I hate TicketMaster!

I’ve ranted about TicketMaster’s price gouging in the past (see blog passim), but my blood is boiling once more from a fresh outrage, so I need to vent once again…

I’m trying to buy myself a ticket for An Evening with P J Harvey at the Beacon Theatre on 10 October, and the cheapest tickets at this all-seater theatre are $35. That seems pretty reasonable to me, since that money pays both the venue, all the road crew and an artist who I’ve wanted to see for some years.

However, the only way to buy a ticket without physically going to the box office is through TicketGouger — and they will add on an additional $9.60 “convenience fee,” and then on top of that, another “just because we can” $3.15 “order processing fee”! This amounts to $12.75 — 36.5% of the ticket’s cover value!

How can these fuckers justify this breathtaking level of extortion? If both the theatre and the artist can make money from $35 for actually doing something worthwhile (and probably quite costly to put on), how much profit are TicketGouger raking in for running a ticket ordering website, mailing tickets out and generally treating their customers with absolute contempt?

This time, I’m not going to be held to ransom — I’m going to buy my tickets at the box office on principle.

2 thoughts on “I hate TicketMaster!

  1. Tony

    I went to Radio City Music Hall this afternoon to get a ticket. They didn’t have any left. And by the time I got home, Ticketgouger had sold out too. So I guess I’m NOT going to see PJ Harvey after all.

    Reply
  2. Tony

    I checked eBay for PJ Harvey tickets today, and there were LOADS of them, all being offered for over $100 per ticket.

    Conclusion: Online ticket sales encourages ticket touting.

    Still, looking on the bright side — I’ve discovered that ticket touts often over-buy, and sometimes end up selling their tickets on the night outside the venue at prices below the cover value.

    Reply

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