The main problem, of course, is that TicketFister keeps turning a profit. I know it’s unreasonable to expect, but I’d love to see eceryone just give up going to a concert for 1 year. (Hell, 6 months to make it a little less implauseable.) Seriously, if the band is that good and the music that important, they’ll be around next year. Let the bands play to 10% capacity and see how fast ASCAP remedies the situation.
And shipping fees? Don’t get me started. They are contracted with UPS, so they get a HUGE discount on their shipping. Trust me, I know. We deal with them (UPS). As a side note I’ll say that I’m just as pissed overall with the whole “+S&H” gimmick. The latest I’ve found are jump drives that cost $40 for 1GB, but it costs $25 to ship it to you. :dubious: How this is legal still hasn’t become apparent to me.
I haven’t used TM since the late '80’s. I think the last time was in '89 for the *Touch of Grey * tour. These days I buy the tickets at the venue, even if it means a trip to Minneapolis, Fargo or Winnipeg. (Luckily, for the past few years the tours stop here as well, so it’s usually not an issue.)
For sports? The only tickets I can’t get at the gate are games at Lambeau Field, so I go through a ticket agent (scalper) for those. Even with the insane markup, it’s still a better deal to me. Sure the face value is $53 and the actual cost is $220, but that’s due to simple supply/demand. Not an arbitrary fee(fine) imposed by the monopolistic company that spends 8 cents on printing a ticket for a show that doesn’t sell out. I can see a $50 premium placed on tickets for a show of the original Beatles. (Ya gotta fund necromancy somehow.)
The fact that the bands haven’t ended this shit themselves tell me what they really think of their fans(livelihood). I’ll respond in kind.
I’m not sure how or if this is accurate, but I’ve always thought the “handling” part was justified by the people actually picking the orders to ship. Anyone know the facts about this?
eBay strongly discourages sellers from gouging their prices by charging obscene amounts for “shipping and handling,” but it happens all the time. Since eBay charges a fee based on the final value of auctions, a lot of sellers try to circumvent that fee by allowing an item worth $50 to close for $10 (hence a smaller final value fee), and then charging $40 for shipping and handling. This really pisses me off, needless to say. But “handling” is purposely vague, and can include anything from the cost of packing materials to gas for driving to the post office to the value of time spent packing, driving, and waiting in line to mail the parcel. As an eBay seller, I emphatically do not charge handling fees, but I’m seeing a lot more of them than I ever used to.
Recently while surfing the net, I stumbled across a concert that I was interested in attending. The tickets had gone on sale days before, so I first headed over to Ebay to see what I was dealin’ with.
$225 for two tickets (6th row), BUY IT NOW! Free shipping!
I laughed and thought, “What an asshole scalper!” as I surfed over to TicketMaster.
Then my jaw dropped: with their stupid fees, 2 tickets ($75 each) came to a bit over $200-- and the seats weren’t nearly as good as what the Ebay person was selling.
Yeah, I bought from the Ebay ticket broker that day.
Ticketmaster has always had a free USPS shipping option (I just checked, and it still does). I’ve always used this. At worst, you could use the ticketFast option which they send of over email for $2.50. (Of course, charging $2.50 for an email is ludicrous, but hey, it’s Ticketmaster). I suppose if the event is really soon, then you might have to pay for the faster shipping using UPS.
I’m still surprised they don’t charge for USPS shipping. After all, it probably costs them about 30 cents, which given their markup, means they should charge about $5.
My parents spent a mint to buy tickets for The Producers when it was here in Ottawa. Before the show date though, the show got replaced by lame Dame Edna. No refund offered. Weak (or as my Dad put it, “Fuck Tickermaster”).
I’d like to thank this thread for saving me $20. I was thinking about buying tickets to two concerts, and was going to use Ticketmaster with out thinking. I read this thread, and called the venue. It turns out the House of Blues does charge a service fee, but there’s is only $4, instead of Ticketmaster’s $10-15
Here in Australia we have two main systems, Ticketmaster and Ticketek. I use Ticketek most of the time. Their fees are $7.95 per transaction (regardless of the number of tickets) and an extra $2 for delivery by registered mail rather than ordinary mail. For some events they email your ticket as a PDF attachment that you print and fold up to ticket size.
The newest player in the game is Moshtix who don’t issue tickets at all. They provide you with a Moshcard (just like a credit card) and all your tickets get stored on the magnetic strip. The card is swiped at the venue and in you go. If you reuse the card you can register it as your card and no more lost tickets.
When Alice Cooper was playing out in Chilliwack this past October, I just nipped an hour off work, hopped on my bike and scooted over to the local Bay, which harbours a TM office. Tics went onsale at 10AM. By 10:01 I had a row 4 ticket, original price $49 CDN. I payed a total of $56.50 for it. That’s it.
Not that I actually spent any time in my seat anyway…
Around here, they closed most of the counter outlets so you can only buy from them on the phone or online. If you buy online, as most people do…you get to pay their convenience charge! When I think about it, though, I can’t decide who’s convenience they’re talking about - mine or theirs…
Slightly related…I was a freekin’ hour late to purchase David Gilmour tickets for the Chicago show(s). If anyone has a couple they need to get rid of, I can afford a slightly inflated price. There are few performers I’m willing to pay more for these days. He’s one of 'em.
My favorite part is how they charge you a fee even if you are printing the tickets on your own printer.
That’s on top of whatever other fee they normally charge.
I think they call it a “convienience fee”
Forty percent mark up to cover the sales distribution of a commodity doesn’t phase me. Especially considering the enormity of the infrastructure required to allow Ticketmaster to fulfill its service to the public. Salesmen routinely earn commissions in the order of 40%.
Ever wonder what the markup is by retail outlets on the goods they make available to you? In most cases it is a hell of a lot more than 40%.
And when you consider the shipping and handling charges, there is a lot more to that than simply hiring a courier. You’ve got to provide an accurate secure addressed package into the hands of the courier.
When we go to the movies or the rock concert or a ball game, we don’t seem to mind paying multi millions into the pockets of the individual stars. Nobody is worth that much. That is what frustrates me.
There’s also tickets.com, but their fees are just as bad as TicketMaster.
And I’ve used musicToday for a couple of shows. They only charge a $2.50 per ticket fee (for a $12 ticket), but they have no delivery options. Only will call.
IANAL, but I wonder if the proper legal avenue against TicketMaster would be to accuse them of conducting a “bait and switch” operation. What bugs me about TicketMaster is being lured in by the notion that the tickets cost $X apiece, but you eventually find out they really cost $Y, with Y>X by a considerable margin.
If they’d just spell out their prices upfront, I wouldn’t have a problem with them.
