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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think the Olympic ticket website is pants!?

90 replies

GlassofRose · 30/07/2012 23:55

They display events as available and then when you click on them they don't exist.

When tickets are finally added you spend 5 minutes a time on a "requesting tickets screen" whilst they check if they are available. Then get a "not available screen" even though they are still showing availability.

Why oh why is this website so pathetic? Ticketmaster manage to cope with whole tours selling out in minutes...

OP posts:
HokeyCokeyPigInAPokey · 01/08/2012 11:35

I am going to give up even looking now and look forward to enjoying the paralympics.

The more people that do this, the more of an event it will be for us and those competing.

I am also going to google the events i will be watching and find out who will be completing so i know a bit about them when i'm cheering them on.

bigTillyMint · 01/08/2012 12:12

True say HokeyCokey. I am really looking forward to seeing the paralympic athletics finals - those athletes are even more amazing than the non-para athletes Smile

mrswishywashy · 01/08/2012 12:16

Just booked tickets for the athletics session 19.00-22.50 in paralympics on 3rd September. Does anyone know what time I can go into park as want to see if I can book Orbit tickets but not showing availability for the evening session but could go earlier if can go in park earlier.

bigTillyMint · 01/08/2012 12:20

Ooh mrswishywashy (great book!) thats what we r going to Smile whats the orbit thing? I could get there early too...

mrswishywashy · 01/08/2012 12:22

The Orbit thing is the twisty turny art installation. I thought it would be open right after the Olympics finish but it seems that the whole area will be blocked off for 18 - 24 months so only chance will be while Olympics are on. Not sure when we can enter the park though. Its all so confusing.

bigTillyMint · 01/08/2012 12:26

Oooh that thing that looks like a helter-skelter! How much does it cost?

I reckon you can get in at least a couple of hours early. Surely someone on MN will know!

mrswishywashy · 01/08/2012 12:31

Yes. It only costs £15 each.

And I've tried looking for the answer all over the official website and have come up empty handed so have reverted to Mumsnet. Someone on here must know!

mrswishywashy · 01/08/2012 12:35

Hmmm, just had another dig around and you can get into park before session starts so went to check Orbit tickets and they have all gone.

bigTillyMint · 01/08/2012 12:36

Have you looked through the 2012 topic? Or post a question? Im on my phone ATM but will look later!

LeeCoakley · 01/08/2012 12:36

We are going all day on 2nd September. The only Orbit tickets were 8.00pm which is during our athletics time so we are going to have to go into the stadium late. We are going to queue early for Orbit as someone on here said that they don't mind if you are not bang on time. But we are getting to the Park in the morning so we have all day before our events.

The reason I am still looking for Park tickets is that dd1 is leaving the country in 3 weeks time and would love a ticket to just SOMETHING in the Park!

bigTillyMint · 01/08/2012 13:42

Lee, what are you planning to do in the Park all day? Looking for ideas!
Good luck finding something to take your DD to.

LeeCoakley · 01/08/2012 13:44

I'm getting more and more desperate! There are the gardens and art work that I've heard about. We're hoping the weather will be good to just soak up the atmosphere really.

LeeCoakley · 01/08/2012 13:45

Oh and big screens apparently

bigTillyMint · 01/08/2012 13:46

OK! I'm going to search the topic and see what MN recommends!

AngelDelightIsIndeedDelightful · 01/08/2012 14:31

Well done to everyone who's managed to get some tickets. What time were they released this morning?

TheSkiingGardener · 01/08/2012 22:35

Some have just been released but looks like thu had mostly gone already.

I still hate the website but fuck me sideways if we didn't finally get some. Basketball on Sunday!

I think it's just reached the stage of complete lottery, although interestingly I've been failing to get any using my laptop or iPhone but my iPad got them straight away. I've had that before with ticketing websites, my computer not even able to get to the site, but my phone got straight in. Wonder what that's about?

mrscynical · 01/08/2012 22:40

My mate is working at Stratford and told me tonight that they are selling tickets prior to events for a fiver if you turn up there. Apparently this is not supposed to be broadcast to the great unwashed!!!

Shock
AngelDelightIsIndeedDelightful · 02/08/2012 00:00

I thought we'd got basketball too. Got as far as inputting my card details and then it just took me back to the start again. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 02/08/2012 00:19

mrscynical

They won't even let you go down to the Olympic park without a ticket unless you can show you are collecting tickets.

I was there today and they are announcing constantly that there are no tickets for sale at the site only on line.

Re the ticketing website - I think the problem is that they don't have too many blocks of tickets available so if you request 3 and they only have a pair of seats you get told no tickets available. I've picked up a few random single tickets for events.

TheSkiingGardener · 02/08/2012 06:31

Oh Angel that's awful. That's just taunting people now!

TheDoctrineOfEnnis · 02/08/2012 06:49

It is a massively more complicated operation than selling concert tickets. There you have maybe five price bands at one venue on perhaps two dates and, crucially, lots of notice of when a batch of tickets will be available and that batch being many thousands of tickets which are well distributed across the price bands.

I have had the problem on a smaller scale when trying to buy nearly sold out tickets for London venues ie tickets show on a search but someone else beats me to reserving them - it is just less annoying because (a) there are fewer options to check eg just five dates or (b) it is further ahead so can ask for an email alert if things come up.

Here they have thousands of combinations of event, price, date and venue AND have very uneven distribution at this stage as it is returns and Olympic committees and overseas disttibutors giving up tickets - probably in response to the empty seat scandal. I expect that they actually weren't intending to sell tickets online at this stage of the process.

I agree a little news flash at the top saying "at 8pm today we released 20 athletics tickets and 100 wrestling tickets" might be handy to give some sense of scale.

TheSkiingGardener · 02/08/2012 07:03

It's the inequity of the queuing system that's frustrating though. I can log in with my account and my husbands account, so 2 devices. One will always have lower queuing times and get through the screens quicker. So for example, last night my phone was told there was a 15 minute wait, I clicked on the iPad a second later to be told a 3 minute wait.

I think you are right and it would be helpful if they said how many tickets were released, it would probably reduce frustration, but there is always the feeling of the system just not being fair!

TheDoctrineOfEnnis · 02/08/2012 07:10

For the same tickets? That is weird.

Were the waits actually 3 min and 15 min as I think the wait counter is a bit of a random number generator!

GetDownNesbitt · 02/08/2012 08:11

Yaddddnbu.

We spent an entertaining half hour last night in a queue race - me on iPad and DH on phone, both started with a 15 minute wait which kept randomly changing. Sat in different rooms shouting '12', '7' etc at each other.

Still got the sum total of fuck all at the end of it.

TheSkiingGardener · 02/08/2012 10:49

The waits were right too. I got the ones on the 3 minute wait, not the ones on the 15. It's just silly