The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games*

The LES asks a few poignant questions of Locog*, the body responsible for flogging the London Olympic Games.

It has been two weeks since the 6.6 million Olympic tickets went on sale to the public and games chiefs are reporting "steady" activity at the virtual box office which is open for five more weeks. The website has won acclaim from experts and applicants alike as being relatively easy to navigate. But flaws in the system - the world's third biggest retail website - have inevitably emerged. Consumer groups and would-be ticket holders have all raised issues. Here we call for answers from games organisers, Locog, to the six most commonly asked questions:

1 Why is there so little information on ticket availability in each sport?

One of the biggest complaints from the public is that they have little idea of their chances of success. Locog insist that they cannot be more specific at this stage because of uncertainty about final venue capacity. But as a first step they could be more upfront about the proportion of tickets available to the public for each sport. At some athletics finals only 35 per cent of seats might go to the public with the remainder for VIPs. The public demands to know the full breakdown beyond the somewhat pat line that 75 per cent of ticket are on sale to the public.

2 Why can't they make the applications and payments more user friendly?

There are several serious flaws throughout the process, which does not put the customer first. The ballot system encourages people to bid for more than they want - remember Games chiefs have tried stoked demand by forecasting they will sell out. But Locog will penalise those lucky enough to get all they asked for because they will have to purchase everything and cannot hand back tickets, or legally resell them for another six months when an official exchange opens. Why don't they simply allow people to decline the offer as is possible in the Wimbledon tennis ballot? If this winner-must-take-all system is a deterrent to being inundated with speculative applications, then why not introduce a cap per applicant?

Also, how can Locog justify taking payments up to six weeks before they even notify people what tickets they have been allocated. Surely they can guarantee to send an e-mail 48 hours before payment is taken to avoid people going into the red and paying unauthorised overdraft fees.

Under this system those who have drawn a blank in the a ballot will first notice by the lack of action in their back account; no news will be bad news.

A PR disaster waiting to happen.

3 Why is there so little information on the next stage of the process?

All Locog will say at the moment is that after the sale closes on 26 April, the next stage will be a one-month window starting on 10 May when the first payments will be taken and all applicants will be informed by 24 June. Surely they can give some indication as to what events will be charged first. All that is known so far is that oversubscribed events - those that need to be decided in the automated ballot - will be dealt with first.

4 Why is there so much secrecy surrounding ticket allocations for the opening ceremony?

There is a great amount of uncertainty over Locog's pricing policy for the opening ceremony. All they will say at the moment is that there will be equal amounts for the cheapest (£20) and most expensive (£2012) tickets. But they have not said how many of these there will be, nor have they said how they intend to divide up the published price categories in between, other than by saying it will be based on the level of demand. Is the "ordinary" fan about to be priced out of the spectacular curtainraiser?

5 Why no seating plan?

Pop concert promoters and airlines publish seating plans to assist their customers so why not do the same for the publicly-funded Olympics? Layouts already exist - indeed many events are taking place in existing venues such as Wembley and the O2 Arena - so why not put the information online?

6 Why the £6 surcharge?

Locog charges a compulsory £6 for recorded delivery of tickets which it insists is merely to cover costs. Consumer group Which? believes if this is the case then they are not getting a good deal from their postal company.