HARRISBURG, Pa. — After a rocky start on Monday, the second day of hunting license sales on the Pennsylvania Game Commission's new online system appears to be going more smoothly, a spokesperson with the Game Commission said Tuesday.
On Monday, the PGC launched a new online purchasing system for hunters interested in obtaining general and antlerless hunting licenses. But the high volume of interest, paired with issues within the new system, led to frustrating wait times for those trying to get their permits.
Angry hunters took to social media to vent their frustrations, and Republican State Sen. Greg Rothman, chair of the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee, vowed to get to the bottom of the issues and ensure they did not happen again.
The PGC eventually issued an apology and vowed to work with the website's vendor to make sure the issues experienced Monday were quickly addressed.
Despite the initial problems, PGC spokesperson Travis Lau said a total of 165,503 general licenses and 164,097 antlerless licenses were sold on Monday.
According to Lau, online and in-person sales are handled differently under the new purchasing system when there is a heavy overall volume of customers. Those looking to make online purchases are routed to an online waiting room, while in-person customers are not.
"Those buying in-person often were waiting in lines, but for the most part, sales kept moving, though slowly due to high traffic," Lau said.
Due to the high volume of customers, some hunters looking to buy their licenses online were queued into a waiting room that at times had more than 100,000 others, Lau said.
Some angry hunters claimed to be left waiting for seven to 10 hours before their attempts to purchases licenses online were processed.
Lau acknowledged their frustration.
"Not everybody was waiting so long, but there were long waits online," he said.
Online sales on Monday were further slowed by a system-wide outage that lasted for about two hours in the middle of the day, Lau said.
But by Monday night, most of the kinks had been ironed out, according to Lau.
"By 11 p.m., volumes dropped below the level that routes online customers to the waiting room, and people were getting licenses instantaneously," Lau said. "The people I’ve talked to who are getting licenses today don’t seem to be experiencing waits."
A check of the Game Commission's online license purchasing site Tuesday afternoon seemed to validate Lau's claims.
During an attempt to purchase a license at 2 p.m. Monday, there were more than 100,000 others in line once customers were routed into the online waiting room.
At 1 p.m. Tuesday, the line in the online waiting room was at four people.