A £1 million free ticket giveaway caused ScotRail’s website to crash this morning after drawing in tens of thousands of people.
The offer had been advertised as a “thank you” to customers, with people being offered an off-peak return to top destinations across the country.
It began at 10am, however customers attempting to take advantage of the giveaway quickly began reporting problems with the ScotRail website.
A warning on the organisation’s website said: “Due to high demand, you might experience some problems when claiming tickets. Please keep trying as there are still tickets left.”
ScotRail added it had experienced “technical difficulties” due to the high volume of people visiting the site, and thanked customers for their “patience”.
Despite the problems just shy of 40,000 people are said to have taken advantage of the deal, with three tickets being snapped up every second when things were at their busiest.
Rob Shorthouse, ScotRail Alliance’s communications director, said: “Our million pound ticket giveaway is proving to be hugely popular. Our website suppliers told us that the first hour of the giveaway was more like the first hour of Glastonbury tickets going on sale. It was just incredible.
“We are building the best railway that Scotland has ever had. We are just delighted that so many people have taken up our offer to have a day out in our beautiful country on us.”
Due to very high demand the website is having technical difficulties. Thank you all for your patience! ^CG
— ScotRail (@ScotRail) September 6, 2017
Angry customers had earlier taken to Twitter to vent their frustration at the issues with the ScotRail website.
Usual scotrail disaster – website crashing constantly so unable to get tickets
— slummymummy123 (@slummymummy123) September 6, 2017
@ScotRail can't you do anything right. Your ticket giveaway site is awful. Crashing every two mins #amillionthanksfornothing pic.twitter.com/4HqaV4cFNh
— Ross Smith (@Ross_S0) September 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/markferg/status/905372090991247360
I am on step 2 for the 3rd time now and not allowing to reserve tickets…
— Derek McAllister (@Derek_McA) September 6, 2017
@ScotRail this is 2nd year running that website has crashed when you are running ticket giveaway. 40 mins on site still no tickets.crashing
— gordon (@gordonkerfuffle) September 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/grantod84/status/905366806591922176
You might want to make sure you have enough tickets for when/where people want to travel – and that your website does not crash…
— Kurt Mills (@ProfKurtMills) September 6, 2017
It's a nightmare I picked random date and got email took about 6 or 7 attempts though
— Neil J Brodie ⭐⭐ (@NeilJB1903) September 6, 2017
@ScotRail What the chuff do you have to do to actually get one of these elusive free tickets? Been trying since 10am. Done with it!
— Chloe Nicolaou (@nicolaou_chloe) September 6, 2017
I keep getting to the confirmation page then it refreshes with a technical error ?
— Cally Benvie (@CallyBenvie) September 6, 2017
had my tickets booked & it said i had 5 mins to confirm, i pressed confirm and it loaded a blank page. any idea if its likely gone through?
— Malcolm Stickle (@malkybck) September 6, 2017
Technology letting you down again. Several attempts, including I am nit a robot, to get timed out message. Are yiu surprised to be busy.
— Martin Grant (@martingrant1) September 6, 2017
However from what we gathered, ScotRail staff had been working pretty hard to amend things….
Working hard to respond to you as quick as possible, folks! ^CG pic.twitter.com/dYoPtRO72P
— ScotRail (@ScotRail) September 6, 2017
