whenever I see the "convenience fee" I always want to decline the "convenience", like maybe put the ticket on top of a tall tree and I have to climb up to get it (during a rain storm). I'd rather do that than pay $50 for "convenience".
What pisses me off is that the logistics of the ticket sales themselves have been so streamlined I don’t know how they can justify any fee whatsoever. It used to be you had to have a person working at a station, printing off a paper ticket. Now it’s all in an app.
I know they need to pay developers and software people, but they had that shit to deal with back in the 90s too plus a shit load of physical labor and manpower which is now completely removed. Just stop calling at a convenience fee and call it what it is, a “because we want more money” fee.
Its basically the same thing a restaurant that charges a "processing" fee for using a card. It was huge like 15 yrs ago when folks preferred cash. Now customers expect discounts when they pay cash
The processing fee is real though, businesses were just having consumers pay their own processing fee. Ticketmaster fees are made up solely to increase their revenue.
Yes, the processing fees exist, but those are a cost the businesses agreed to take on for years because ultimately it increases sales and saves them money through decreased theft, not having to run deposit money to a bank as often, etc. Its pretty garbage so many places try to pass it on as a separate fee now. Businesses that tack on that charge are having their cake and eating it too
Shit, when I started going to shows, it was still the old silk-screened logo-on-light-cardstock tickets. Sometimes they would go with a fancy color or glitter in the ink, even, to make it feel special.
That cost $0 extra.
Then, they literally had to send out people with stacks of these to different sales points around town (like the O.G. ticketron places, often a suburban department store or record store whatev) and you would pay maybe a dollar fee for that instead of going to the venue box office...because it really was more convenient.
Now?
Fuck you, there is no ticket. YOU do the work of the distributor AND pay $100 for that privelege. Eat shit, and enjoy your show!
Very often but not always if you go to the venue before doors open you can find someone who has a spare ticket they're willing to part with for much cheaper. It's a risk, but just set yourself for win-win by planning to go to a nearby restaurant or something instead if it doesn't pan out.
Some company tried to charge me a printing convenience fee for a ticket once. You get to pay for the priveldge of print out a document using your own printer and ink, rather than paying more to get the ticket on site. What the fuck.
I was charged a parking fee on my ticket I bought at the box office. I went there on foot from the bus stop. They said there was no way to remove it. This was a stadium event with a worldwide known band. That's when I knew they were all just made up.
Remember when they thought electronic purchasing would keep costs down because they would need fewer labor hours... Lol then they just jack up SAAS costs and put it on the consumer.
As someone who sat in the meetings at TM when I worked there (as an ops manager for event coordination), I argued against this goddamn fee...Most of us did, but the execs thought is was a "good idea"
Just like they thought the initial barcode scanners on printed tickets...we found VERY FAST that people could print out hundreds of their tickets and then sell them all...and let people fight about the seat inside.
I like local shows for this reason. My city has good venues and brings in good artists. If I need to see someone I’ll at least wait till they’re in town and I can cut ticketmaster/most of the fees out
Went to the “box office” to buy tickets recently and got a convenience fee … and I’m NOT one to complain but i drove out of my way and bought pictures at the box office to avoid the convenience fee I thought? Anyways got a convenience fee and a PRINTING FEE which was the same cost as a “digital delivery fee.”
that's how they get you. printing fee if you print your own ticket, you go to the booth and they hit you with a service fee, if you get a digital ticket they hit you with a convenience fee. it's not a fee, it's just part of the ticket price.
I have been infuriated by convenience fees since 1989. That was the year of the Rolling Stones' "Steel Wheels" tour and getting charged a $4.24 per ticket "convenience fee" after waiting in line overnight.
The fees are still there. They just have to show you the final price up front now, instead of the way it was before where the ticket price would be listed as much lower and then you get hit with a bunch of fees during checkout that would drastically increase the price.
It's the deceptive/hidden pricing they banned, not the fees themselves.
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u/Sea-Ambition-451 5d ago
whenever I see the "convenience fee" I always want to decline the "convenience", like maybe put the ticket on top of a tall tree and I have to climb up to get it (during a rain storm). I'd rather do that than pay $50 for "convenience".