Rugby World Cup 2011 Ticket confirmations under way

Photo / Sarah Ivey

Rugby World Cup call centre staff will work over the weekend in a bid to clear a backlog of fans still waiting for confirmation that they have tickets.

Shane Harmon, spokesman for the Rugby World Cup 2011, said yesterday that calls to the centre had settled down but the average wait time was still two minutes.

"We've basically sent out close to 50,000 pieces of communication this week to applicants so it's a massive campaign. Lots of inquiries."

Those lucky enough to get tickets were to find out this week, but instead received letters asking them to call a hotline number because of credit card processing problems.

Frustrated fans then found the call centre was inundated with people desperate to discover if they had tickets and some could not get through.

Mr Harmon said the problems were caused by some fans' cards expiring, or by inputting the wrong number.

However, other fans contacted the Weekend Herald yesterday to say they had received both a confirmation letter that they had got tickets and a second letter saying they had not got tickets.

Nathan Baker, from Auckland, applied for the Eden Park pack and the quarter-final in Christchurch.

He received an email on June 16 saying he was partially successful but he should contact the help desk because of credit card issues. He then received another email yesterday saying his application was unsuccessful.

"When I asked [the call centre] about the two emails they couldn't give me an answer," Mr Baker said.

Late yesterday, Mr Baker was told the credit card problems had been sorted out and he would get his tickets.

"I don't have much confidence in them," Mr Baker said.

"Even though they're going to process the credit card, I'm a bit nervous about it."

Mr Harmon said less than 200 of 50,000 fans had been informed they were both partially successful, and had their credit card declined.

"We can understand why that's confusing and we're going to get in touch with those people to provide some clarity."

Mr Harmon said the helpline would be open on Monday and he expected all ticketing problems would be resolved by the middle of next week.

Email queries will still be answered over the weekend.

Organisers were happy to extend the July 7 deadline for resolving credit card issues if necessary.