Embarrassing Olympic Clock-up for Visa

The official 500-day countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games has got off to an inauspicious start, kicking off  with a couple of unfortunate and embarrassing technological malfunctions.

The first concerned the Olympic countdown clock,  centrepiece of celebrations in Trafalgar Square to mark 500 days till the start of the games. The steel Clock, provided by Omega,  6.5 metres high, 5m long, weighs around  four tonnes and took ten people two days to assemble.

The Olympic Countdown Clock in Trafalgar Square

Unfortunately it only ran for a day before conking out for six hours.  No wonder Boris Johnson and Seb Coe are so confident London will be able to complete preparations in time for 2012; they probably think there are still a full five hundred days left.

The second malfunction occurred when thousands of Visa cardholders logged on to the official Olympic website to purchase tickets.  Even though their cards were valid and current, any customer with a card due to expire in April, May June or July 2011 had their application refused.

According to Visa the glitch has now been sorted out, but the company is advising its cardholders not to apply again until March 21.  The fix will only solve the problem for those whose cards expire in May, June or July; cards which run out in April will still be rejected.  A spokesman for Visa, however, said "Any Visa cardholders with an April expiry date will receive a replacement card before the ticket registration deadline of 26 April."

The problem was particularly embarrassing for the games organisers and website managers Ticketmaster, as Visa Credit or Debit cards are the only payment methods which can be used to buy tickets on the official Olympic website.

Why is it not possible to pay using other credit cards, such as Mastercard or Amex? I don’t know, but assume there is some kind of exclusivity agreement in place between Visa and the Olympic organisers.