A former bodyguard of Michael Jackson claims that a dealer of the brand did not pay attention to him
The late King of Pop Michael Jackson’s former bodyguard, Matt Fidesz, has accused a Ferrari dealer on social media that staff at Dick Lovett in Swindon (UK) ignored him for 20 minutes because he was wearing a tracksuit.
Ferrari is known to care and select customers, seeking to maintain its reputation and prefers buyers not to modify their cars, among other rules, unless it is at an authorized workshop or the changes are subtle and elegant. But Fidesz now accuses the dealer of showing favoritism to customers even before they’ve “opened their wallets,” reports Autoevolution.
43-year-old Matt Fidesz is not a popular figure, he is a martial artist and entrepreneur. He is best known for being Michael Jackson’s bodyguard, which apparently helped him earn around £120 million with a chain of martial arts schools.
So what does someone buy with that much money? Ferrari, of course. At least he’s trying to buy. Matt and his 29-year-old wife, Monique, intended to take not one, but two cars. However, after entering the showroom, according to their claims, no one paid attention to them for about 20 minutes, and they were alone in the room. And the reason was his clothing – tracksuit. After Monique sought help and the staff realized who he was, they then changed their attitude and took care of him, but Matt did the same – changed his mind.
“I don’t dress very well, I wear tracksuits 99.9 percent of the time because I’m a fitness guy, that’s who I am,” says Matt Fidesz. – I could tell if they were busy, but we were the only ones inside. There are probably a lot of time wasters who just show up, take a few pictures in the cars and then leave. I think when they saw me in a tracksuit, they probably assumed that was what I was doing. If I had turned up in a suit and tie, or been 20 years older, it probably would have been a different story. Or if I had walked in with Michael Jackson back in the day. I was prepared to splash out between £400,000 and £500,000 for two cars.’
Adrian Burke, manager at the salon, said: “I can confirm that Mr Fidess visited our dealership. On arrival he was initially greeted by our host and after a short delay due to high traffic levels in the showroom, a member of our sales team spoke to him about choosing from the range of cars. Dick Lovett prides itself on maintaining a consistently high level of customer service for everyone who visits our showroom, regardless of appearance or attire.”
Matt Fides, who lives in Tiverton, South West England, bought a Ferrari from the same dealership when he was 29, choosing a Ferrari 360 Spider. Now, he’s not revealing what model he’s targeting, but after the initial shock, he’s eyed a gray Ferrari SF90 Stradale and hopped into a Ferrari 458 Spider.
