(APR 8) WBAN has received a response from Ria Ramnarine in regards to things that were said in an earlier story today,  in regards to the Belinszky vs. Ramnarine bout.  

Ramnarine told WBAN:

First, thank you for emailing Team Belinszky. For those who are interested in knowing the truth then here it is. These people are really something else! After all the crap they put us through, they now want to blame us?

Since the beginning of signing the contract to fight, we spoke to Mr. Zoltan Kiss regarding the visa issue. I told him that we contacted the Hungarian Embassy in London since we do not have a Hungarian embassy in Trinidad. They (at the embassy) said that we definitely require a visa to enter Hungary. I asked him to send the necessary documents since it has to be applied for eight working days in advance and time has to be allowed for Fed Ex.

Mr. Kiss told me that the promotion team will see about everything and reassured me that the visa will be organized by them. I contacted him again just to make sure and he told me that I SHOULD NOT WORRY ABOUT THE VISA. In his own words he said,  "you just concentrate on being prepared for the fight". So, obviously we trusted him and left it to him to get the visa issue organized.

By the 29th of March, no tickets had arrived and no visa either. We called Mr. Kiss very early that morning and he said to call back in an hour's time. We called three times after and the last thing he said was that he would get back to us. We got the tickets late that evening by DHL but there was no visa documents in it.

Thursday,  I called Mr. Kiss (we spoke to him most of the times since he understood English better) and he told me that his father was still at the foreign office and he would call us as soon as he got back. Now I guess he reached home the next day because he still didn't contact us.

On Friday,  I called Mr. Kiss again and he then told me that when we get to Hungary they would be waiting for us at the airport, they will take us to the foreign office and get the visas. Obviously I told him we would not be able to board the plane in London without the visa but he insisted that we WOULD be allowed since according to him, the English had nothing to do with the MALEV flight. Again we trusted his word.

However later that night we received an email from Team Belinszky stating that Hungarians do not need a visa to enter Trinidad and generally it is vice versa. (I forwarded that email to you).

Then they gave us contact info on the Hungarian embassy in London. but as you would have realized I already had that. It being the weekend we had to wait until Monday morning to contact the Hungarian embassy in London.

After speaking to the visa officer, she put me on to the Consular General, who after I explained the situation to him, he kindly agreed to issue the visa in an hour's time upon our arrival in London. Now, our flight landed at 9:45 am. Our connecting flight was at 12:45pm.

 We rushed out of the airport to get to the embassy. Everything was on schedule until the visa officer tried to confirm the hotel reservations in Hungary. It did not check out. She then tried several times to contact Team Belinszky but to no avail.

 Without confirmation of the hotel reservations and contact we were refused the visas. But they did promise that if Team Belinzsky contacted them by 9.30 the following morning, we would get the visa. We spent the rest of the evening trying to contact Team Belinszky.

When we finally got through, we told Mr. Kiss that they had to forward the documents to the embassy. Also, they had to rebook the tickets for the next day. (I spoke to the travel agent in Budapest who had organized the flights). Later that evening we called to confirm everything was in place, this is when we spoke to Mr. Don Moose Lewis. He assured us everything would be in place, including the tickets.

Friday morning , we went to the Hungarian embassy and got the visas. When we got to the airport and was about to check in, they told us that we were NOT booked for that flight. We immediately tried contacting them, but didn't get through.

 That's when we emailed you (WBAN).

We tried to purchase the tickets ourselves but, they were not accepting cash, only credit card, which we don't have.

We ended up leaving a message on the answering machine for Mr. Kiss to call us back. When they did, we tried to tell them about the flight but my Manager was rudely insulted by a member of Team Belinzsky who bluntly said we did not know how to use a phone! If they did not answer the phone, how could we be blamed for that?

 We spoke to Mr. Lewis again and he said he would call back in 15 minutes. After 30 minutes he didn't call so again we called him. Here he told us that they are trying to arrange a flight. At 6 pm he called and said that the flight was at 8 pm that same evening. We said we would be there and immediately rushed off. To get to the airport took a hour and a half but we were in time for check-in. Imagine our surprise when the check in clerk told us that we were NOT booked.

When we called, Mr. Lewis answered. He asked to speak to the ticketing agent, but I was on a pay phone so that was impossible. By then my manager had found out that our reservations was made for Saturday morning at seven but the tickets were not paid for as yet.

Can you imagine what we felt like by then?

For two days we ran in and out of Heathrow airport, the Hungarian embassy, on and off buses and trains with all our bags in hand. We spent a lot of money in transport and for the Hungarian visas. And now this! I was like a rag doll.

My manager then decided enough was enough. Who was to say what would have happened the next day? For all we know we could have gone to the airport AGAIN only to find out that the tickets were not paid for again. And I would like Mr. Lewis to explain which FOUR flights we MISSED, but more so, WHY. And he has no idea what we have been going through in London so he definitely is not in the position to say we have been staying with friends.

 If I want a holiday in London , trust me, it would be at my own expense. And further more, he can't say we didn't bother to get OUT of bed, because how is he to know we even had a bed to sleep in that night?

We are not in the business of slinging mud back and forth and I know that somehow they will try to make it our fault, as usual. But I really can't take this one.

All that I said happened is the truth. And as usual, we are not going to make this into a long dragged out issue. I will fight Belinzsky anytime, but the promotion team needs to get serious. (signed Ria Ramnarine)

EMAILS SENT TO WBAN FROM RAMNARINE (EXCERPTS)


Date of email:  03/31/06
Subject:  Your Ticket/About Visa