Just wondered whether anyone else has applied for Olympic tickets - or do you know anyone who has had money debited from their account? There seems to be a bit of a blank on this from the UK press - but I've had a look on Twitter and sounds like everyone is still waiting for payments to come out - even though they were meant to start a week ago (after a week's delay from the original date!) I have applied for the max of 20 events and haven't heard anything yet/had any money taken out. Was already very annoyed about the many deficiencies of the ballot...final straw was reading in today's Sunday Times that a German website has been selling Olympic tickets since March: http://www.dertour.de/olympia-2012/tickets-buchen.html Would have been nice to know about that before taking my chances with the ballot....especially as a Londoner who is actually having to help fund the Games through the extra council tax levy! Of course, there isn't much left now - even if there was, I can't afford to buy any considering I still have no idea what, if anything, Locog are going to take from my account! Does anyone else have any more info/comments on this...I'm getting fed up of constantly checking my credit card balance online! The question is, could anyone have come up with a worse system than this?
I suspect the only way they could would be to sell more tickets than there are seats. Overall I'm utterly disgusted at how they've chosen to manage the ticketing and funding for this event. Forcing Londoners to pay for an Olympics that most of us didn't really want, then giving no preferential treatment whatsoever when it came to ticket purchasing (i.e. no discount, no reserved tickets for people who actually paid the most for this event), a completely blind auction to work out who gets to see what and a system which only accepted one of the two largest payment providers in the UK. A total farce... This doesn't even account for the fact that the city will be almost totally uninhabitable for the weeks of the Games!
20 tickets?? You're gonna be sooo broke. I agree with how this has been handled, not great at all. Reverse Gambling is the term used (most politely) and Mayor Boris is confused about it as well as the rest of Londoners. Its just that theyre so worried about ticket touting its silly. How did the other countries do it? Did they also follow a similar system or just "first come firs serve?" Mrs 'Shroom applied to be a volunteer and it says on the forum of it that there are "No perks" you dont get to look at any of the events, no discount on tickets. Basically it says "Who wants to stand there for free with nothing to show for it?" (obviously she retracted after)
Lol - it's actually 80 tickets (20 x 4 in the family)! Yes, it's a lot IF we get them all, but we've been planning this for years and it'll be instead of a holiday next year. Figured it's probably our only realistic chance to go...when it's in another country you also have the added expenses of flights and ramped-up accommodation! At the moment...who knows if we'll get any? Just so annoyed that there was all the publicity about not trusting any other website to buy them...now it turns out I could have got them from this German website back in March AND no messing about with any lottery. Seems very unfair, as the way I understood it was that EU residents had an equal right to apply to the UK ticket lottery because of "free trade", etc...so how come they got this extra allocation of tickets and a much better way of buying them? :bang:
I can't believe the farcical way they've gone about this...hold on, yes I can: We're British, we over complicate everything. I applied for tickets for the last years World Cup and even FIFA had a better system in place. I went in the first ballot when no team had qualified. I was notified which tickets I'd got and then had to arange payment! This nonsense about applying for tickets and then having the money removed from you bank before you even know what you're seeing is a joke! But then I expected nothing less. I've not applied by the way as, despite loving watching the games on TV, regarding it as a massive White Eleephant for the host country. Thankfully not being in London I've been spared the increase in council tax though.
Just to be a dampener here. Similar things happen with a lot of big events like this and it happened at previously Olympics. Obviously I can’t speak in terms of if this time things are any worse, but you are certainly not alone. The general idea is the host country will give preference for tickets to overseas spectators. This is because when they come to watch the games, they bring their money with them and spend it around - hotels, flights, souvenirs etc which a local likely will not purchase. So basically it’s all for the economy. You don’t think countries want the Olympics for just the fun of it do you? No, it’s all about the money the event brings in.
If I get the tickets I applied for, I'll be happy with the system they've used. Otherwise, not so much. To be honest the blind lottery approach isn't as much of a drawback for me - I applied for one event because I really, really want to go. The problem is all the people who applied for hundreds of tickets because they wanted to make sure they got at least a few - if everyone has exercised restraint and simply applied for the tickets they wanted and would use there'd be no problem.
The lottery is the only fair way to do it. If you ran a first-come-first-served model, the telephone/net systems would have crashed from the high load and that would have been that.
Unfortunately, I think the lottery may have crashed too...otherwise hard to explain why virtually no card payments have been debited yet? Think of the interest which must have been lost on that! A little more transparency about the whole thing, including letting people know what's happening (or not) with their money would be nice...not to say more in the Olympic spirit? :Angel:
But the lottery crashing during an extended entry period or during the allocation period will not prevent anyone from reapplying or winning tickets. You'd be far more upset if you called up within a minute of the booking office opening, got a busy tone and then by the time you got through every single ticket to every single event had been purchased, wouldn't you? This method gave everyone an equal chance at obtaining tickets.
Especially the Germans! Seriously, not sure I agree...I think the system has discriminated against the less well-off. It would have been much fairer to allow people to take their chances in the ballot...then to give them chance either to accept their tickets, or return some of them, BEFORE taking payment (similar to the Wimbledon system). Not everyone can afford to take the chance on bidding for lots of events, in the hope that they get at least some of them...and be charged for potentially all of these over a year before the event. So those who can only afford to buy tickets for one event will not have a good chance of success...unlike those who can afford to bid for loads (particularly richer people who can afford the higher priced tickets). It is very interesting that there has been absolutely no transparency on allocations of tickets for each price band...which means that probably as many £2012 priced tickets will be created as are requested! I am sure that something better could have been devised...
If you can afford to, and want to, see loads of different events then that's fine. What I don't see the point of is the people who bid on a lot of events they've no interest in seeing. There'll be a chance for people to buy tickets from the resale portal next year, so really it only punishes those who just bid and bid in order to try and guarantee they'd get to see something, without bothering to think about which events they'd like to see. Your odds of seeing a particular event are no different because some people have bid on hundreds of tickets. If you've gone for, say, rhythmic gymnastics then someone bidding on the equestrian events doesn't affect your odds in the slightest.
OK...ballot update! Out of 20 events applied for, have only been debited for 1! :cry: That's a 3.5% success rate (£160 out of possible £4.5k!) I think it's either 1st round tennis or BMX, if I'm REALLY lucky will be athletics heats! Went into German website and bought a couple more, beach volleyball and sprint canoe. REALLY really really wanted swimming or athletics...guess that us ordinary folk mustn't deprive all those VIPs and corporate sponsors... Oh well. What can you do? Anyone else have more success?
