'I booked wheelchair accessible tickets to see Florence and The Machine at BP Pulse Arena, Birmingham - but was assigned seats up flights of stairs'
A wheelchair user from Rowley Regis has spoken of her disappointment after using a ticket service to book accessible spots at a Florence and The Machine gig - only to find out she had been assigned seats up flights of stairs.
Kelly Bloomer and her fiance of 10 years Adhum Price claim to have used ticket booking app AXS to purchase tickets for Florence and The Machine's show at BP Pulse Arena, Birmingham on February 8 - as they have many times before, due to Kelly's Nimbus card being linked to her account.
A Nimbus Access Card is a UK-wide disability access card that helps people with disabilities communicate their access needs to venues, ticketing providers, festivals, theatres, sports arenas and other organisations — quickly, consistently and discreetly — without having to re-submit personal medical documents every time.
However, on this occasion, 37-year-old Kelly, from Rowley Regis, was left heartbroken to realise they had been assigned seats up flights of stairs - despite her account showing that she is a wheelchair user due to being born with spina bifida.
Speaking of her heartbreak over the situation, Kelly said: "My other half booked tickets for us to see Florence and The Machine in Feb.
"We use the AXS app where my Nimbus card is stored stating which tickets we need and normally we are allocated the right tickets being a wheelchair space and a companion ticket.
"However turns out they allocated us the wrong tickets and the ones they did give us we can't access because they are up a bunch of stairs.
"We were told they couldn't swap the tickets as wheelchair access ones and the show is now sold out."
The couple say they tried contacting the company to exchange the tickets for accessible seats but were told none were available and that they have been forced to resell the seats they were assigned.
Adhum added: "I am very sad and very angry, we were really looking forward to this.
"We've resold the tickets after guidance on the phone from their customer service and the bad news there's no more accessible seats. We've decided we're done with this sort of nonsense.
"It should not be this hard to access tickets and seating all the time; it's so disheartening."
BP Pulse Live and AXS have been contacted for comment.
