http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ol...re-in-confusion-over-London-2012-tickets.html The British government could well have chosen to look after all security and ticketing itself, effectively in American speak "socialising" the games. But no, they chose to follow the relatively recent trend in outsourcing to "more efficient, more effective" private companies. In this case the largest security group on earth and Ticket Master (a huge huge company). Both companies have failed in their attempts to fulfil their contractual obligations. We see this time and time again, with other outsourced ex-government services; higher bills and poorer services, as the "needs" of share owners are placed before the requirements of the client and the needs of the end customers.
At the heart of the ticket problem is a government creature called the London Coordination Commission. So I think the blame game goes both ways. But the nice thing about private companies that does not apply to government is that you can hold a private company accountable when they screw up. So if Ticketmaster has dropped the ball they can be made to pay or their mistake.
It has nothing to do with government. It was outsourced and yet again the profit margin was more important than the service. It's too late now for many, the dream of watching their child compete in the Olympics is over, gone... That's irreplaceable.
Of course it has to do with government. The parents of the athletes have to go through the London Coordination Commission to qualify for the tickets and that is government.
No they aren't. Only the parents of athletes in that event can claim tickets. And that means certification by the LCC.
The parents and friends ticket programme entitles every athlete to buy two tickets for each session in which they compete. But the Ticketmaster ticketing system used by Locog to administer the programme has not been able to update in time for each final - detaling which athletes are eligible to puchase the tickets. And this ignores the security situation, where the private company made a complete balls up of the supply of personnel, leaving the government to step in and clean up the mess with the Army.
hmmm, so it sounds to me like it's a comm issue between the system of those FEW events and updating which athletes are still in the event and thus parents can still get tickets. By the looks of the open seats my hunch is you could buy tickets at the venue with CASH and just fight the reimbursement battle later; you know, common sense if watching your kid is that important you will find a way inside
Maybe because the idiot government employees have not updated the latest results of the competition? Garbage in, garbage out. I was watching South Korea playing the United States in volleyball the other day and noticed that the lib journalists presenting the game could not update the scoreboard quickly enough or even credit the correct team with the latest point. It was embarrassing for a bunch of unpaid Obama campaign workers to be so incompetent. Now I'm sure you will say they work for a private company and they do. But the mentality of liberal journalists is that if NBC were not hiring their 2nd choice would be something in the government.
Locog has changed the system, telling the foreign teams that tickets for the programme could be picked up at venues, but the officials at the venue have not been informed and have refused the parents admission. Locog had a substandard computer system, which they have modified. They told foreign teams to pick up their tickets at the events, but failed to inform officials of this. More efficient? Seems not. More profitable for private business - you betcha!
The government and private companies are large complex organizations run by people. How anyone can say one is flawless and the other is terrible is beyond my comprehension. I've dealt with exceedingly dumb and draconian government inefficiency IN A DEEP RED STATE and I've dealt with bureaucratic and frustrating inefficiency in the private sector. If someone says private companies are in some way superior as far as customer service compared to the government they obviously have never had cable service, landline service, a home phone, dealt with ebay, paypal, had a cell phone etc. In the last two years I've had to go through phone menu hell and wait on hold and for up to half an hour, be transferred around to numerous departments, and been hung up on with all those services. I have had to write threatening letters to a variety of private corporations just to get basic service. Frankly I avoid all substantial monetary transactions and contracts because I fear dealing with the private sector after the sale or the contract is signed. It's awful.
There you go. That's a failure of government. People at Ticketmaster could lose their jobs if they have screwed up but I doubt if any of the slugs in the government will be fired over this.
I can't bring myself to defend ticketmaster, I'm not fond of them at all. The blame goes both ways here though and both want to use each other as a scapegoat.
Government is always less efficient and more expensive. Always. It is built into the design of the systems and motivations of the people. It is the profit motive that drives efficiency. Tickets may have been mishandled but I can promise you they were mishandled less expensively.
I do now. But it's not really a for profit private company in the traditional sense. More like what big government libs think every private company should be - one that only exists to serve the public good.
