I would like your guys input as a group on this one. I was supposed to fight in London tomorrow night for the welterweight title in Cage Rage. I left my family to go train with Team Quest for two weeks and spent a lot of money living in a different city because I needed to train with a fight team for this fight. I emailed The promoter(Dave Odonnel) weeks ago and told him I needed to fly out on the 24th of Nov. and come back on the 20th of Dec. I was scheduled to teach some seminars and fight again in Dec. so I was going to stay and train with my friends over there. I even told a few people in the event staff these dates and then when I get my tickets they are from Nov. 21st thru 28th. They never called me to see if these dates would work. They just bought the tickets in a rush hoping they would work. Thats not the way you buy plane tickets for someone!!! It is customary to ask the person who you are flying what dates they can make and plan from there. The reason I am putting this up here is because they are trying to say I didn't go over there for other reasons. They wanted me to pay half of a new set of tickets and that is also not a reality. Pro fighters don't fly themselves out to shows. This organization has been excellent to work with in the past but the best way to deal with a mistake like this is to accept responsibility for it and not make accusations through over-seas message boards. Gerald Strebendt
I agree with you Gerald, very unprofessional!
It not uncommon for people to change their return flights. It usually costs a little extra but your intented flight out is almost a month away. I'll bet the airline would've worked with you. I don't know anything about travelling for shows but I would've gone and figured out the rest once I got there.
I don't know who to blame though.
Yes, I understand that and if they had listened to the dates I requested they could have asked me about other dates. The problem is they have about 12 fights so thats 24 fighters they have to arrainge things for. They can very easily get overwhelmed and thats completely understandable. The fact that they ordered my tickets in a rush and didn't even ask me about the dates is also understandable considering the chaos that goes on with running a good show. Whats unacceptable is trying to get me to fly myself out to the show and saying "behind the scenes" that I was affraid of my opponent or I wasn't properly prepared so I got cold feet. They forgot that I fought SEAN SHERK on a three day notice with a peice of bone broken off the tip of my elbow. I would not pull out of a fight and they should know this because I have had 4 awsome fights over there and won two titles as a welterweight and a light weight. Please give me the benefit of the doubt!
Some tickets are non refundable, non changable, etc...but thats not my responsibility, I just go fight and they take care of everything else. I would not advise any of you to go to a foreign country with out solid plans on your return, thats asking for a headache. I appreciate your responses so please keep them coming.
Sorry that you got a raw deal Gerald.
Gerald speaks English right....or maybe he just speaks Americano?
The international ticket price during a holiday is staggering, unless bought well in advance, a month out isn't well in advance. You need to call the airline and ask them what the fee is for a date change on your ticket. Call before you leave, when you are on the plane, watch for any problem that you could bring up to the customer service people, complain on arrival, be respectful of course but tell them how inconvenienced you were during the flight and see if they will try to smooth things over with you, get a name of a person of importance and try to get them to change your travel date without a fee.
The big thing is they should have communicated more clearly with you.
However, I do not believe they need to be flexible with their dates for you. Of course, it would be the best thing to do, but I would not have expected it.
"Please give me the benefit of the doubt!"
I hear you Gerald.
As you say, this promotion has a good reputation. I hope you all work this out.
There's some advice on this thread, but it's too late for this weekend's fights :(
Did O'Donnell actually come on the net and say you were scared?
TH
Gutted you are not going to be over here to teach and train Gerald. Will be good to see you when you get here before Cagewarriors.
Ian Butlin.
TTT
TTT
there should have been some form of communication on the matter, before the puchase was finalized, yes. been there, but under less demanding cirumcstances. sucks missing out on an overseas trip/seminars.
Gerald look forward to seeing you again at cagewarriors mate.
Was gutted to hear that the fight was cancelled
"Maybe they thought you were asking for a working vacation on their dime, or something."
This might have something to do with it. A good compromise might have been for Gerald to pay the difference in cost of the return ticket if he wanted to come back in December rather than November.
The promoter should have floated that out there, but maybe thought Gerald would just take what he was given and go with it.
They are the ones missing out on an entertaining fighter, but to me it sounds like you are getting screwed.
The thing that gets me is that there was no communication whatsoever. I asked for those dates and they said they would have there ticket booker get back with me with my itinerary and then I find out about the dates they got me. This all happened three days before I was supposed to fly out. The only way to salvage any credibility is for someone to come forward and admit they made a mistake. Instead I am getting acused of pulling out because I was afraid. The guys openly talking bad are the same guys I party with over there and thought were my friends (DROC- I know you are reading this and I hope France gets over run by 1,000,000,000,007 sand fleas and you all get staff infection)
What do you need those last 7 sand fleas for?
7 is my lucky number so those 7 sand fleas are for DROC himself. He used to be cool im my book but he decided to go to the dark side...