Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2012/01/06/london_2012_resale_system_glitch/

London 2012 team pulls swamped ticket resale site

No finish line in sight for unhappy punters

By Kelly Fiveash

Posted in Bootnotes, 6th January 2012 14:51 GMT

London 2012 punters hoping to offload tickets they no longer want faced frustrating problems with a resale website, which was launched by the event's organisers today.

Locog, the government-owned company running the Olympic Games, admitted - via its Twitter feed, if not in an official statement on its website - that there were some gremlins in the system.

"Lots of tkts sold already today, the system is working. But, there’s been feedback of issues with selling tkts," it said.

In the meantime customers hoping to flog tickets via the site won't be able to do so.

"We’re updating & refreshing the system now – while this is happening customers won’t be able to upload tkts for resale," Locog added.

The company claimed that "huge demand" had outstripped supply of tickets, which can be made available for resale until 3 February. Customers hoping to bag tickets via the resale system have until 6 February to do so. It's unclear, however, if Locog will be forced to extend that deadline given today's online kerfuffle. The Games kick off in the capital on 27 July.

This isn't the first time the London 2012 organisers have faced problems with their online estate. In late April 2011, the ticket application deadline was extended by just one hour after last-minute demand flooded the website, leading to delays caused by system wobbles.

The London 2012 ticketing process has been criticised by many in Blighty after the lottery-like system led to some overenthusiastic customers bidding bucketloads of cash in the hope of bagging a few tickets to the Games.

Worse still, some peeved punters whose bank accounts were hit with big payouts to Locog in May 2011 have had to wait months for the resale process to begin. ®