Imagine heading onto a leading supermarket website and filling your trolley with goods. You pay your £150…and then wait.
Several weeks later, a lorry appears outside your house with a boxful of red cabbages, a jar of Branston pickle and twenty four cans of Apple Tango.
In a nutshell, this is what has happened to millions of people who have applied for tickets for the 2012 Olympics. Payments are starting to come out of people’s bank and credit card accounts without any indication of exactly what you’re going to get for your money. It’s a situation that is perplexing the Mayor, who has described the ticketing process as ‘a bit peculiar’.
“I think it is a bit peculiar that it’s that way around. It’s an administrative oddity. But it’s not the end of the world … I don’t think it’s particularly heinous that it’s that way around,” Boris said, appearing before the culture, media and sport select committee.
“The critical thing on the tickets has been managing people’s sense of disappointment or otherwise. There aren’t that many tickets available but there are plenty of events that are undersubscribed, so it is possible to come back for a second bite of the cherry.”