Vue customers forced to queue to access website as families rush to book film tickets on first rainy day of summer

The Vue cinema website was forced to use a queue as thousands of Brits attempted to book film tickets on the first rainy day of the summer.

Customers trying to access the site were placed in a queue of up to 20 minutes on Sunday, while others reported spending 45 minutes waiting on the phone.

It came as fierce rains and gale-force winds brought the heatwave to an abrupt end this weekend , forcing many to abandon their outdoors plans.

A message on the Vue website read: “It's a lot busier than usual at the moment, so to help with the waiting we've placed you in a queue."

One would-be film-goer tweeted: “Absolute joke. Three 20 min queues for getting onto website to book tickets. Each time I get there another queue. A 45 min queue to book by phone.

Another added: “A queue just to look up film times on the Vue website on a rainy day?!”

When one customer asked Vue over Twitter why the website was down, the cinema chain responded: “Would you believe us if we told you it was the weather?

“Sorry about this! We're experiencing a high volume of traffic.”

A Vue spokesperson told the Standard: "The website is not crashing. We are experiencing huge demand for tickets due to the number of popular movies showing.

"When we anticipate high demand due to popular films showing and school holidays we put in place a queuing system during peak hours to help customers have a more seamless experience and to manage website performance.

"This is similar to other ticketing sites such as Ticketmaster, but new to Vue’s customers. The queuing system is managed dynamically according to demand on the website and while wait time might vary, the wait is typically a few minutes only."