I had thought that we had a full week after the Cactpot drawing to redeem our tickets. Normally I redeem them on Saturday, right after the drawing to get the early bird bonus, but I was out of town this past weekend and couldn't. I didn't think that was a big deal, since I could (I thought) redeem them any time this week, but I went in today to do so and it said it was expired, even though I bought it last week, for the drawing last Saturday (three days ago). Was I wrong about the week to redeem them? Or did it hit a bug and expire early?

On the Gold Saucer window, before going there to turn it in and buy this week's, it said "Ticket Expired (Your Number: 3369)", so it did remember my ticket, and is a different error than the one I've seen posted by some other people when the system forgot they'd bought one. In this case it was only the expiration time that was off. When talking to the Cactpot Cashier, the message was:
"I am terribly sorry, <sir/miss>, but you can no longer claim prizes for that ticket. Allow me to take it off your hands, and offer my condolences for your missed fortune."

(I have three alts that I bought tickets with, and this happened with all of them.)