Letter: Satisfying customers

Sir: Your article (10 February) on the collapse of DML, the company responsible for running the catalogue of the V&A, Childline and Worldwide Fund for Nature, by its selective use of facts, implies some indifference on behalf of the museum. The V&A has taken enormous steps to ensure that the worry or loss caused by this unhappy event should not affect its customers.

Following the news of the receivership, V&A Enterprises negotiated an exceptional arrangement with the receivers and bankers aimed at ensuring that every customer would receive either the goods they had ordered or goods to an equivalent value. The administrators sent a letter to all DML customers explaining this. In addition, the V&A wrote a separate letter to all of its then 5,000 outstanding customers, confirming this commitment.

I am pleased to to report that to date, in spite of these difficult conditions, we have been able to fulfil 80 per cent of the outstanding orders and we will not cease our efforts until everybody is satisfied.

Yours faithfully,

MICHAEL CASS

Managing Director, V&A Enterprises

London, SW7