Please help. My friend won paralympic tickets, he's disabled, they knew that but...

emma-freebies · 28 August 2012 at 12:04PM

Can you help my friend? He won paralympic tickets by submitting a picture of him in his handcycle, so they knew he was disabled when they selected his photo to win, but the 4 seats are non accessable and they said they haven't got wheel chair accessable spaces left.

They also are still pushing him to accept the original tickets?! But he can't use them!?

Here is my friends wife's original message about it:

My husband won a competition for 4 Paralympic tickets by submitting a photo of Him on His handcycle, now the organisers of the competition are saying none of the 4 tickets are accessible and they can't find any wheelchair tickets to swap them for, but they still want him to accept that as the prize, firstly I would have thought the handcycle was a BIG clue, and secondly after he explained that He is a full time wheelchair user so would definately need a wheelchair space-how do they think offering these tickets as His prize still is fair! Hmmm the mind boggles!!

(

He entered the competition which was to submit your best cycling photo with a photo of Him handcycling and they emailed Him to say He had won. So he sent them His details for them to send Him His tickets and didn't hear anything...so He emailed to ask what the delay was and they asked if He would require wheelchair access, and that they would get His tickets and send them on to Him, he replied that He was a full time wheelchair user and so would need wheelchair space and now they are saying that they can't get any wheelchair tickets and asking Him to accept the original 4 tickets which are in row 9 so are 9 rows from the front!! So they know He can't use them but that is all they are offering Him as His prize!

Is there anything my friends can do about this please? Being disabled myself this has annoyed me too.

Thank you all in advance for your help.

bargain_babs · 28 August 2012 at 4:37PM

can you contact anyone at the paralympics directly and see if they will exchange the tickets?
what a shame .......... great prize too
hope you get it sorted ...........

toniq · 28 August 2012 at 4:44PM

They can't discriminate against him, he is entitled to adequate seating that takes inaccount his disability, have you tried appealing higher up the chain?

What type of company was this won from?

There are quite a few ways to take this further but appealing higher up in the organisation is usually the best bet. Even just cc in the Manager/md/chief exec into the email often gets results.

Good luck

x

emma-freebies · 28 August 2012 at 5:45PM

Thanks for the replies...they seem to be going back and forth a bit at the moment. They've just said they can give him something to get into the Olympic Park but not any events and he's said no to that as there's no point driving all the way up there for a glorified TV screen and not viewing the events.

Funnily enough the comp was run on facebook by a company who fits accessible bathrooms etc!

Will advise him thanks to your advice, to keep pushing up the management and alternatively to the paralympics themselves.

Thank you

Mamzie · 28 August 2012 at 8:11PM

Would it be anything to do with the fact that most (think its possibly all) the wheelchair spaces at the Paralympics only allow one carer/helper to sit right next to them? Maybe the prize providers havenot realised that they cannot get 4 seats altogether in the acessible area because of this and are just assuming all the seats are gone instead.

If he knows when the tickets are for, it would be worthwhile contacting the Paralympics direct to check out availability. and also checking if the Prize provider could then provide split seating.

penypincher · 28 August 2012 at 11:52PM

i would advise your friend to take the 4 tickets to the event, not the day pass, and when he gets to olympic park, to contact the mobility centre. i visited the olympics with a disabled mother, but did not note that when i made my bid for tickets. they were able to accommodate her on the day. HOWEVER, keep in mind only one companion can sit with him, the other two will be in tiered seating.

Please help. My friend won paralympic tickets, he's disabled, they knew that but...

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