Two Girls Left Broken-hearted After Being Refused Entry to A.J's Meet and Greet in Birmingham.
Two young female amateur boxers were refused entry to Anthony Joshua's meet and greet dinner show at the international Convention Centre Birmingham promoted by Show Fighters Promotions for wearing jeans. After paying over £350 for 2 tickets Kelly Hill and her friend Amy Timlin where left embarrassed and shocked as the two Seventeen year old's where refused entry. There was no dress code stipulations on the tickets or on the advertisement for this show.
I contacted Kelly who had been looking forward to seeing her hero world champ Anthony Joshua and asked her to tell me what happened?
Kelly informed me "My tickets cost £350.55 and I got them from the ticket factory, I turned up to the event and went up to the doorman and gave him my tickets he said "we won't be able to let you in dressed like that" apparently there is a dress code. I did not see no dress code on my tickets or on the event advert anywhere, I booked these tickets 2 months ago! I suffer with anxiety, I just wanted to go home, I went to the pub next door and just tried to calm down. I was confused because I didn't see anywhere about a dress code, people messaged me saying they are in the wrong because there were people sitting next to them on the table in hoodies and we got turned down".
Kelly finished by saying "I would understand if we were in a track suit but we wasn't, it has put me off going to something like this again, I don't wanna go through something like this again".
I then talked to Kelly's Mom Bev Hill, she told me "This has really unset our Kelly she has paid all this money to see her boxing hero and has been turn away. There is nothing on the ticket or the advert about dress code, I am disgusted at how they have been treated".
After Bev put a status on social media a lot of the boxing community were up In arms about how these 2 boxing fans had been treated.
Bev got a Influxes of messages saying they would try and contact A.J himself about this issue as it was out of order.
When I saw this status I thought I would have to try and do something and contacted Show Fighters via email to Inform them about the situation. After being informed it may take up to 5 days to get back to me, to their credit they messaged me the next day.
Shani Dhanda contacted me and asked for Kelly's name and email address which I gave them, the next email Informed me that they had sent a Information pack to Kelly informing her of the dress code. They attached this to the email and yes there was a dress code on there, but their was also a lot of other information about all different things and if I was a seventeen year old fan looking forward to seeing there hero it could of easily been missed.
Kelly is adamant that she never received this email.
I replayed to the email by saying - I am not sure weather she did receive this, but a teenager who only wanted a picture with her idol is £350.55 out of pocket, I would appreciate if you refunded her money as she never got to enter the event or see her hero. I will add this information to the blogg about this.
Could you please reply to the young person in question as well please.
Yours hopefully
Dexter Hastings
Head Writer
Birmingham Boxing Column
To their credit they replied very quickly Shani replied - Hi Dexter,
I'm really sorry that this has happened and after looking into this situation, the ticket buyer was informed of the dress code prior to the event. Ticket factory sent an information pack to the ticket buyer which clearly explains the dress code.
The email below was also sent to (Kelly's email) on 7th June which clearly states to read through the information about the arrival time and the strict dress code. The dress code was also posted many times on social media, and it was stated that entry will be refused if the dress code is not adhered to.
In light of this we are not able to offer a refund. We will however, be able to transfer your tickets to a future event of the same ticket type as a gesture of goodwill.
We don't have details of this yet, but please follow our social media were we post regular updates @showfighteruk and our website www.showfighter.co.uk - and please email me directly.
Best wishes
Shani Dhanda
Events & Travel Extraordinaire
I may not have got Kelly her money back but at least they can transfer to another event by Show Fighters.
I felt that this was not enough for these 2 young boxing fans so I contacted some
of the local boxing promoters and told them about what had happened.
The first was the Column's main sponsor of the site Tommy Owen Promotions, when I told him what had happened he informed me he would sort 2 VIP tickets and dinner for the lady's for their show "Stand and Deliver" on the Saturday 24th June at the Holte Suite Villa park Aston. On this show their are the likes of unbeaten fighters Ishmael Ellis, Kelcie Ball, in there second fights Shakan Pitters, Bbcolumns boxer to watch Jordan Lynch and also bbcolumn's boxer of the year and WBC International Middleweight Champ Craig Cunningham, this is going to be a great night of boxing.
I also contacted Will Stokes, promoter for Mack the Knife Promotions, when he heard the story he informed me he would sort two VIP tickets for their show "Meaner in the Arena" at Tudor Grange Soilhull on Saturday 8th July for Kelly and Amy and If they want they can go backstage to meet the boxers. This is another big line up with the talented Aaron Lovell, Kieron Conway and Eastside gyms Joe Sherriff, Ryan Kelly and Don Broadhurst.
This my not make up for not seeing their hero and world champion Anthony Joshua but they may be seeing one of the next generations world champions in the making and I will say both Promotions put on great shows.
The Birmingham Boxing Column thanks TOP and MtK for there generosity and if any other promoters or boxers what to give the girls some signed stuff feel free to contact the Column.