Olympic tickets

RichN95.

inkyfingers wrote:

I haven't had any money taken out of my account yet, oh well. Would have been nice but i'm not that worried, more money to spend on unnecessary shiny bike stuff.

What I don't understand is why they take the money before you know what you've got. I understand that it's a lottery, but surely at the same time they take your money they should e-mail you and say that we've taken x amount and that this is for tickets to x event(s). Every other online payment site sends would send you a confirmation e'mail, seems a bit wee-wee poor.

The real truth is that the whole London Olympics is one massive 'Nigerian e-mail scam' concocted by the government to pay for the deficit

In reality Paris won the Olympics. I've got tickets to the 100m at Stade de France.

Ben6899

I'm yet to see any Olympics money come out of my account. If it remains this way, I'll be ever so slightly p1ssed off.

Is it just me or does it always seem to be the same folk who drop on with this sort of thing?

NWLondoner

Ben6899 wrote:

I'm yet to see any Olympics money come out of my account. If it remains this way, I'll be ever so slightly p1ssed off.

Is it just me or does it always seem to be the same folk who drop on with this sort of thing?

Same story here.

I NEVER have any luck. I couldn't even get 6 nations tickets for the Twickenham games because of the bloody ballot system :x

Ben6899

All I will say is that if it remains this way; the folk who get mine and my better half's cycling tickets better fuck1ing like cycling and not just fancy a day out at any old event!

Monford22

Me and my wife applied for over £1500 worth of tickets and so far at nothing. Not happy.
The Olympics might as well be in Timbuktu.

NWLondoner

Well it's official

I ain't got any tickets

It seems the only way most people got any was by risking a bill of a few thousand £££.

usedtobefast

Applied for £1000 max for 8 tickets, got nought, even went to the effort of signing up for a Visa credit credit to pay for any tickets, oh well still got till Jan 2012 on the 0% offer, now what does my bike need :-)

All I will say is that if it remains this way; the folk who get mine and my better half's cycling tickets better fuck1ing like cycling and not just fancy a day out at any old event!

Know what you're saying there. I know of people who have applied for the track cycling based on how well we did in Bejing, boy are they in for a surprise as expecting the same stellar results. Tee hee

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Mr Blister

The system for applying was a complete load of dog sh*te. The system favored those recklessly applied for tickets for everything rather than people who applied for tickets for events they actually wanted to see. I would have liked to have seen a small application fee per event. That would have stopped the knobs that have applied for thousands of pounds worth of tickets, with no real interest in any of them! Oh and yes I am very bitter about the whole thing! :x

Ben6899

usedtobefast wrote:

Know what you're saying there. I know of people who have applied for the track cycling based on how well we did in Bejing, boy are they in for a surprise as expecting the same stellar results. Tee hee

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You understand EXACTLY where I am coming from, mate! Bandwagon jumpers hoping to see a gold medal haul from "Brian Wiggins and what's the other chap called?"

Still no money taken out of the account this morning, so it's official; I'm in a terrible mood.

Allez Mark

They could take money up to June 10th I think. So don't give up hope just yet.

Ben6899

Allez Mark wrote:

They could take money up to June 10th I think. So don't give up hope just yet.

Erm, I wish you were right, fella...

The News wrote:

Money for tickets has been debited from applicants' accounts and the deadline for the last few transactions has now passed.
Organisers confirmed that at least 250,000 fans had been left ticketless, but they would be contacted by email and offered an "exclusive window" later this month to buy tickets for events where demand was relatively low.

Low demand? How about they stick their low demand tickets up their collective arse.

Monty Dog

Nothing, zip - applied for 5 different sessions at different price points and got nowt!

However, I did get confirmation of my invitation to participate as a Volunteer for the Surrey Cycle Classic in August - a single line email with a three-letter acronym and no explanation of what it means or what happens next.

These 2012 people seem to be applying the mushroom principle for motivation - I'm beginning to regret thinking this is something I want to get involved with :?

Ben6899

I really hope they send me an email offering low demand tickets which they haven't been able to shift.

That will be an interesting reply!

pb21

Would it have been feasible for the organisers to give preference to people who are affiliated with a particular organisation tickets to that sport?

For instance those who have BC membership could have entered their number when applying to get priority over those who don’t. Would have meant people who actually like the sport they are applying to would have had much more chance of getting in than some band wagon numptys.

Ben6899

pb21 wrote:

Would it have been feasible for the organisers to give preference to people who are affiliated with a particular organisation tickets to that sport?

For instance those who have BC membership could have entered their number when applying to get priority over those who don’t. Would have meant people who actually like the sport they are applying to would have had much more chance of getting in than some band wagon numptys.

This is a good idea. There will be people following all kinds of events who feel let down by the system. My friend tells me he heard on the news a woman complaining that 'they' applied for Wrestling tickets "as a laugh" and actually got them. She doesn't want them. I mean what sort of fuck1ng mentality is that!?

I fuck1ng despair at the general public, I really really do. Ming mongs, the lot of 'em!

topcattim

Ben6899 wrote:

Allez Mark wrote:

They could take money up to June 10th I think. So don't give up hope just yet.

