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Hitches replaced glitches when 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics fans jammed VANOC's ticketing website and hotline Saturday.
The Nov. 7 domestic sale of 100,000 tickets was postponed because the virtual waiting room wasn't connected. The second attempt left many customers stuck in the virtual waiting room for hours, except those who used dozens of browser windows.
"People got in by brute forcing the system," wrote Jonathan Lin of Toronto on Twitter. "I opened 60-plus windows and I got in within five minutes. Someone needs to investigate how this waiting room system actually works. There's no tracking cookie of any kind, no waiting queue."
Some customers reported the website crashed or froze as they attempted to complete their purchases.
"First time I got in about 10:30 a.m., I was booted after putting gold medal men's curling in my shipping cart," wrote Adam Dlin of Vancouver. "Picked up snowboarding and opening ceremony tickets, but by the time I got it it's virtually prelim hockey/curling and victory ceremonies."
By early Saturday evening, tickets remained for the closing ceremony, medals ceremonies, women's curling, women's hockey and men's hockey games featuring longshots Latvia, Norway and Switzerland.