Unbelievable Ticketmaster fees!
04-17-07, 10:56 AM
#26
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Originally Posted by nodeerforamonth
You can usually bypass the fees by buying the tickets directly from the venue itself, rather than going to a Ticketmaster outlet.
interesting note: there seems to be less fees if i buy tickets from an outlet, say at wherehouse, versus buying tickets at ticketmaster.com
04-17-07, 11:14 AM
#27
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While I think ticketmaster is horrible, I can honestly say that I haven't bought a single ticket from then since around 1996. It's not because I'm trying to avoid them either. Every concert/event I go to here in Austin uses a different ticket outfit. I'm not even sure any Austin venues ever use Ticketmaster. The fees are still there, but I don't think I've paid more than $8 in fees per ticket ever. I think the most popular outfit here is StarTickets, but I've bought from other places recently too.
04-17-07, 11:17 AM
#28
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Originally Posted by nodeerforamonth
You can usually bypass the fees by buying the tickets directly from the venue itself, rather than going to a Ticketmaster outlet.
What's sucks is that there outrageous service charges don't seem to be hurting ticket sales, so what's to keep TM from increasing them?
04-17-07, 12:09 PM
#29
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Originally Posted by moorehed
there is a thread like this every so often. i started one several years ago, and then the fees were ONLY like 20 bucks or something haha. fuck tm.
People will believe what they want and TM will always have a bad rap. While I can't defend ALL the TM charges out there, I feel that promoters and venues have to take some of the blame as well (and even the artists). With prices so high by the artists themselves, venues, promoters and Ticketmaster are all looking to get a cut.
It's the nature of the business. What I don't understand is other ticketing sites have fees (that are a little lower) but no infastructure comparable to Ticketmaster.
04-17-07, 01:10 PM
#31
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Thread Starter
I usually buy tickets from the venues. Here in Providence, the Providence Performing Arts Center and Lupo's sell tickets at their respective websites, but the Wilco show I bought tickets for is at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston. Went to their site, and it directed me to Ticketmaster for tickets. Same deal for The Arcade Fire at the Orpheum.
I thought that the fees went exclusively to Ticketmaster, and that the variation in face value was due to the local promoter's fee. Bastards.
cheers,
-the Jesus
I thought that the fees went exclusively to Ticketmaster, and that the variation in face value was due to the local promoter's fee. Bastards.
cheers,
-the Jesus
04-17-07, 01:30 PM
#32
DVD Talk Legend
Originally Posted by PJsig08
It's the nature of the business. What I don't understand is other ticketing sites have fees (that are a little lower) but no infastructure comparable to Ticketmaster.
04-17-07, 03:49 PM
#33
Senior Member
You should have seen some of the fees on the higher-priced shows this year - The Police, Genesis, Live Earth, etc. We're talking $50+ in fees, for an already overpriced show! Unfortunately, that's just the way it is. Comcast came in and took over some of the venues in the Philadelphia area, but lo and behold, they've added their own service fees. You can't really win..
04-17-07, 03:50 PM
#34
DVD Talk Legend
Originally Posted by nodeerforamonth
You can usually bypass the fees by buying the tickets directly from the venue itself, rather than going to a Ticketmaster outlet.
We held up the line, talked with the manager, and absolutely refused to pay any of these fees. There was plenty of time before the show started, and folks in line behind us supported us (a rarity, but it *does* happen occassionally).
Parking - We didn't park there, so unless they're charging us for NOT parking we rejected the notion that we owed them $14.00. If they insisted that we pay for NOT parking there, then I argued that they should owe us significantly more for NOT parking at our friends' nearby house - where our cars were at that moment parked. The manager relented and waived that fee, but only after asking us (absurdly) to PROVE that we didn't park there.
TM - I then argued that we weren't buying tickets from Ticketmaster, we were buying them from Merriweather Post. If we wanted to purchase tickets in advance, sure, we might be willing to pay for the privlige of having guaranteed seats in advance. But since (a) we opted to wait until show time to get tickets, therefore accepting the risk of being shut out due to a sell out, we weren't getting the benefit of ANY guarantees, and since (b) we were asking for LAWN tickets, where there are no "seats" at all, there was no service that TM was providing us that we would buy. We wanted our $15 lawn seats or we walked. When the manager called our bluff and asked the next person in line if he could help them, they said "no, I want you to resolve this with THEM first." It was apparent that a lot of folks were willing to walk, so the manager goosed the system to remove all but the $2.50 "order fee". I still didn't want to pay that, but I took the offer. We didn't buy any food/beverages while there, and we refused to return. Now that I don't live on the East Coast any longer it's easier, but I was there for 10 years and this particular show was the first (and last) I saw at MPP. Fuck them and TM.
