Ticketmaster and similar

Forums › Sports › Ticketmaster and similar - Fees

networkn

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#267850 14-Feb-2020 10:50

So, buying 3 tickets tonight to the Blues-Crusaders, it was $9 x 2 for the kids (great price) and $25 for me (Good price) and *$9* in fee's of various types.

I consider that is outrageous. It's all done online (and their website is truly awful and hard to use).

I feel like flagging the whole thing. It's not about the total cost, which isn't really an issue, but the percentage in fees.

networkn

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#2420782 14-Feb-2020 10:52

Now I am actually seriously annoyed.

I called them because the password reset link doesn't work, spent 5 minutes going through the IVR, to be told all their lines are full and hung up on me.

kobiak

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#2420784 14-Feb-2020 10:53

and movie tickets... buy online and pay more. go figure.

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wellygary

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#2420794 14-Feb-2020 11:14

networkn:

I consider that is outrageous. It's all done online (and their website is truly awful and hard to use).

I feel like flagging the whole thing. It's not about the total cost, which isn't really an issue, but the percentage in fees.

Welcome to the gouge that is sports ticketing intermediaries,

networkn

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#2420815 14-Feb-2020 11:30

Anyone know what "other half" tickets are at Eden Park? It's $10 cheaper than allocated seating for the same seat.

jonathan18

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#2420870 14-Feb-2020 11:49

It afflicts events ticketing generally, not specifically sports.

My favourite component is the charge one of those companies has in making me pay for ME to print the tickets!

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#2421010 14-Feb-2020 14:25

networkn:

Anyone know what "other half" tickets are at Eden Park? It's $10 cheaper than allocated seating for the same seat.

that have a vday promotion running, buy one adult ticket get one half price. as you will notice you have to buy 2 tickets :)

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BlueShift

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#2421022 14-Feb-2020 14:39

If there's no way of buying a ticket without paying the fees, then the fees are part of the price and should just be included in the advertised price. I'm pretty sure airlines got pinged for that a while back.

Most of the tickets they sell are exclusive to that vendor, so there's no real price competition involved.

They'd piss off a lot less people if they advertised a ticket at $120, then gave a $5 discount for printing at home, or whatever. Instead they advertise a ticket at $100, and when you get to the site, there's $20 of extra compulsory fees, so the punter goes away with a bad taste.

The power companies had the right idea when they sold their late payment fee as an on-time payment discount!

jonathan18

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#2421028 14-Feb-2020 14:48

Agree with the above; and it's highlighted in the example I gave earlier re charging for printing.

With Ticketek there's an added charge for ANY form of ticket delivery, so for selecting 'print-at-home' or a mobile ticket one is pinged a farcical $5.50; of course, this price (the minimum of all options) should be built into the ticket cost, and then the additional charges added if those are selected (eg, additional $3 for venue pick-up).

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#2421060 14-Feb-2020 15:14

To a point I can accept fees for ticket processing. What I hate about TicketMaster, especially, is that its such a terrible customer experience. Its a slow website and has so many steps to complete a purchase its crazy.

In fact it is so bad I can only assume that its a great experience for the vendor (stadium/sports team) cause its really not for the customer. The fact I have to see screens that say things like "...less than 1 minute processing..." is nuts. So I appreciate that a busy event may take a little while to reserve some seats/tickets at that step. But after that it should be pretty much instantaneous.

And then, at the end they want to hit you with offers from 3rd parties (who must be paying TicketMaster for the privilege).

Honestly; every single time I get annoyed at the experience.

If I had a little capital I'd create a competitor because it wouldn't take much effort to be better.

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#2422258 17-Feb-2020 11:13

I went through this booking tickets for the Wellington Phoenix game on Saturday night - to print at home there was an additional fee (do I get to then charge them for paper and ink costs?) plius a booking fee.

The movies are the same. It's cheaper to go to the box office when you get there and talk to a human than it is to do their job for them. Surely the website development wasn't so capital intensive that they are recouping the loss in online fees?

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#2422300 17-Feb-2020 11:49

~20,000 tickets to a concert

$1-3 per ticket 'fees'

And we think musicians must make a bundle. That's that intermediate scoring $40-60K per night right thar!

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#2429573 1-Mar-2020 13:01

I'd speculate the online booking fee for movie tickets is so that the majority of people don't start doing it online, collecting their tickets and going straight to the movie. If you buy the ticket at the cinema you're surely more likely to buy "refreshments" too..

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#2429579 1-Mar-2020 13:17

bmt:

I'd speculate the online booking fee for movie tickets is so that the majority of people don't start doing it online, collecting their tickets and going straight to the movie. If you buy the ticket at the cinema you're surely more likely to buy "refreshments" too..

Also a convenience thing where you can choose your seat early rather than either having to go there in person early to get a ticket and decent seat and then return later for the movie or risk going just before the movie starts but possibly end up with poor seats.

Only really an issue for new release blockbusters (Star Wars, Marvel etc...). Most of the times the theatre is pretty empty anyway so you can just rock on up a few minutes before it starts. Plus you can see what seats are left online before heading in - if it's filling up then maybe order online.