[SairBabi92]

Leongate has taken a dramatic turn – with media watchdog Ofcom investigating complaints from viewers that they couldn't get through to vote for Rhydian Roberts. An Ofcom spokesman said viewers had "expressed concerns about the operation of the voting and many said they were struggling to get through".

[andybigbro]

Oh Come on its liek this every blooming year

Get Over it, Leon Won

[XxShortyxX]

I remember last year, I had to like try 4 times to try and vote for Leona, in the end I got through, and none kicked up a fuss then, so why are people spitting out their dummies for.

[Matt]

How did I know it would come to this?

[Harry!]

Originally posted by XxShortyxX
I remember last year, I had to like try 4 times to try and vote for Leona, in the end I got through, and none kicked up a fuss then, so why are people spitting out their dummies for.

Rydyan is the best!

[Red Moon]

I would suggest people that voted for Leon and couldn't get through on the phones write to OFCOM too. That way they can get the whole picture and not those of the sore losers.

[Red Moon]

A little more detail on this story:

Ofcom probe into X Factor phone-in votes

Ofcom is investigating the television talent show X Factor after viewers complained they could not get through on phone lines to lodge their vote.

The media regulator has received 80 complaints from viewers after Saturday night’s final, in which outsider Leon Jackson beat odds-on favourite Rhydian Roberts to the title and a Ł1 million recording contract.

Soon after the surprise win, the ITV1 programme's message board and Rhydian Roberts fansites were inundated with complaints from fans claiming they could not get through to vote for the winner.

An Ofcom spokesman said 80 viewers had contacted the watchdog to "express concerns about the operation of the voting, and many said they were struggling to get through."

X Factor has denied any voting irregularities, although production company Talkback Thames admitted some viewers trying to register their votes were met with the engaged tone.

But in a year in which broadcasters have been dogged by phone-in scandals, fans immediately suspected foul play.

"Not since Maradona’s 'Hand of God’ has British television witnessed such an outrageous injustice," one person complained online.

"Leon was way out of his league against Rhydian. Who on earth voted for him? He must have one huge family!"

Another Rhydian fan wrote: "It is a travesty. I tried countless times to vote for Rhydian and couldn’t get through. How many other people also couldn’t vote for him? I like Leon, but he could not compare with Rhydian."

Another declared: "My wife tried to get through all evening to vote for Rhydian and only got an engaged tone."

Talkback Thames blamed the reported problems on the sheer volume of calls, and insisted the contest was not rigged.

"As all numbers go through to the same lines and vote platform, it is impossible for there to be any bias in favour or against a particular contestant," a spokeswoman said.

"Phone lines were monitored throughout the night and there were no issues on voting lines.

"We do get a huge surge of calls and depending on phone operators some callers may have experienced an engaged tone or network busy message and therefore may have to call back, but these calls should not be charged.

"Some Virgin Media customers did experience problems getting through because of high call volumes, but there were no other reported faults on the lines."

It is not the first time voting for the talent show has come under scrutiny.

A recent report by auditors Deloitte found "serious technical issues" with red button and text voting in previous series.

During the 2005 X Factor final, 13.9 per cent of votes cast in this way arrived too late to be included, although it did not affect the outcome of the show.

Three episodes of the 2006 series were also affected, with between 4 per cent and 7 per cent of votes received too late.

ITV has admitted overcharging X Factor viewers by Ł200,000 in last year’s series, when 1.3 million red button votes were mistakenly charged at the wrong rate.

Source: Daily Telegraph

[natjake2504]

blah blah blah - happens every time

[CassetteFinger]

I couldent get through to Rhydian or SD. What about SD ???? Both lines were engaged for like half an hour.

[Dan_]

Every line was busy, it's the final after all .

[Loukas]

Number of X Factor voting complaints rockets to 700!

This X Factor voting controversy is turning into a big story. Yesterday a mere 80 viewers had complained to industry regulator Ofcom about their inability to vote for Rhydian. Today that number of complaints has hit 700. So far. Clearly Rhydian supporters feel highly aggrieved, and equally clearly, loads of X Factor viewers had trouble getting through on the phone lines. Our only question is: why should it have been harder to get through for Rhydian voters than for Leon voters? And how could ITV (or whoever runs its phone lines) ever make sure that absolutely EVERYONE would be able to get through? Of course they can't. Ofcom will no doubt take ages to investigate, but we'll be stunned and amazed if they find any fault in the way this whole thing was conducted. In the end, it's just the way these things work. What do you think?

HeatWorld

[CassetteFinger]

O well, Leon has won. They cant do anything about it now

[Tom4784]

This is annoying me now, Leon won and nothing's gonna change that, Rhydian's got a recording contract with Simon Cowell anyway so why are people complaining? I can hardly get through most times with votes but i never kick up a fuss,everyone's lines are busy on finals there's just too many callers Vs open lines.

[Red Moon]

Originally posted by DoubleTrouble
Number of X Factor voting complaints rockets to 700!

This X Factor voting controversy is turning into a big story. Yesterday a mere 80 viewers had complained to industry regulator Ofcom about their inability to vote for Rhydian. Today that number of complaints has hit 700. So far. Clearly Rhydian supporters feel highly aggrieved, and equally clearly, loads of X Factor viewers had trouble getting through on the phone lines. Our only question is: why should it have been harder to get through for Rhydian voters than for Leon voters? And how could ITV (or whoever runs its phone lines) ever make sure that absolutely EVERYONE would be able to get through? Of course they can't. Ofcom will no doubt take ages to investigate, but we'll be stunned and amazed if they find any fault in the way this whole thing was conducted. In the end, it's just the way these things work. What do you think?

HeatWorld

Like I said before this wasn't just a Rhydian problem. The comment pages on the Daily Mail where this story has run is full of comments from Leon voters that couldn't vote because of engaged lines.

People that had problems with voting for Leon should also contact Ofcom so they get a balanced picture.

Clearly the problem here is that they didn't have enough equipment to handle all the calls and that is all it is. The available equipment to answer the calls would have been divided equally between the acts so both sets of voters would have experienced the same sort of problems.

[James]

People will be complaining soon that they can't get through to Ofcom because the lines are engaged.