<p>I just ordered tickets from Ticketmaster. The face value of the ticket was $46.50. However, the following fees were added on for each ticket:</p>
<p>$3.50 facility fee
$11.30 convenience charge
$2.14 Order processing charge</p>
<p>Total additional fees per ticket: $16.94</p>
<p>That is a whopping 36% in additional fees (not counting the tax on the convenience charge) per ticket. I can remember paying a few extra bucks for these types of fees in the past, but this is robbery. :mad:</p>
<p>I agree. Ticketmaster has a license to steal. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I agree- they even charge if you print out your tickets yourself.
For a good while, Pearl Jam boycotted ticketmaster venues, but they eventually chose to perform in those larger halls, so that they could serve their fans better.</p>
<p>[Pearl</a> Jam Musicians Testify On Ticketmaster’s Prices - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/01/arts/pearl-jam-musicians-testify-on-ticketmaster-s-prices.html?pagewanted=1]Pearl”>http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/01/arts/pearl-jam-musicians-testify-on-ticketmaster-s-prices.html?pagewanted=1)</p>
<p>Lately smaller venues who used smaller agencies like Live Nation ( which has been taken over by Ticketmaster), have had to raise their fees as well.</p>
<p>[Bruce</a> Springsteen Furious At Ticketmaster, Rails Against Live Nation Merger : Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily](<a href=“http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/02/04/bruce-springsteen-furious-at-ticketmaster-rails-against-live-nation-merger/]Bruce”>http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/02/04/bruce-springsteen-furious-at-ticketmaster-rails-against-live-nation-merger/)</p>
<p>I wholeheartedly agree. That $2.50 charge to print out the ticket is what got me last time. I will now drive to the venue to buy tickets whenever possible. May cost me in gas and time, but I refuse to participate if I don’t have to.</p>
<p>Yes, I always choose the cheapest distribution method, whatever that is. I think it was “free” to have them mail the tickets to me via standard mail, so that is what I picked. If this is “free”, I’d hate to see what happens when they think they are charging a fee.</p>
<p>I just did a little research, and apparently the venues often have contracts with Ticketmaster to exclusively sell their tickets. I just sent off a complaint e-mail to the organization that owns this theater. I’m sure it won’t move them off Ticketmaster, but I feel every so slightly better.</p>
<p>I am going to play the devil’s advocate here. Ticketmaster is an agency that sells tickets for various events. They wouldn’t make any money if they were selling tickets at "face value " Believe it or not , it DOES cost money to process orders so of course they will charge you various fees…it is very expensive to process credit cards online. It is expensive to pay an employee to complete the transaction. All processing and expenses related to handling are going to be passed on to the consumer , at least if the company hopes to turn a profit 
I have a small business that processes credit cards online…the fees are HUGE…even for a little company like ours…</p>
<p>When most of the transaction occurs electronically, the cost of processing is not that high. Technical applications like theirs are very scalable; once you build the application, it is mostly hardware costs. Some staff to maintain the technical application, but very little actual handling of the product is needed. And they used to process for much less. I can remember when the fees were about $5 per ticket from Ticketmaster. I can’t see that their business model has changed so much in about five years that it is triple that now. The fee for a credit card transaction is 3% max. That leaves 33% of the 36% to account for. The facility fee was 7.5%. Now we are down to 29%. </p>
<p>The other issue is that there is almost no competition for Ticketmaster. There has been some antitrust litigation against them in the past. They recently merged with the Live Nation concert promotion company, which surely won’t help.</p>
<p>The fee for a credit card transaction is not necessarily 3% max. That depends on factors such as what type of credit card it is ( Amex is higher ) Also the programs are costly and they always have mandatory upgrades, sometimes based on volume of sales and higher fees if the card and cardholder are not present ( which of course they aren’t for online purchases ) Don’t get me wrong…I wouldn’t be happy paying that high a fee , which is why I usually shop around when purchasing tix, but I also know that every little charge that a company incurs will be passed on to the consumer…you would be surprised at how much a minimum wage employee actually costs when it breaks down. And if they can pass on the cost of the printing and envelope, even if it is miniscule , they will.
