Fringe Friends furious as box office leaves them on hold

Published on Sunday 14 June 2009 21:59

EDINBURGH Festival Fringe organisers have come under fire from angry customers who were forced to wait hours to book tickets on a "priority" hotline.

People who paid up to 18 to become official Friends of the Fringe struggled to buy show tickets in the special booking period over the weekend.

Some who phoned the priority number said they had to wait more than two hours to get through, while others complained they were unable to purchase tickets online.

A Fringe source last night admitted customers had been delayed during "peaks in demand". But organisers insisted they were "very confident" that today's launch of ticket sales to the general public would go without serious hitch.

Some 14,000 tickets have been sold to Friends of the Fringe members since booking opened at 10am on Friday.

But while organisers say they are pleased at the volume of tickets sold, customers told The Scotsman of their anger at the length of time it took to book.

Phil Cornwell, 63, from Longniddry in East Lothian, said: "I started phoning a few minutes before 10am on Friday. It was constantly engaged, right up to 11:10am. When I eventually got though, I was put on a queuing system for another hour.

"I tried again … after being kept on hold for 50 minutes, I finally managed to get through. I dread to think what my phone bill's going to be like."

He was also told he could only buy briefs for half the shows he wanted: "There was some problem on the girl's computer. My wife's going to have to go down and join the queues tomorrow to buy the other tickets."

Organisers are under pressure after a troubled 2008, when the event was blighted by ticketing breakdowns. Last week, festival chief executive Kath Mainland predicted a new booking system installed after last year's debacle would not fail.

However, customers logged on to the Fringe's website to complain that they could not purchase tickets online.

One said: "Trying to buy for a show that's limited to Friends of Fringe but site won't let me do it even tho' there are tickets left for show and I have logged in successfully as a Friend.

"Hopeless trying to buy by phone – never get through."

A Fringe spokesman said the box office was "working" and had sold 14,000 tickets to Friends of the Fringe since Friday.

Tommy Sheppard, director of comedy venue The Stand and a member of the Fringe board, added: "With anything this size, there is always the possibility of teething problems. Hopefully that's all this is."