virgin account and you can access this lovely lounge. Well worth putting a fiver into Virgin!

Just got checked in at the lounge for the 1st time, staff are so nice and attentive, lovely lounge also!

Wonderful place to work, rest, or regroup. Always a full range of complimentary drinks and snacks, always clean and tidy, good wifi too. Excellent benefit for Virgin Money customers.