London Olympics ticket grab ends with website wobbles

Organisers of the London 2012 Olympic Games were forced to extend their ticket application deadline by an hour last night, after last-minute demand from wannabe customers led to delays online. The website had a few wobbles at around 10.30pm last night, just over an hour before the ticket applications for next year's Games were …

[Anonymous Coward]

Numpties

This reminds me of the fast talking spivs on market stalls selling a box with the patter, "I won't tell you what's inside the box, it might be worth 10p it might be worth 20 quid, who'll give me a fiver for it?" The only difference being that the market stall punters have been whipped up into a frenzy by previous apparent bargains whereas those buying the tickets have paid up with a cold head.

Anybody who pays for something when they don't know what they are going to get deserves everything heading their way.

[chrisl]

You do know what you paying for

You do know what you're going to get - you just don't know if you are going to get it. You will only pay for the specific tickets you have requested if you are lucky enough to get them.

At no point do you pay for something that you didn't know what it was at the time of ordering.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: You do know what you paying for

Granted the analogy isn't 100%. However, some people have ordered tickets they didn't really want or more of what they did just in case they didn't get any seats for what they wanted or all the seats they did want. To all intents and purposes they don't know what they are going to end up with and could end up paying for things they don't want. See first post by Jason 23 who, for now, seems to be taking it in good spirits.

[A Non e-mouse]

Hang on..

"money is taken from their accounts in May. Each "winning" applicant will find out what tickets they have secured on 24 June"

So the Olympic organsiser take your money in May, and you only know what they've taken the money for in June ? Surely they can send an e-mail out at the same time as they swipe the money ?

[Jason 23]

oops...

"Lord Sebastian Coe, who is the chairman of the Games, has said that a resale website would be made available at some point next year"

OK, maybe I should've researched things a bit better before buying twice as many tickets as I can afford/wife would've let me

[David 39]

Yes Yes Yes

Let's make our application process as cumbersome as possible, while getting a nice nosh off visa.

A totally idiotic way of doing such a system might as well go out with a big stick and club kittens and pupies to death.... Ah there it is, bye

[Anonymous Coward]

Greedy Cunning Runts

It won't matter how much we get billed, overbilled, underbilled.

LU won't get anyone to the events, the tube /DLR / overground trains will be in massive meltdown mode with the influx of extra pax when they're already overloaded.

Epic Fail

[Tom 38]

They did this process badly

I'm now terrified I will get all the tickets I've applied for, for no good reason. The process should have worked in an iterative fashion like this:

Round 1 lottery:

People apply for tickets, just like now, except no payment is taken.

The lottery assigns tickets to people.

People have 2 weeks to decide if they want to purchase the tickets they have 'won'.

Any left over tickets go to Round 2 lottery.

Lather, rinse, repeat until all tickets* are sold.

* All tickets available to punters to sell, at any rate. There is always the other 66% of tickets sold to commercial ticketing, 'hospitality' and sponsors.

[Gavin Jamie]

from a lottery to a game show

The problem with this scheme is there is then an incentive to apply for everything in the firsts round and see what you get.

You can then buy what you get or wait and see if something more to your taste comes up in the subsequent rounds (when you apply for everything again). Basically it turns into a protracted version of "Deal or No Deal"

I suspect interest might wane by round seven...

[Anonymous Coward]

'Basically it turns into a protracted version of "Deal or No Deal"'

Ooooh as if the Olympics weren't gruesome enough with the likes of Tessa Jowell and Seb Coe, now you've thrown Noel Edmonds into the mix.

[Anonymous Coward]

Titlte containing letters and or numbers

Whoops my misunderstanding. I thought that they would be paying ME to attend the boring two week hop skip and jump festival. If they pay me 2012 quid I'd even show up for the Opening ceremony...you know as a seat filler.

[G C M Roberts]

Hmm

I'd be interested to see how/why the tickets bought aren't subject to distance selling regulations and thus the 30 day refund thing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Hmm

They take the money in May and you don't get to know what you've got until the end of June by which time the thirty day period has expired.

I thought of the distance selling regulations as I thought they couldn't take any money until the product had been shipped.

