Ticketma$ter

posted by The Dark Prince

I just noticed that some of my favorite female artists are performing together on the same night as part of the Hotel Cafe Tour at the Music Box in LA next month, including Rachael Yamagata, Meiko, Kate Havnevik, and Emily Wells. I really wanted to go, and tickets were only $20.00, so I clicked through to Ticketmaster to buy a ticket, and this is what it all came down to:

Ticketmaster Screenshot

For those that are too lazy to do the math, the grand total comes to $38.30 . . . but the ticket only costs $20.00. WTF, mate? I mean, a building charge, a convenience charge, an order processing charge, and a TicketFast charge. All totaling $18.30. Almost doubling the cost of the ticket. I closed the browser window right there before they could add tax lest I faint from sheer shock.

Okay, let’s break it down. A building fee. Okay, I get that, House of Blues has been doing it for years. It sucks that they just don’t add that into the cost of the ticket. It’s kinda like saying, okay, pay this money for the band, but to see the band in a special room with a roof over your head, you also need to pay this amount of money. By the way, the money you gave to the band, yeah, some of that goes to the venue, too. Fine, I’ll pay it only because I’ve been paying it for years.

The good ol’ convenience charge. Ticketmaster has been steadily increasing this fee for years. I’m no economist, maybe it has something to do with inflation, maybe it has to do with the recent financial crisis, but I remember this fee being way, way lower 10 years ago, and today it’s damn near $10.00. But okay, fine, TM has to get paid too, right? This goes to pay for computer servers, and people to process your order, and those official Ticketmaster tickets, so yeah, I’ll pay it, but really, don’t push your luck with the fee increases in the future.

Order processing charge. Seriously? Are you serious? What the hell was that “convenience” charge all about then if you’re going to charge me for processing my order?! C’mon, seriously! I have no idea what this is even for, I’ve never seen it before, it’s like Ticketmaster broke off their actual group that takes your ticket order away from the people that actually get your ticket to you, and since they’re two separate entities, they both need to get paid. I’m sorry, but I’m dangerously close to calling shenanigans on this one, it’s just . . . wow, an order processing charge.

TicketFast, I have never understood. You’re actually going to charge me $2.50 to use my own printer, paper, ink, time and engery to make my own ticket, effectively saving you the cost, materials, time and energy of mailing my ticket to me in the mail? Take a second and read what I just wrote and tell me that doesn’t sound completely backwards. Something I also noticed, Ticketmaster no longer ships you tickets for free via USPS, the only free option is to have your tickets available for you waiting at will-call, meaning you can’t give them to a friend if you won’t be able to make it for whatever reason. For $1.00, you can have your ticket waiting for you at one of the many Ticketmaster retail locations, which you are able to pick up at your convenience, and they’ll use their own printer, paper and ink to print out a ticket for you, or for as little as $14.50 or as much as $25.00 you can have your tickets shipped via UPS and receive them in 3 business days or less.

So, while I can’t really say anything bad about Ticketmaster the company, since they’re indirectly paying my salary right now, and I’ve always had great experiences with them over the past decade I’ve been buying concert tickets (I have a fat stack of stubs at home from every show I’ve ever been to, and 90 percent of them are from TM) I will make a plea to them: “C’mon Ticketmaster. M’kay? Times are tough, I just want to catch a show and relax, and not be making life decisions while I’m on your ticketing site — ‘Did I eat today? Man, I only got but three cigarettes, I don’t know . . . ‘”

Comments: [6]
October 16th, 2008
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