Deafblind man left ‘disappointed’ after calling Oasis ticket line 800 times

By Casey Cooper-Fiske, PA Entertainment Reporter

A deafblind man has been left “thoroughly disappointed” after he called Wembley Stadium’s Oasis disability ticket line 800 times with “no success”.

Steven Morris, a campaigns officer for disability charity Sense, who also has autism, said he was “really excited” when he heard the Manchester band were reuniting for the first time in 15 years, having previously seen them in 2000 and 2009.

But his excitement turned to sadness, when he was left feeling “a real sense of disappointment” after he claimed the band’s disabled fans had been “forced to jump through so many more hoops” than non-disabled customers, leaving him ticketless.

He said: “Due to the nature of my disabilities I need a companion to come with me, otherwise I’m not able to access the event.

“They have a system called accessibility tickets and they can’t be booked in the normal way.

“So everybody else was on the big Ticketmaster queue, but disabled people had to call up a specific telephone number for the limited number of accessible tickets that there were.

“On Saturday, I called that number 800 times with no success.

“So I was unable to get tickets and I know that many other disabled people were in the same boat, so it was a thoroughly disappointing experience really.

“It feels like Wembley Stadium are forcing disabled people to jump through so many hoops that other non-disabled ticket buyers don’t have to.”

 

Mr Morris said the problem was a wider issue with the London venue, as he had experienced similar issues when attempting to buy Taylor Swift tickets for Wembley, eventually opting to see the star in Cardiff as the ticketing process there was much simpler.

Sense research found that 28% of disabled people found it difficult to book event tickets.

The campaigns officer said he was “fortunate” that he had seen the band before, and said his ordeal had put him off trying to get tickets for any further gigs at the national stadium.

He added: “I guess I am fortunate in that I saw them back in the day, I’ve been a fan for as long as Oasis have been around.

“Like so many people, I was really excited when they were getting back together, to see them again, given the relationship between the Gallagher brothers I wasn’t convinced it would ever happen.

“But now I just feel a real sense of disappointment.

“This was such an awful experience, it’s really put me off trying to buy tickets for any kind of show, unless there’s a significant change in the process.”

Mr Morris said he felt there was a “reluctance” to change the way disability tickets were sold at Wembley and said other venues had much simpler methods.

He said: “I think access tickets should be sold in the same way that all of the other tickets are, they should be sold online.

“I’m not sure why Wembley seems to cling so strongly to the idea these tickets have to be bought over the phone, because the line was just engaged for the 800 times I called.

“So it seems to me that we don’t have the same level of access that non-disabled people have, and obviously under the equality act, companies should be making reasonable adjustments.

“I’m not sure why there’s a reluctance to change things to be honest.

 

“They usually say that in situations like this they use the phone line to ensure these tickets are sold to the right people, but there must be a way you can buy tickets online and send in the supporting evidence.”

It comes after those buying non-disabled tickets also faced a number of issues, from long online queues to dynamic pricing, which saw in demand tickets soar to more than double face value in some instances.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has received 450 complaints about Ticketmaster adverts for the Oasis gigs.

A Wembley Stadium spokesperson said: “The demand for accessibility tickets to Oasis Live’ 25 was unprecedented. Unfortunately, this resulted in waiting times being longer than normal.

“For those customers unable to wait on the phone we had a call-back system in place which allowed users to leave their details and await a response from our customer service team.”