Olympic tickets website still down

Games organiser Locog said would relaunch it when the problems had been fixed – but could not say when that would be.

It wanted to resolve the issues first so people would have a good experience of buying tickets, a spokeswoman said.

The main problem, which emerged on Friday, appeared to be that the site, run by Ticketmaster, was slow to update sessions which had sold out. The website gives people the chance to try to re-sell their unwanted London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic tickets to others willing to buy them.

Locog said in a statement: “We have told Ticketmaster to suspend the resale system whilst they investigate some issues customers have been experiencing.

“We want buying and selling Olympic and Paralympic tickets through Ticketmaster to be a good customer experience, and so we will reopen the site once Ticketmaster have resolved these issues.”

Those who bought tickets directly from Games organiser Locog should be able to submit their tickets for resale on the 2012 ticketing website until 3 February. A spokeswoman said Locog had not had discussions about extending that deadline in the light of the current problems, as they were focusing on getting the website up and running.

If sold, the seller will receive the full face value of their tickets. If the tickets remain unsold by 3 February, they will be returned to the ticket-holder’s account.

Police have warned it is a criminal offence to re-sell London 2012 tickets on the open market without the permission of Locog.

Last month, the Metropolitan Police revealed it had made more than 90 arrests for ticket-related offences in the past 18 months in a pre-emptive strike against individuals and criminal networks in the build-up to the Olympics.