Erm, I wish you were right, fella...

Actually, I think he is right. First pass for ticket allocations seems to have been last night (and I'm almost ashamed to admit that I got tickets for 2 of the 5 events for which I applied: hockey preliminaries and cycling keirin first round) but tickets can still be allocated until the 10th, from what I've read on sky news as some people will have applied for tickets but not have the money in their account, in which case the tickets will go to those next on the reserve list.

For example, this bloke had to take some rapid action to raise his credit limit to £11000 to pay for all his tickets and I figure that not everybody will have been able to do this. So Allez mark is right to say don't give up hope just yet!

Ben6899

topcattim wrote:

Actually, I think he is right. First pass for ticket allocations seems to have been last night (and I'm almost ashamed to admit that I got tickets for 2 of the 5 events for which I applied: hockey preliminaries and cycling keirin first round) but tickets can still be allocated until the 10th, from what I've read on sky news as some people will have applied for tickets but not have the money in their account, in which case the tickets will go to those next on the reserve list. So Allez mark is right to say don't give up hope just yet!

Don't be ashamed! I guess you like hockey as well as cycling. It's the folk who no doubt just fancy a day out that I am p1ssed off with.

There are differing versions of the protocol etc depending which news sites we read. Let's see what happens!

tigerben

In defence of the system.... i think velodrome capacity is only 6,000 - so after deducting for overseas & corporate allocations I think only roughly half of the tickets for each event went on general sale - so only 3,000 per session. Say there is only 20 sessions then that is only 60,000 tickets in total.. so it is hardly surprising that so few people will get lucky and get tickets.

I agree the system was not perfect and it did encourage an element of random ticket buying - but I struggle to think of a better way of shifting so many tickets for such a diverse range of sports.

Personnally I have had a 30% hit rate on my applications - the majority of which are likely to be for morning sessions for badminton / archery / basketball / ping pong & volleyball. I am not affiliated to any of these sports - i have an understanding of the rules and played a bit in my youth but thats were it ends. I applied as I thought they would be fun and it would be good to participate - even if the event is slightly random. Had the ticket allocation been done traditionally it is highly likley that I would not have applied for any of these events (especially if I had got any of my first choices).

As for taking the money now - I guess it is the the only way they have to secure peoples commitment to purchase now as otherwise people are likely to default if they ended up with tickets they never wanted (eg the wrestling example above)

Monty Dog

What I find completely incomprehensible is that they failed to deconflict the volunteer programme from the ticketing. A huge incentive for volunteering would have been preferrable access to tickets, but all they seem to have made is a complete fudge of both leaving people frustrated and disheartened.
Members of the various sports federations in the UK are the ones expected to carry the 'Olympic Legacy' forward, and were specifically targetted as 'specialists' for the volunteer programme and yet are likely to have come second-best to those with deep pockets who took a shot-gun approach to application. These appear to have received preferrential treatment in terms of the their ticket allocation by virtue of the number of tickets applied for.
In hindsight, an allocation process that focused on those that participate and support UK sport would have been fairer.

Ben6899

Btw, can I apologise for my swearing? I'm in a bad mood. No tickets and ITBS!

Stewie Griffin

Oh well, I didnt want to go anyway.

glasgowbhoy

I just phoned Seb Coe who just asked how many tickets I needed.

le_patron

I got zero tickets from an £1800 application spread across 7 different sports at different price points.

yocto

Between the Mrs and I, we applied for £2500 worth of tickets. We got ziltch! Well disappointed

-spider-

I didn't apply for any tickets and I am still wondering what the final bill will be. Shame that so many good causes had to give up lottery funding to finance this jamboree.

"It will benefit the whole country"

Oh - that's alright then.

dizzydane

Applied for £700 worth of tickets - £300 taken today. I'm wondering if they're taking payment by category and I may see another transaction over the next couple of days...?

Everyone I know has had part payments taken and no one has had full amounts debited for what they applied for.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... plans.html

edhornby

Brad Wiggins' family won't get to see Brad Wiggins competing (according to brad's twitter), he had to go into the allocation process and got nowt

Allez Mark

To everyone who is saying they got nothing.

Have you been informed you haven't been successful?

They will be taking money up to June 10th.

RichN95.

pb21 wrote:

Would it have been feasible for the organisers to give preference to people who are affiliated with a particular organisation tickets to that sport?

For instance those who have BC membership could have entered their number when applying to get priority over those who don’t. Would have meant people who actually like the sport they are applying to would have had much more chance of getting in than some band wagon numptys.

Some sports did. I bought tickets to the Men's hockey final (and semis and one other day) over a month ago.

inkyfingers

My account has just been debited £196 for something called "WWW.TICKETS.LONDON LONDON WC2H" which I assume is for Olympics tickets but not 100% sure..it could be fraudulent for all I know? Unfortunately due to the ridiculously crap system we won't know what we've been allocated till the 24th June (according to 2012 website), 3 weeks after the money has been taken. How hard can it be to have sent an e-mail to you when the tickets have been allocated saying that you have been allocated x tickets and that your account will be debited x amount.