# Buying tickets from Ticketmaster **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 1, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-tickets-from-ticketmaster/306418 "2005-06-01T18:30:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lillith\_Fair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@Lillith\_Fair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lillith_Fair)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-tickets-from-ticketmaster/306418/1 "2005-06-01T18:30:38Z")
I need to buy 2 tickets from Ticketmaster. The sale starts on Saturday at 10:00. What is my best bet? Online or being at a Ticketmaster location in person? I really need this to work because my daughter desperately wants to hear and see Coldplay. I want her to be able to do this so I’m trying to do the right thing. She will be taking the SAT on Saturday so I have to do it. Besides, I have the credit card! ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-tickets-from-ticketmaster/306418/2 "2005-06-01T18:38:25Z")
I would just go online because nothing is more unpleasant than dealing with a human Ticketmaster employee. They must pick people based on their ability to be unpleasant. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-tickets-from-ticketmaster/306418/3 "2005-06-01T18:49:11Z")
Heh. Online is pretty painless, except for the “convenience fees” and “processing fees”. Funny, you can search for “TicketBastard” on Yahoo! and the first hit is TicketMaster. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-tickets-from-ticketmaster/306418/4 "2005-06-01T19:08:23Z")
These days, it’s nearly impossible to engineer particularly good seats. Online, you’re working “blind” and worry about being stuck in an indefinite holding pattern. In person, although you have to get up early and drive somewhere, you at least can see how many people are ahead of you in line (yet being first doesn’t count for much). Either way, be prepared to pay $10 more per ticket than the advertised price. I hate to give away my secret, but I go to _lots_ of concerts and I _always_ just show up on the street at showtime and haggle with the scalpers. I never pay full price–often less than half–and I’ve only had to walk away a couple times out of about 50. Even so, the risk factor makes it less recommended with your daugher or on a date. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-tickets-from-ticketmaster/306418/5 "2005-06-01T19:15:52Z")
> [@An Arky](#): > > Heh. Online is pretty painless, except for the “convenience fees” and “processing fees”. Oh yeah, they charge fees online, on the phone, and at mall outlets, but not at the actual concert venue. ---
**Author:** ![Lillith\_Fair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@Lillith\_Fair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lillith_Fair)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-tickets-from-ticketmaster/306418/6 "2005-06-01T19:26:56Z")
Well, this ticketmaster is at a grocery store in Cleveland and the concert is in Cincinnati so I thought no one would be in line for it. There is also a concert in Columbus but it is for after school starts in September. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-tickets-from-ticketmaster/306418/7 "2005-06-01T19:35:48Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > I would just go online because nothing is more unpleasant than dealing with a human Ticketmaster employee. > > They must pick people based on their ability to be unpleasant. Yeah. a lot of them are but they’re also dealing with irritable people who don’t understand how the system works and others who are constantly trying to scam something. It makes one kinda cranky sometimes. I used to work at a store that sold Ticketmaster tickets and I say go online. When the tickets are released for sale system-wide, the store computers don’t have any higher priority than your computer at home and you run the very high risk of not being first in line. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-tickets-from-ticketmaster/306418/8 "2005-06-01T19:36:03Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > Oh yeah, they charge fees online, on the phone, and at mall outlets, but not at the actual concert venue. I recently went to see David Sedaris at a Ticketmaster-sold event. I bought tickets _at the theater_, and they still charged me the extra $5 or whatever. I asked, and they said there was no way to avoid paying it. I filed a complaint with the California Attorney General’s office for false advertising.