04-18-07, 05:09 PM
#37
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Originally Posted by Mopower
I never seem to have these problems when getting tickets thru ticketmaster. Maybe certain artists draw more "tax" than others.
Makes sense and goes back to my other point (money-grubbing artists).
04-18-07, 05:19 PM
#38
DVD Talk Special Edition
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by PJsig08
Somewhat true. I see charges of $5+ with some punk shows and then $12-15 with the Police.
cheers,
-the Jesus
04-18-07, 06:46 PM
#39
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Originally Posted by PJsig08
Case in point. TM will always have a bad rap even after I posted some information above stating that they don't even take all the fees.
No offense intended, but I think you understand why some people would still be skeptical.
04-18-07, 07:44 PM
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Originally Posted by PJsig08
Of course. But it's right there on wikipedia.
No one prolly ever thought to look there. I wanted more info and went straight there....
No one prolly ever thought to look there. I wanted more info and went straight there....
05-05-07, 05:13 PM
#42
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Originally Posted by zombeaner
I bought tickets to Morrissey here in Dallas and the tickets face value was $39.50, total for 2 tickets was $79.00 and my ultimate total was $106. That is completely ridiculous.
07-05-07, 02:00 AM
#43
DVD Talk Hero
Look at this fucking bullshit:
So they're actually adding more than 50% of the actual ticket price for their damn service. I mean, a couple bucks, sure - but $45 dollars extra for 4 tickets is just ridiculous. And to add that convenience charge per ticket is just fucked, since the number of tickets I get doesn't make it any more or less convenient for me or them. God dammit! I'm really pissed - it's not that I'm cheap, it's just this bullshit of a scam that is so obvious to anyone with a brain, I just hate giving them any money, and it keeps me from going to concerts more.
I'm actually surprised they're not charging me for will-call...
SPOON
FULL PRICE TICKET US $20.00 x 4
Facility Charge US $2.00 x 4
Convenience Charge US $7.90 x 4
Delivery (Will Call) No Charge
Order Processing Fee US $4.85
Total Charges US $124.45
FULL PRICE TICKET US $20.00 x 4
Facility Charge US $2.00 x 4
Convenience Charge US $7.90 x 4
Delivery (Will Call) No Charge
Order Processing Fee US $4.85
Total Charges US $124.45
I'm actually surprised they're not charging me for will-call...
07-05-07, 06:29 AM
#44
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I'm not sure what face value was on these, but FWIW,
Wilco
Murat Theatre, Indianapolis, IN
Fri, Jun 15, 2007 08:00 PM
Seat location: section ORCH-R, row AA, seats 9-10
Total Charge: $87.85
BTW, it was well worth it!
Wilco
Murat Theatre, Indianapolis, IN
Fri, Jun 15, 2007 08:00 PM
Seat location: section ORCH-R, row AA, seats 9-10
Total Charge: $87.85
BTW, it was well worth it!
07-05-07, 08:34 AM
#45
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ticketmaster sucks. they charge exorbinant fees for their "services". that being said they are basically the only game in town and quite the monopoly. they need to be regulated as they are bad as the scalpers outside the shows.
07-05-07, 12:35 PM
#47
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http://www.trashcity.org/ARTICLES/TICKET.HTM
No-one would argue that they are entitled to cover their costs and make a reasonable profit, but what they are doing goes well beyond both. It's both ludicrous, and entirely unjustifiable, not least because the charges are arbitrary. For a Merle Haggard concert, the add-ons are $2.00 and $8.25 - that's at exactly the same venue, so why is the "building facility" charge different? And why is it suddenly $1.50 more 'convenient' to buy Haggard tickets than Rollins ones? Is there some hidden expense associated with the former? No - the only difference is the face value, and hence how much money Ticketmaster can gouge out of the buyer.
Unfortunately, these days Ticketmaster are an unstoppable behemoth. Complaints about their behaviour go all the way back to at least 1994, when Pearl Jam cancelled a tour as part of their battle with the company. It serves as a nice illustration of how the company operates, and why it has become such a monster.
