Glasgow 2014: Refunds after ticket line charged for engaged tone

Some callers to the phoneline were overcharged while trying to buy Games tickets

Refunds are to be given to callers charged for an engaged tone while phoning to buy tickets for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Organiser Glasgow 2014 apologised after some callers were wrongly charged by Talk Talk Business, a supplier of ticketing firm Ticketmaster.

It has been reported that some people faced charges of more than £100.

Meanwhile, the Games ticketing website is still offline after being suspended amid an ongoing fiasco with sales.

A spokesman for Glasgow 2014 said: "Glasgow 2014 can confirm that some callers to the Glasgow 2014 ticket line who received an engaged tone on the ticketing phonelines were charged in error by Talk Talk Business, a supplier of Ticketmaster.

'Unreserved apology'

"We apologise unreservedly for this and are working now with Ticketmaster and Talk Talk Business to ensure customers affected by this are refunded these charges as soon as possible."

A Talk Talk Business spokesman added: "It has come to our attention that, due to a human programming error, we did not deliver the service that had been agreed with Ticketmaster during the general ticket sale for the Commonwealth Games.

David Grevemberg offered an "unreserved apology" to those affected by the ticketing fiasco

"This meant that some customers who called the Commonwealth Games ticket line and received the engaged tone were charged for the call costs in error.

"We would stress that this issue did not affect all callers to the ticket line and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this has caused. We will work with Ticketmaster to urgently compensate all customers affected by this error."

Virgin Media said it was looking to find out if any of its customers had been affected.

The problems have overshadowed the sale of 100,00 extra tickets, which were released at 10:00 on Monday on a first come, first served basis.

Within hours it became apparent that people were facing long delays and issues with finalising transactions.

'Unreserved apology'

The site was initially closed for an hour on Tuesday morning to allow technicians to investigate the problem but they failed to resolve it.

That resulted in a second day of delays and frustration for sports fans hoping to secure tickets for the Games.

Online and telephone sales were halted at 18:00 on Tuesday after technicians failed to resolve glitches in the system.

That led to Glasgow 2014 chief executive David Grevemberg offering an "unreserved apology" to those affected.

It has since emerged that the problems may take days to resolve.

Scottish Sports Minister Shona Robison met officials from Glasgow 2014 on Thursday to discuss a resolution to the ongoing ticketing problems.

Following the meeting, Mr Grevemberg said: "This was a constructive and positive meeting where we outlined the options and testing required to ensure we can put tickets back on sale with confidence.

"Our priority is ensuring the experience of securing tickets for the Commonwealth Games is a positive one for all our customers and we look forward to sharing our plans tomorrow."

Earlier, during First Minister's Questions, Alex Salmond said the problems were a matter of "great regret and frustration".

The Scottish Conservative leader, Ruth Davidson, said the episode had been "shambolic".