[Tom Wood]

Tickets aren't subject to the DSR right to cancel

"The requirements to provide... the right to cancel ...do not

apply to the following types of contract:

...

Contracts to provide accommodation, transport, catering or leisure

services (for example hotel accommodation; plane, train, or concert

tickets; car hire;10 or sporting events) where you agree to provide

the service on a specific date or within a specific period."

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/oft698.pdf

[Mitch Kent]

It was a bit of a mess

And the whole lottery Did you buy/didn't you buy thing is why I just ignored it. We registered but the complete lack of knowledge of what you are going to see means that there just wasn't the confidence to bother trying for anything. I wonder how much they lost out on punters similar to me? (They'll probably make it back though on punters that over booked ;-) )

[Jacqui]

Security checks

The whole airport style security theatre put me off even looking at the site.

I already heard rumors (from people in the "security industry") of guards betting how much they can make in "confiscated/suspect" cameras and phones - yes folks, cameras and high-end mobiles are reputedly going to be banned from some events in case anyone provides unauthorised "live" event coverage or uses them to "organise an attack".

[Anonymous Coward]

Account gone

While trying to order some tickets, the system completely broke apart yesterday. It couldn't even remember my account anymore - it was gone for a while. Ah well, time for another beer..

[Anonymous Coward]

Fantastic system

They take the money from you but only inform you what you've got a MONTH later? If only there was a machine that could authorise purchases and issue receipts within seconds...

[JC 5]

Its like any lottery

Except you dont know for a month if youve won :(

At least with this one you can get a refund for unwanted prizes...(next year)

I dont see why an email couldnt go out in the next few days - its not like they are doing this by hand.

Still they should make some good interest on all the cash til the refund site is online ..

I guess the real winner is Visa (as I doubt many used the high street sources to get tickets)

And to all the moaners that couldnt get ticket applications submitted in the last hours....You had 6 weeks!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Its like any lottery

It isn't a refund site. It sounds to be somewhere you can tout your unwanted tickets.

What's the betting that you will only be able to resell your tickets at face value and the site takes a commission for handling the resale?

[Anonymous Coward]

And...

"What's the betting that you will only be able to resell your tickets at face value"

And what's wrong with that exactly?

[David 164]

I applied for some tickets

I bought 2 4 sets of tickets of the opening and closing ceremony, as that all I could afford and truth be told they the only events I want to see at this time.

Once we know whether there is going to be British Football team I may apply for some tickets to Wembley and or the Emirates to see a couple of matches in the next round. Presuming they are playing at those venues and there still tickets available.

But this system could have been made so much better with very few simple changes.

[Bill Fresher]

Events

Don't know why you'd want to see the Opening Ceremony... Greece always seem to come first in that race.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you find you have unwanted tickets

According to an Olympic representative on Radio 4 yesterday, it will be possible to refund unwanted tickets by the resale portal if there is demand for that event. In other words, if you have tickets to an undersubscribed event, tough, you’re stuck with them. Nice of them to leave it until the day of the deadline to mention this.

[JC 5]

according to the FAQ:

"We will be launching a London 2012 ticket resale programme which will give ticket holders the opportunity to sell their tickets, for no greater than face value, to prospective buyers in a secure environment. Further information will be released in 2011."

This sounds like a TicketExchange type idea ie undersubscribed/unpopular events are unlikely to resell face value - this wasnt what Lord Coe said 60 days ago.....

"There will be an opportunity next year for people to resell unwanted tickets at face value through the official resale programme."

Note he didnt say up to face value... :(

Im glad I only opted for stuff I wanted to do/can afford - many others didnt.....

[Will Godfrey]

I went for the low stress approach

Didn't even bother to look at the website, let alone try to buy anything.

[Richard Porter]

Re: They did this process badly

No, they should have used AV :) You apply for what you want, and then give your second and third choice in case you don't get it. That way you wouldn't win everything and not be able to pay for it.

But then the system was designed to rack up people's debts to Visa.

[Winkypop]

£20 !!!

That's way too steep for the Qualifying Heats of the Synchronised Swimming.

How about, they pay YOU?

Boffin = Swim Goggles?