Comments on: My Scammy Online Ticket Purchase Experience – What to Watch For

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 14:49:04 +0000

I know I’m late to the party here, but I hate having to use Ticketmaster. Last year I went to my first big concert and paid $105.50 for two tickets with face values of $37.50 each. Each ticket had a $9.95 convenience charge and a few other things attached… and this was 3 months in advance when I was able to opt to have the tickets mailed for “only” $4.95.

By: Pedro

Pedro — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:42:30 +0000

Based upon personal experience a number of years ago (1980s) my wife and I refuse to do business with Ticketmaster.

If we can’t find tickets from an alternative source for a desirable event, we just don’t go.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:28:35 +0000

Nah, you’re on base. My fiance and I mused over the same charges when we bought tickets to the same exhibit you’re going to a little over a month ago. It’s a neat exhibit, though. Well worth the money (maybe not the charges).

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:28:05 +0000

The fees when buying tickets are silly. When I buy 2x $22 basketball tickets I pay a $4.50 fee, a $1.5 delivery fee and a $5 order charge. The fees are 25% of the purchase. And worse yet the delivery fee is for printing the tickets at home. I actually have to pay them to print tickets at home! How does that make any sense? THis is not from Ticketmaster by the way.

By: Dirac

Dirac — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:15:32 +0000

It does seem funny that when you are doing everything, no human interaction, it costs more. What if find very odd with TicketMonster is that if you choose to print at home, FEE, but if you have them mail the tix, no fee???

Honestly, I almost prefer buying tickets from the secondary market now because at least the fees as represented by demand-created over-pricing, are honest. They usually hit the seller for their income.

By: Paul Kamp

Paul Kamp — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:12:29 +0000

Yes, you’re definitely on base. Did you find it more ‘convenient’ when you bought the $27.00 adult’s ticket with the $3.95 convenience charge or the $19.80 children’s ticket with the $3.50 charge?

Wacky.

By: Mike Piper

Mike Piper — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:56:40 +0000

One of my favorite Onion headlines of all time was something to the effect of:
“Live Nation to Buy Ticketmaster for $400 Million in Stock and $200 Million in Convenience Charges.”

By: Mark Wolfinger

Mark Wolfinger — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:18:31 +0000

“You probably end up on some sort of scammy mailing list or worse.

MUCH WORSE.
You end up getting some e-mail – for which you pay a monthly fee – quietly included in your credit card bill.

By: 20smoney

20smoney — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:10:04 +0000

Yeah, those fees really drive me nuts. Often times it makes tickets I want unaffordable. Good tips and information!

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:59:56 +0000

Quite on-base, I’m afraid. Ticket Master is pretty thoroughly disliked in the concert-going community as well as by a number of artists. They’re also fairly monopolistic (and I believe they’re supposed to be combining with another ticket service) so arenas and such don’t have as many options for online ticket sales. I suggest you send a copy of this post to the venue, at least they can note it.