A CAR salesman has apologised for sending a customer foul-mouthed messages in which he called her a "moaning little ****".
Gary Brown abused Natalie James on Facebook after a complaint she made cost him commission for selling her a car, only for his rant to backfire when she posted the messages on Twitter.
After the pictures were shared more than 500 times, Mr Brown called the Advertiser to say how sorry he was.
"What I said was silly, childish and I did it without thinking," he said.
"People have an image of car salesmen, which is often unjustified, but it's things like what I've done which add to that image, which is obviously not good."
Miss James bought a car from Go Vauxhall, a licensed dealership in Purley Way, Croydon, last November.
But, when it came to collecting the Corsa, she said she did not want to pick it up from Mr Brown.
The complaint meant he missed out on £200 commission for the sale.
"I was completely baffled as to what it was I had done to upset her so much," he said.
"All my boss would say is that she didn't want to collect the car from me. I didn't understand as I thought we had got on okay.
"I felt quite hurt that someone would go to those lengths when I hadn't done anything wrong, but I accepted it and moved on."
Only, Mr Brown did not move on. He remained bitter about the incident until last Friday, when he spotted Miss James's name on a friend's Facebook page.
"I looked at her picture and I realised it was the same person," he explained. "I saw her and I thought, 'oh, there's that girl who complained about me', and I sent a stupid, immature, abusive message to her which I regret now."
Mr Brown wrote: "Thought I recognised you. The complaining little slag.
"It was me that sold you the black Corsa, but then you complained about me for no reason at all and said you didn't want to speak to me.
"I ended up losing commission I had earned for selling the car. All because you are a moaning little ****."
Mr Brown later realised the messages had been posted on Twitter and emailed Miss James to apologise.
"It was never my intention to make her feel scared and threatened for her safety," he told the Advertiser
"Women take particular offence from the C-word and I didn't think about that at the time. I was thinking quite selfishly and of my own grievances."
Mr Brown left Go Vauxhall last year and moved to Wilsons, a car dealership in Epsom, Surrey. He was recently sacked from that job for sending an email listing the company's deficiencies to every member of staff.
"It wasn't the right way to approach things," he said, admitting he was "the sort of person who does things without thinking".
Mr Brown hopes his behaviour will not affect his new job, which he is due to start in July.
He said: "I've never sent messages like this to a customer before, it was a stupid one-off.
"I thought because I had left the dealership there wouldn't be any repercussions, but I was wrong. I hope Natalie accepts my apology."
Vauxhall said Miss James had reported Mr Brown to the police, but the Met said it has no record of the incident.
