10,000 Olympic Swimming Tickets Oversold

By · January 5, 2012 at 10:30 am · 4 Comments · Latest News · Report an error ·

Photo by AMIAFAD

3,000 people who bought tickets for synchronised swimming at the 2012 Olympics are being asked to return them by organisers after an oversale of 10,000 was uncovered.

Games organisers London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) have blamed ‘human error’, saying that during the second phase of ticket sales, their computerised ticketing system was told there were 20,000 tickets still available instead of the correct 10,000. A spokeswoman for London 2012 said:

“As a result of finalising the seating configurations in our venues and reconciling the millions of Olympic and Paralympic ticket orders against the seating plans for around 1,000 sporting sessions, we have discovered an error in seats available in four synchronised swimming sessions. In December we contacted around 3,000 customers who had applied for tickets in the four sessions during the second round sales process.

So will this error result in disappointed customers? LOCOG hopes not:

“We are exchanging their synchronised swimming tickets for tickets in other sports that they originally applied for.”

The Guardian reports that all customers offered alternative tickets so far are believed to have taken up the offer.

By way of a reminder, the process for reselling unwanted Olympic and Paralympic tickets starts on 6 January and continues until 3 February while tickets for some football and paralympics events are still available.

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  • Eva

    “The Guardian reports that all customers offered alternative tickets so far are believed to have taken up the offer.”

    Er. No. I have synchronized swimming tickets (and ONLY applied to that sport in the second round, because they were a gift for someone) and I was indeed offered to exchange them in December, but I didn’t know it was because they oversold. It was phrased in a way that suggested I now had a chance to  get tickets to other sports, which of course I didn’t want. The list of sports in the email, my supposed “sports you originally applied for in the initial Olympic ticket application phase” included sports I definitely NEVER applied for. 

    My tickets are still listed as “confirmed” in the ticketing system, so I hope that means I can keep them, as this was the ONLY sport I intended to see and my sister already bought plane tickets for those days to see the events. But I definitely did NOT take up the offer for alternative tickets as the Guardian suggests!

    • Eva

      This was the email I got and ignored (and of the list of sports they suggest, I only had ONE in my original application)

      –
      “The London 2012 Olympic Games are now just seven months away and our venue seating plans are being finalised. Reconciliation of ticket inventory and updates to the seating configuration at the Aquatics Centre mean we can now offer you a chance to exchange your tickets to Synchronised Swimming for tickets to one of the following sports you originally applied for in the initial Olympic ticket application phase:AthleticsSwimmingGymnastics – ArtisticBeach VolleyballBasketball – Olympic ParkBasketball – North Greenwich ArenaDivingHockeyPlease complete the online form with your details and choice of sport. Don’t miss out, please respond by noon on Friday 23 December 2011. We must receive your form before we can proceed.Once we have received your form, we will call you to discuss and finalise your session choice. This will be on a first come, first served basis and is subject to availability.We will not charge you extra if you exchange your Synchronised Swimming tickets for tickets at a higher price. If the replacement tickets cost less we will refund the difference in price.”

      • BethPH

        Thanks, Eva! That certainly does look rather ambiguous.

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