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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

...to report my friend for feigning disability?

68 replies

Longhorne · 17/03/2016 22:49

To cut a long story short - my friend is pretending to be visually impaired to get concert tickets and thinks it's no big deal.

Full story...

There's a concert in my city for which the tickets sold out really fast. My friend and another mutual friend wanted to go but didn't get tickets. The mutual friend works at a local college for people with disabilities and suggested that they get 'disabled tickets' which entitle a carer to go free of charge with someone with a disability (the carer friend has done this before for events with students of the college) and these tickets were still available. They have now got these tickets and my friend is going to pretend to have a visual impairment if challenged at the concert. This makes me feel so uncomfortable. I've mentioned this to my friend and she's laughed it off as though she's clever for playing the system. I've mentioned it to her again and made it clear that I really don't think it's right and she's acted like I'm the mug for not having thought of it first.

Would I BU for saying something to the venue or the concert promoters so she can't get away with this? Am I just interfering in something that doesn't really affect me?

OP posts:

EverySongbirdSays · 18/03/2016 19:30

chipsandpeas

Hell yeah? You wouldn't have a problem with doing that? Or feel bad/guilty about it?

voddiekeepsmesane · 18/03/2016 20:01

This kind of thing really fucks me off. People who take advantage of a carers /disabled place in a concert/theatre/cinema setting that doesn't really need it. DP is blind and I am his carer, I or others may or may not take up the available tickets to these events but it just enhances the whole " people are getting what they really are not entitled to" attitude. Given the whole disabled bashing that this government and some papers are doing at the moment the last thing needed is people that should know better to take the piss out of the very few allowances left for the genuinely disabled

VoldysGoneMouldy · 18/03/2016 20:04

I'm shocked so many people think this is acceptable.

The government in this country has made it perfectly clear that disabled people are vermin. But one of the few - very very few! - things that makes life a little bit brighter for us, and able bodied people want that as well.

Livingtothefull · 18/03/2016 20:23

OK chipsandpeas, if you want to be a liar, cheat and contemptible scumbag then go ahead and do it. 'Hell yeah' but not YET done it? Nobody can give you morals if you don't have any.

There is no point appealing to the better nature of people who cheat their way to facilities for the disabled, as they can't have any. I don't understand the mentality of people who are capable of this….do they have any idea how hard it can be as a disabled person, to get around and to do the things most people take for granted, or is it that they just don't care? It's worrying that several posters seem to think this is OK.

Trollicking · 18/03/2016 20:27

I think I know what chickpeas means. My Dad is 80 and not registered as disabled but struggles to walk more than a few hundred yards. He is really active and loves being out and about but he can't go anywhere where he needs to walk.

Trollicking · 18/03/2016 20:28

BTW when I say my dad is really active and loves being out and about I mean that he's out in the car not walking. ...

voddiekeepsmesane · 18/03/2016 20:37

So Trollicking your Dad is more deserving than my DP who was blind at 37 years old? I will be old one day but would never ever think that age is the same as being disabled. Sorry but everyone ages and we all know that

Akire · 18/03/2016 20:39

With a bit of justice the area reserved for visual jmparements will have limited viewing! Ive sat in wheelchair spaces that have very restrict views of stages and the like. If they think they are going get some great seats they may be shocked!

CrohnicallyAspie · 18/03/2016 20:41

trollicking has he considered a mobility scooter or a wheelchair? They don't have to be particularly expensive (check gumtree) but can really help.

EverySongbirdSays · 18/03/2016 20:43

Trollicking, the issue is not with chipsandpeas mother who has mobility related access issues w/o being strictly disabled, the issue is with chipsandpeas herself who has admitted she has considered and may one day actually fraudulantly access these tickets because HELL YEAH, if it means she gets a concert she wants plus a free seat for a carer she doesn't need.

BloodyHell33 · 18/03/2016 20:48

Bollocks.

FrancesNiadova · 18/03/2016 20:57

YADNBU.
When I'd had my blue badge for 2 & 1/2 years, I had healed enough to be able to walk again. We had a bottle of Cava the day I sent that blue badge back.
When I needed it, it really P' d me off when we couldn't park in a space wide enough to get my wheelchair out & to my door. I suppose, to the person parking in the disabled space, they were only going into the shop for 10 minutes, just nipping to the cash point for 5 minutes. No harm done.
I agree with you op. Life is hard enough when you have a disability. This isn't just another concert to a visually impaired person. This is their chance to have a good night out, an enjoyable night, supported, so that they can access it. Not one of many, but one of too few.

BeyondTellsEveryoneRealFacts · 18/03/2016 21:28

Ah... OT, but i'm sure your friend would love to know OP.
Just on the phone to travel company re having to pay extra as they need a bigger transfer bus to get my wheelchair on. They compared paying for enough room in the boot for my wheelchair with paying for extra leg room on a flight. Ah, the privileges

Original poster

Longhorne · 18/03/2016 21:55

Woah! This is def not a reverse. Sorry to post and run - today has been quite a day. And I am a v frequent name changer! Always (American) football related names though.

Appreciate from the replies that there's prob little I can do, but calling the venue to say that it's happening might be an option. Will try to have another word with friend as well. Gig is in three weeks.

OP posts:

Trollicking · 18/03/2016 22:32

voddiekeepsmesane Err, I think you read a LOT more into my post than what I had actually written. My Dad has restricted mobility but wouldnt dream of asking for any special consideration. I'm not quite sure what your point was regarding my Dad being old. Do you think people who are disabled because of old age are less deserving than younger people who are disabled. I hope that wasn't what you meant.

CrohnicallyAspie I wish I could convince my Dad to consider a wheelchair or mobility scooter but he's too stubborn. We do a lot of dropping him off at the door then driving off to park the car.

mamacasshadahairyass · 18/03/2016 22:40

Hopefully if your friend does lie to get these tickets, karma will see to it that she gets a seat with a restricted view!

Sixweekstowait · 18/03/2016 23:02

Glad you came back OP - I'm disabled so forgive my response. Drop your friend, write to the college where her friend works ( she is worse than your friend) and finally, tell your friend as a parting shot that she should be careful what she's pretending about - wth any luck, she'll lose her sight one day and then wish that she could get one of these tickets but wait, they've been discontinued because of people like her. The pair of them are so beyond contempt, I'm lost for words .

oldlaundbooth · 19/03/2016 18:59

She sounds awful.

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