Hell of North Cotswolds; a debacle?

Corners R Us
Corners R Us Posts: 214
edited January 2013 in XC and Enduro
So I patiently watched the HoNC web site which I thought was the only place I could enter this local to me event. Midday 5th Jan came and went and nothing changed on the site?!

Then I discovered entry was via www.entrycentral.com.

30 mins+ of crashed connections, internal errors, re-submitting my entry several times, trying to pay once and then the site crashing I gave up!

What a disaster! Looks like 547 of the 1250 places have gone already. No idea how anyones managed to enter as the web site(s) are woeful!

Anyone else had similar experiences?

I tried e-mailing the organiser but failed to even achieve this as I couldn't navigate past the anti spam words to type in which were unreadable!

I'll stick to riding free trails I think......

Corners

Comments

  • Corners R Us
    Corners R Us Posts: 214
    And now the web site says the event is closed?! 670 places of the 1250 places sold?! How did we manage to do the Olympics so well......

    Corners
  • uk_mr_brownstone
    uk_mr_brownstone Posts: 343
    I don't know how an events website can be so unprepared for what must be only a couple thousand people trying to get tickets. This is without saying people had to guess that this website was infact legit as there was no obvious indication on the HONC website. I think I got in, exactly £30 has been debited from my account (too early to check if it has gone to entrycentral) but have no email confirmation. Very poor
  • AlanW
    AlanW Posts: 291
    What a bloody disaster trying to enter this event was!! What went so badly wrong and how come entries have closed with only half the number of possible places taken??
    "You only need two tools: WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape"
  • uk_mr_brownstone
    uk_mr_brownstone Posts: 343
    My estimate of a couple thousand people trying to get tickets may be a bit low thinking about it, but this event has been running for ages and it's always hard to get a spot. winchcombe CC facebook page has some updates so fair play on trying to keep unhappy people updated. Seems the 'events' website underestimated demand- pretty poor
  • Corners R Us
    Corners R Us Posts: 214
    edited January 2013
    And now I've received 2 e-mails saying I'm entered and have paid £15! I will have to check my bank statements to see how many payments have been taken! What a mess but at least I'm in, I think!!!

    To be fair it looks like the company processing the entries and not the organisers......

    Corners
  • uk_mr_brownstone
    uk_mr_brownstone Posts: 343
    check https://www.facebook.com/WinchcombeCycleClub for general updates on the situation
  • Corners R Us
    Corners R Us Posts: 214
    Current situation we have asked 'Entry Central' to suspend entries until we can establish how many people have entered and we will then depending on places remaining (if there are any) device a system to allocate any remaining.
    This time last year all 1200 places were taken in 40 minutes. this year only 300 places were handled in the first hour.
    This is a quote from 'Entry Central' an email extract received a short while ago...
    "I suggest you protect your reputation and pull further entries, when you confirm I will close the event. The server allows 10k concurent connections and is not able to handle the demand for your 1200 places.

    All payments will be honoured, nobody will be overcharged. Some shoppers will have shadows on their accounts, but the collection will not be made against these authorisations"

    Clearly the site was receiving over ten thousand requests causing a total melt down of the 'Entry Central' server.
    We will review the current situation and provide further updates within the next hour.
    Thank you for your patience and we will do our utmost to resolve this as fast as we possibly can this end.
  • Corners R Us
    Corners R Us Posts: 214
    Just spoken to a mate and he's had a duplicate e-mail too confirming his entry but his payments not been taken and his names not on any list! Seems like there might be more than 1200 turning up........

    Corners
  • antop34
    antop34 Posts: 62
    Not sure why they didn’t put that it is entrycentral where you apply, as it is every year!

    I was on there for 30 minutes and after multiple tries I got through payments etc. This was no different to booking tickets on certain sites or constantly calling to get them, it is just the norm now unfortunately.

    Just checked my bank and have £150 come out for 1 place, so that needs to get sorted. But the names on the list and I hope that HONC organiser don’t decide to cancel all entries and start again...

    Its a good event and very popular, just hope that too many disgruntled people don’t turn up and clog the course up for those who persevered to get in.
  • peteco
    peteco Posts: 184
    There is an update on the HONC website this morning. The key bit is:

    "EntryCentral have been working extremely hard over the weekend to get the system issues resolved and are now confident that they have a robust Sign On list that can be viewed at https://www.entrycentral.com/index.php?raceID=100199. If your name is on the list your entry has been successful."

    and

    "We currently have 968 sign ups and 1250 places in total will be available. We are currently reviewing the best and fairest way to reopen entries and will update this site with that information in due course. Meanwhile we are still dealing with a big volume of queries and would ask you to please not contact us unless it is absolutely necessary."

    Pete

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