'Olympics ticketing system – a psychic booking process that's anti-consumer' blog

mintymoneysaver

It was the Visa bit that got to me. All my credit cards are Mastercard, so I have had to use my debit card.
I've only bid for two days of athletics, as I need them to fit round my annual holiday down South, so have booked Friday and Sunday so that one of them will fit in with my journey there or home. In the event that I get both I will resell one set, but my mum has agreed to lend me the money to cover the extra set until next year when I can sell them back again.
Martin's idea of registering your interest seemed much more sensible...

theblagger

I live just down the road from the site, and it`s nice to see it taking shape, but in another aspect it`s one huge rip off with obligatory white elephant coming after in the shape of retail
people cannot afford to shop in the stratford centre, never mind when westfield stratford city opens

I saw coe on bbc news this morning giving it large about the tickets,being very vague etc, in that corporate !!!!!!!! way...legacy...theres no legacy here

melancholly

i would have liked to see seating plans - i have no idea what the difference in view will be between the tickets and i felt like i was ordering blind. in some locations it may be worth paying more than the cheapest option but it's impossible to know.

i'd also like to hear more specifics on the proportion going to corporate sponsors. they must already know this to be allocating tickets to the rest of us and it strikes me as odd that they won't give the details.

i think a ballot is the fairest way but it does seem the details could have been a lot better.

Doshwaster

Well, I've just signed up for a possible maximum of £500 though I'd be happy getting 2 or 3 tickets which aren't too spread out.

Yes, the application process is odd but I'm not sure how you could design it to be better. If people had the choice of whether to pay or not after the random allocations are made then everyone would just apply for every single ticket and then just picking a few which would result in most going back into the pot and many more rounds of allocations.

However, I'd like to know what odds I have, even a sporting ballpark. Is it 1 in 5, 1 in 20 or 1 in 100?

corbyboy

A balot is the fairest way and I actually like not having to rush to get my tickets.

The idea of taking payment before letting people know if they have got tickets was thought up by a madman.
And I would love to see the statistics on bounced payments once they have been processed.

I also agree there should be an indication on the popularity of tickets. If not actual numbers then maybe some sort of scale 0-100. I would then have actively looked for the less popular tickets.

I have only actually booked for one event so hopefully will get it.

keithnic_2

What really annoys me is the limit of four tickets on many events. I have a wife and three children and we would like to see an event together as a family. Why a limit of four? Just because the event will be oversubscribed? So what, let us apply and we'll all take our chances. Why set such a low limit, there must be hundreds of thousands of families with three or four children. Couldn't they have made the limit 6 or 8?
If we get four tickets I can't tell one of my children that they have been unlucky and have to stay at home. I will have to stay at home. Actually might go to the pub :-)

buslouch

The other psychic element to this is having to buy tickets for children who will be between 0-1 in July next year, when they won't have even been conceived yet!!! Even if you order one on the chance that you'll have one, what happens if you have twins (or more)?

Doc_N

Couldn't agree more with Martin's comments. Brings discredit on the whole games - particularly restricting the application process to Visa only. I applied for no tickets at all, and one of the key reasons is the shameful way the whole thing was set up.

minerva_windsong

This is why I'm holding out until the resale starts (well that and the fact that OH and I are talking about renting out our flat during the Olympics so we might go away whilst it's on) and then seeing what I can get, as I'd rather have tickets to something I actually wanted to see and could afford rather than just taking my chances.

For people asking if you get all the tickets you've ordered for a session should you win the ballot, I think you do - so if you book four tickets for an event you'll either get all four or none at all.

mgmidget66

Hang on, am I missing something here?

Every week I get an email from Martin which basically says if you can't afford something think very hard before buying it. So, if you can't afford to have '000s of £ suddenly come off your credit card then don't apply for that many tickets. Yes, I know you have to be in it to win it (or had as the window is now shut!) but with a bit of forethought and careful planning you could have got tickets to some exciting events without having to pay out a huge amount of money. For example, the mountain biking in Essex is going to be fantastic, only costs £20, is unlikely to be sold out and will have free transport to the door (see below!). Plus you have all the free events (Triathlon, Marathon, Road Cycling...).

While people are quick to say there is a better way to sell tickets, very few people seem to have anything concrete. Martin's suggestion about a window to buy tickets is sensible, but then wouldn't that just lead to everyone applying for everything as they know they don't have a commitment to actually buy?

As for travel costs, your tickets includes FREE travel around London and you will know about your allocation a year before the games giving you chance to keep an eye out for cheap advance rail fairs and find hotels on the edge of the Oyster area (which now goes as far north as Watford).

Ticketing for any large event is always awkward with those who don't get what they want calling it a farce and people who get tickets saying how easy the system was. I think given the size and 'once in a lifetime' element of London 2012, I think they got this about right.