London 2012: Olympic ticket resale website reopens

The ticket website has been out of action since the day it opened - 6 January

The <link> <caption>website for people to sell Olympic tickets</caption> <url href="http://www.tickets.london2012.com/about_resale.html" platform="highweb"/> </link> has reopened.

Rather than members of the public being able to buy the tickets immediately, Games organiser Locog will initially purchase them "at face value".

The unwanted tickets can be sold until 18:00 GMT on 3 February, and the public can buy them from April.

The website crashed on the day it opened and Locog commercial director Chris Townsend said: "We are sorry for any inconvenience caused."

The resale window had opened on 6 January but problems developed as the site, run by Ticketmaster, was slow to update sessions which had sold out. This resulted in the system closing that day.

Mr Townsend added: "We made a commitment to our customers to give them a safe, secure and legal way of selling Olympic and Paralympic tickets which they are no longer able to use. We are delivering on that commitment, and will buy any tickets that customers are no longer able to use.

"We believe this system - purchasing the tickets back from customers now, and offering them again from April, will result in a better customer experience for everyone."

The move follows a series of ticketing problems for Locog. The first sales period had to be extended after the site slowed down.

In the second round of sales, thousands of people thought that they had bought tickets. They were told the following day that they would not be charged, as they had not actually got any tickets at all.

Ten thousand tickets to watch synchronised swimming were put up for sale, yet they did not exist and customers have been offered a swap with seats at some of the Games' most sought after events like the men's 100m final.

However on 9 January, Locog partially reopened the site to sell Football and Paralympic tickets.

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