It started when Eddie Vedder and his mates objected to Ticketmaster adding their (strangely variable, but even back then, extortionate) fees to concert tickets, whose face value had been kept deliberately low at $18. A couple of dates in, after selling tickets through other means, they discovered that across the country, Ticketmaster had a monopoly on sales at a lot of venues, and was enforcing it aggressively. For their compliance, the venues, on their part, got what can only be described as "kickbacks", funded by the service charges. These were sometimes as much as $500,000/year, in addition to what Ticketmaster paid them up front for the monopoly. Little wonder places have no interest in exploring other avenues.
Equally as bad, the company also had exclusive contracts with promoters, locking them in with Ticketmaster. So even at an independent venue, if the event promoter is contracted with Ticketmaster, the result's the same. In the end, the problems proved too much for Pearl Jam to overcome, and the tour was cancelled, costing somewhere around $3m. They complained to the Justice Department, and two members, Jeff Ament and Steve Goddard, testified before a House Committee that Ticketmaster were a monopoly bent on eliminating competition. Aerosmith's manager testified too, saying he had no choice but to use the company, even though he hated doing so.
In 1995, the Justice Department decided against investigating Ticketmaster; Pearl Jam became Ticketmaster's bitches, and since then, things have got worse. Much worse. Ticketmaster has gobbled up competitors such as Ticketweb, to such an extent that in 2000 it was estimated that the company controlled 90% of the market, and in 2001, they sold $3.6 billion worth of tickets.
Unfortunately, these days Ticketmaster are an unstoppable behemoth. Complaints about their behaviour go all the way back to at least 1994, when Pearl Jam cancelled a tour as part of their battle with the company. It serves as a nice illustration of how the company operates, and why it has become such a monster.
It started when Eddie Vedder and his mates objected to Ticketmaster adding their (strangely variable, but even back then, extortionate) fees to concert tickets, whose face value had been kept deliberately low at $18. A couple of dates in, after selling tickets through other means, they discovered that across the country, Ticketmaster had a monopoly on sales at a lot of venues, and was enforcing it aggressively. For their compliance, the venues, on their part, got what can only be described as "kickbacks", funded by the service charges. These were sometimes as much as $500,000/year, in addition to what Ticketmaster paid them up front for the monopoly. Little wonder places have no interest in exploring other avenues.
Equally as bad, the company also had exclusive contracts with promoters, locking them in with Ticketmaster. So even at an independent venue, if the event promoter is contracted with Ticketmaster, the result's the same. In the end, the problems proved too much for Pearl Jam to overcome, and the tour was cancelled, costing somewhere around $3m. They complained to the Justice Department, and two members, Jeff Ament and Steve Goddard, testified before a House Committee that Ticketmaster were a monopoly bent on eliminating competition. Aerosmith's manager testified too, saying he had no choice but to use the company, even though he hated doing so.
In 1995, the Justice Department decided against investigating Ticketmaster; Pearl Jam became Ticketmaster's bitches, and since then, things have got worse. Much worse. Ticketmaster has gobbled up competitors such as Ticketweb, to such an extent that in 2000 it was estimated that the company controlled 90% of the market, and in 2001, they sold $3.6 billion worth of tickets.
07-05-07, 12:47 PM
#48
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luckily a lot of the smaller venues in NYC use ticketweb...though I pretty much refuse going to garden shows cause of ticketmaster, you end up paying way too much to see a show there
at any rate, clear channel has become just as much an evil has ticketmaster has..they both have a beneficial partnership with each other.
at any rate, clear channel has become just as much an evil has ticketmaster has..they both have a beneficial partnership with each other.
Last edited by TripWire; 07-05-07 at 12:50 PM.
07-05-07, 04:13 PM
#49
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Originally Posted by TripWire
luckily a lot of the smaller venues in NYC use ticketweb...though I pretty much refuse going to garden shows cause of ticketmaster, you end up paying way too much to see a show there
at any rate, clear channel has become just as much an evil has ticketmaster has..they both have a beneficial partnership with each other.
at any rate, clear channel has become just as much an evil has ticketmaster has..they both have a beneficial partnership with each other.
Ticketmaster owns Ticketweb, and while Ticketweb is slightly better than ticketermaster, their fees are unreasonable imo.
07-05-07, 07:50 PM
#50
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http://www.iac.com/
clearchannel sold ticketmaster long ago. net income is pretty good compared to revenue. if you look at the whole company it looks like they are using ticketmaster's nice earnings to subsidize the money losing businesses
clearchannel sold ticketmaster long ago. net income is pretty good compared to revenue. if you look at the whole company it looks like they are using ticketmaster's nice earnings to subsidize the money losing businesses