Just curious…what were the tix for ? Concert, sporting event ? theatre ? Would going to the box office have been an option , or only to pick up the tix at the event ?</p>
<p>lje, you simple cannot compare a small business with a huge monopoly like Ticketmaster! I bet they get heavy volume discounts from Amex.</p>
<p>A few years ago, I cringed at the extra $5 I had to pay for a $50 ticket (Swan Lake, Bolshoi Ballet) bought through a Ticketmaster outlet. Wow, the fees have tripled in less than 10 years! :eek:</p>
<p>A scam? You know what you are paying for the tickets before you pay for them. Go to the venue box office to avoid a lot of the fees.</p>
<p>The tickets were for Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me (the NPR news show). As Carl Kasel would say 
There was no option to pick up the tickets there or print them. Only various options to have them shipped to me. I picked the “free” one, standard mail. Usually I pick Will Call if it is free, but it wasn’t even an option.</p>
<p>I don’t believe these tickets could have been purchased at the box office. They put them on sale early for Minnesota Public Radio members through Ticketmaster, that was the only choice. I am guessing they sold out very quickly; I was sitting there clicking to buy on the hour when they were supposed to go on sale. When I actually got in (maybe 30 seconds after the hour), I scooted through my transaction, and all the more expensive seats on the ground floor level STILL were gone. Of course, I ended up paying the equivalent of the more expensive price anyway with the fees!</p>
<p>And the volume of transactions through Ticketmaster is huge, I am sure they get a discount. I work in business (with a lot of IT experience, especially with credit card transactions), so I know what it costs to have employees to support these things. This is not a super complex business model or application, and their volumes are very large. I stand by the use of the word “scam”.</p>
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<p>Ticketmaster is far from a scam. A scam is them sending you other tickets than you purchased. A scam is charging more than your order total.</p>
<p>Nobody is forcing you to buy the tickets. Is it a scam that some restaurants charge $100 per plate? Is it a scam that some universities charge $40,000 per year? People buy those items and services. That’s why those places are still in business.</p>
<p>If you didn’t like the price, then you shouldn’t have bough the tickets. It’s as simple as that.</p>
<p>My husband & son complain about the in-convenience costs all the time! Their inexpensive concert tickets become expensive after the extra costs. They have finally just accepted the fact that the ticket price is not what is advertised … it’s what is actually charged. Sigh …</p>
<p>Bunsenburner, small or large business…Amex is the most expensive to process. This is why so many businesses have stopped accepting them. It is great for the cardholders , not so much for the businesses that accept it. The only people I ever hear gripe about it are the cardholders who want to redeem their rewards for using it when the get turned down.
IT and credit card transactions are only a part of the cost of employing any individual…when it breaks down to an hourly wage, no matter what the size of the company there are many more factors. It basically breaks down to double the hourly wage a company pays per employee , whether it be Walmart or a small company such as the one my husband and I run. I may not be Sam Walton, but I do know a thing or two about entrepreneurship.
So while I get the frustration of paying the extra fees, no matter what they call them , you were not scammed, intparent…just miffed that you had to pay more than you wanted to to go see the show.</p>
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<p>I completely agree with this. I am an HR major, so I know a thing or two about this. Do you know how much it costs to hire and train employees? How about going through the selection process? I would definately agree that it’s at least double the hourly wage.</p>
<p>Why do you think the music industry has killed itself off? Have you looked at CD sales lately? Concert revenues are way down.</p>
<p>I bought my last concert tix last year when I had the pre-order code from the band entered in memory on my computer so I was in Ticketmaster instantly when pre-order started. Best I could do was two seats in the 12 row of the balconey. All the good seats were already on Ebay. </p>
<p>Screw that. Let 'em all play to empty halls for a year. They’ll get the message. I’ve been to plenty of good concerts. They need me a lot more than I need their ridiculous treatment of customers.</p>
<p>I’m watching the Allman Brothers live from NYC tonight. High def. CD quality sound from the soundboard. Streaming on the internet. Who needs Ticketmaster. For the price of two tickets, I get a year’s subscription. All of this year’s shows live and archived, plus all 15 of last years shows archived with guests like Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Johnny Winter, and Eric Clapton. Gotta run. The band is coming back out for the second set…</p>
<p>What gets me is when they charge me to print the tickets on my own printer. Are you effing kidding me??? Then they print out with ADS on them - which someone paid for. OK, I get that they have costs to set up and run their business. But to charge me for printing the tickets, with my own ink and my own paper, no postage necessary on their end, AND they get money from putting ads on the ticket when it prints?</p>
<p>I think they would be more consumer-friendly if they had some competition.</p>
<p>Awesome show. About 3 hours with intermission and encore. Susan Tedeschi (aka Mrs. Derek Trucks) joined the band for a couple songs to start the second set and again for the encore.</p>
<p>The price maybe high, but the fact that I don’t have to stand in line all night (remember that?), and I could sit in my office with multiple windows open to get the best tickets, it’s priceless. I would prefer to pay less, but with a choice of paying $20-30 vs standing in line…</p>
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<p>Exactly. It’s all about the convenience. Remember when people camped out all night in front of the box office in order to get the best tickets?</p>