People all over the UK have been logging on this morning to try to get their second chance at Olympic tickets. Here's the experience of Amanda Farnsworth, our BBC London 2012 project executive, in one of our occasional guest posts on this blog.
Here in the BBC's 2012 Project, we didn't exactly have the Midas touch in getting tickets in the first round. Someone got a hockey session, another got swimming and one lucky person an athletics session but most of us came away disappointingly empty handed.
So, like millions of you, I set the alarm for 5am and decided to use two computers to log in with and maximise my chances. I had already printed out the ticket availability some days previously and chosen my three sessions .
Before 6am, I thought I should check the website one last time and noticed a statement saying there had been an error concerning one athletics session's prices.
So I clicked again on the availability link. It seemed rather different from what I had printed out so I quickly rethought and chose three sessions that looked like there were tickets for: athletics, hockey and handball.
At 6am, all I had to do was click on the submit button on the sign in page and I was in!
Very excited at this point. I put in the details, clicked "Proceed to checkout" and disaster struck: a "Sorry we cannot process your request at this time" message came up; "Try again later" it said.
I had to start from scratch and a frantic half an hour going between the two computers followed, with me trying to sign in on one and then the other.
Sometimes I couldn't get into the ticketing website, sometimes I'd get as far as the checkout and even once to the final payment button, but then the dreaded "Sorry" button would appear.
At one point my heart was actually pounding against my chest with anxiety.
In the course of all this, it transpired the athletics tickets were no longer available but at 6.40 I was finally successful in submitting my application and payment for hockey and handball - and I have a precious e-mail to prove it.
So looking back, for 40 minutes it felt stressful and incredibly annoying, especially the fact that the "Sorry" button could appear at any time.
But in the end, is 40 minutes really that long to have to persevere to buy tickets for a once in a lifetime experience? I've spent as long trying to get Madonna tickets, and not succeeded.
And at least we all understand this first come, first served process. Just 48 hours to wait to find out if I've actually got a ticket.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/rogermosey/2011/06/hope_and_frustration_in_2012_t.html
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