People are super pissed off at VIA Rail after the company botched the sale of special youth passes to celebrate Canada's 150th anniversary.
High demand overloaded the website on Wednesday, and VIA announced it was suspending sales until it could figure things out.
Due to high demand, sales of the Canada 150 Youth Pass are temporarily suspended.More info will follow once the situation is resolved.
Only a few hours later, though, the company said all 1,867 tickets had been sold.
Bon voyage! All the Canada 150 Youth Passes have been sold. 1,867 young travellers will discover Canada this summer.
Canada was founded in 1867, which might explain why there were only so many tickets available. But if there was a limit, that certainly wasn't communicated very clearly.
People accused VIA Rail of imposing a limit on tickets only after the company saw how much demand there was for the youth passes.
Hey @VIA_Rail please explain you clearly tweeted about having no limit to the youth pass before the site crashed.
And they had receipts.
@VIA_Rail Why did you post yesterday that there was no limit to the pass and then change your decision... Don't lie… https://t.co/E1WC9gJ6CJ
Some people who thought they'd be able to buy tickets in the morning woke up to find them all gone.
@VIA_Rail Will Canada 150 passes go back on sale? We were told there was no limit, but the tickets sold out while the east coast was asleep.
"We were told there was no limit, but the tickets sold out while the east coast was asleep," this person tweeted.
VIA's Facebook page was also inundated with complaints from customers who lost out.
VIA Rail basically pissed off a generation of young Canadians.
New favourite PR-nightmare case: @VIA_Rail gaining massive support from one of Canada's largest demographics and losing it within hours
Lesson learned.
We should all thank @VIA_Rail for showing everyone ages 12-25 what disappointment really feels like
BuzzFeed Canada reached out to VIA Rail for comment. We will update this post when we hear back.