Edmonton man allegedly denied concert tickets due to wheelchair

An Edmonton man is sharing his story of frustration – and confusion – after allegedly being denied tickets to an upcoming concert because he uses a wheelchair.

An Edmonton man is sharing his story of frustration – and confusion – after receiving mixed messages from Ticketmaster staff and allegedly being denied wheelchair-accessible tickets to an upcoming concert.

Armando Venditti has been to a number of concerts at Rexall Place and never had any problems getting wheelchair-accessible seating until recently.

Venditti used to call the general Ticketmaster line in order to get concert tickets but was told late last year he would need to call a special number for wheelchair seating.

When he saw singer Pink was coming to town, he called the accessible seating hotline at 10 a.m. Saturday morning – when tickets for the concert went on sale – but was told no tickets were left.

“By the time she got through, it was literally 10:01, 10:02 a.m., she said, ‘I’m sorry sir, we have no tickets available, we’re all sold out for accessible seating,’” Venditti said.

“I said, it’s 10:02 a.m., the tickets went on sale at 10:00 a.m.”

Venditti says he couldn’t believe that all of the accessible seating would sell out so quickly so he made another call on Monday to confirm.

No wheelchair seating at all?

That’s when Venditti says he was told there was never any wheelchair seating for this concert to begin with.

“There was no wheelchair seating being made available for this show, period,” he said.

“He said, it could be the fault of the promoter that they’re not letting people who use wheelchairs to see the show, and I’m thinking this is ridiculous.”

To add to the confusion - Venditti says he was told earlier in the week that accessible tickets wouldn’t be sold during the presale but he could fill out an online form in advance of general sales and have his seat held.

“They said all you would have to do was to send in this e-mail to a customer service agent and they would hold tickets for you,” he said.

“When I called the wheelchair seating line for this information to see if it was true, they said this isn’t true, we can’t do that and we can’t hold tickets. You have to call on the day of,” he said.

Venditti was mad – and confused with all the mix messages.

“I’m thinking, again the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, I’m being given different information from different offices,” he said.

'I have never in my life had this experience'

The man says he’s been going to concerts for 25 years and has never experienced such a runaround.

“I have never in my life had this experience. I’ve always gotten tickets for every show that I wanted to go to. I’ve never been told ever that wheelchair seating is not made available for this performance whatsoever,” Venditti said. “It’s disgusting.”

Northlands tells CTV News wheelchair-accessible tickets were available for the Pink concert.

They would not say how many seats were available but confirm it would be the same number available for all events held at Rexall Place.

Northlands says it’s up to Ticketmaster to determine how wheelchair-accessible seats are distributed, however multiple interview requests from CTV to Ticketmaster were not answered.

Venditti isn’t holding on to any hope that he’ll be able to get tickets to the concert.

He says he’s disappointed and upset with the situation.

“I’m not one for feel(ing) sorry because of my situation but I’m one for give me a fair chance,” Venditti said.

“I am a paying customer, why shouldn’t I see a show that I want to see.”

With files from Laura Lowe