Click Frenzy website crashes as online sale set to launch

HAVE YOUR SAY: IT WAS meant to be "the sale that stopped the nation". Instead, it was the sale that crashed the web. 

IT was supposed to be "the sale that stopped the nation". Instead, it was the sale that crashed the internet.

National sales event Click Frenzy opened for business at 7pm AEDT last night and its host website crashed moments after it began.

The failure to launch denied registered shoppers details of the discounts on offer, forcing them to visit the websites of participating retailers.

Today, at least one of the participating retailers will start discussions about getting a refund from the Click Frenzy. 

Amid the meltdown last night, organisers told shoppers they were "far from embarrassed" by the breakdown and shoppers should have expected large crowds.

"Just like the Boxing Day sales, crowds are to be expected. For those experiencing difficulty, we recommend you check back in later when the storm has calmed enough for you to break through on your end," the Facebook statement read.

But customer reaction has been swift, and brutal, with shoppers, readers and social media commentators seizing upon #clickfail with gusto.

"It was an epic failure... I tried to get on and couldn't," wrote news.com.au reader Chrissy Brown.

Michelle Shoghi wrote: "I'm really annoyed that I wasted so much time trying to get onto their site last night." 

But the organiser's website wasn't the only page to fall victim to Click Frenzy's overwhelming popularity.

Many websites from participating retailers were unreachable before or shortly after the sale opened, crushed by the number of requests.

Priceline's website became unavailable minutes before the event began, and Myer's website was showing an "Error 503" message instead of discounted goods within the opening 10 minutes of the event. It was unavailable for more than an hour.

Other Click Frenzy victims included major electronics retailer Bing Lee.

Even online retailers failed to survive the shopping stampede. Kogan.com.au fell victim to a "bad gateway" due to too many visitors, the Recreate Yourself website disappeared, and Mwave.com.au, which promised technology bargains, also failed to load.

Some websites barely survived the visitor onslaught. A bare-bones version of Dick Smith's website loaded to early visitors willing to wait for it, only to recover later.

Some withstood the shopping rush, however, including Sportscraft, Target, Ted's Cameras, Westfield and Toys 'R Us.

Click Frenzy discounts were not apparent on every participating website, however, and some required codes to be entered as shoppers checked out of sites, which were not readily available.

Warnings of increased traffic had sounded out well ahead of Click Frenzy's 7pm AEDT kick-off.

Department store chain David Jones hosted a copycat event, dubbed Christmas Frenzy, that crashed its website earlier in the day.

Click Frenzy also began trending on Twitter throughout Australia late yesterday, though many tweets were not positive as websites began to crash.

Facebook also saw the formation of groups including Click Frenzy Fail that attracted more than 1900 'Likes' with its title of "The fail that stops a nation".