a new low in service charges

This is from telecharge, they do tickets for Spamalot. I thought the tickets.com will call charge was BS… Now telecharge introduces the "holiday surcharge."

Happy Holidays!!!


A holiday surcharge of $5 per tickets applies to performances from 12/26 through 12/31.
All offers are subject to availability of seating. All show times, performers and prices are subject to change.

A $1.50 facility fee which funds maintenance of the National Theatre building and equipment is included in the prices shown for each ticket above. No retroactive discounts are given once tickets are purchased.

Tickets purchased through Telecharge by phone or via Internet are subject to a Service Charge ($6.00 per ticket) and a Handling Charge ($2.50 per order). These charges do not apply to group sales except on Saturday evenings.

I assume they're adding the holiday surcharge because they expect those shows to be in higher demand. So why not just make the face value for that week $5 more expensive, rather than toss in another fee?

so i can bitch about it.

I recently ordered tickets on the day of the show and ticketmaster tacked on a '$5 day of show fee'.
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I just searched for Georgetown tickets. The best they have available are $5 seats and on those $5 seats the extra charges are $6/ticket.

Originally posted by DriveWay:

A holiday surcharge of $5 per tickets applies to performances from 12/26 through 12/31.

YAY!! A Holiday Surcharge…straight from the North Pole.

lol, this has made me laugh for about 15 minutes straight.

I thought there were holiday deals, holiday sales, holiday savings….holiday cheer, holiday parties….but a holiday surcharge?? come on man.

ho ho ho

shit, you reminded me I still need to get Spamalot tickets

Originally posted by Brandon Brendall, the thief:
I assume they're adding the holiday surcharge because they expect those shows to be in higher demand. So why not just make the face value for that week $5 more expensive, rather than toss in another fee?

its gotta be legal-related.

That what I would think. If the ticket service is a third party, than it would probably not go over well with the theatre that they're secretly adding $5 under the guise of a larger face value.

Originally posted by le sonick:

Originally posted by Brandon Brendall, the thief:
I assume they're adding the holiday surcharge because they expect those shows to be in higher demand. So why not just make the face value for that week $5 more expensive, rather than toss in another fee?

its gotta be legal-related.

Originally posted by Brandon Brendall, the thief:
So why not just make the face value for that week $5 more expensive, rather than toss in another fee?

face cost go to artists, producers, sponsors, etc. service charges go to ticketing agent. so if TM, ticketweb, tickets.com, telecharge, etc want to get greedy, their only avenue is service charges and surcharges. they don't set, and don't have authority to change, face price.

or you could just go to NYC and avoid the holiday charge and see it on Broadway. but id never pay 121.50 for any b'way show. and I just got an email and they have discount tix (but dont think its those dates and its in NYC). If you wait till January you can even see Clay Aiken in it. http://www.montypythonsspamalot.com/spamalot_tickets_broadway.php

Show:
Spamalot - New York City
Shubert Theatre

Performance:
Wednesday, December 26, 2007 at 2:00 PM

Seats:
2 Tickets, Left Orchestra Row M, Seats 25-27
13 rows from Stage. Seat 25 is 13 seats off aisle.
Seating Chart

Total Price:
Tickets ($121.50 each): $243.00
Service Charge ($6.50 per ticket): $13.00
Handling Charge ($2.50 per order): $2.50

Total Cost: $258.50

Price includes a $1.50 Facility fee per ticket.

Clay Aiken…what??? eugh.

although it might be fun to go see it in NYC. I need a roadtrip, and I already saw it here before.

thanks for confirming, that was my impression of the allocation of fees. pretty soon our ticket receipts will look like phone bills with fees and tolls for all sorts of ridiculous purposes. we'll start to see options to donate money to the Wild Life fund.

Originally posted by sweetcell:

Originally posted by Brandon Brendall, the thief:
So why not just make the face value for that week $5 more expensive, rather than toss in another fee?

face cost go to artists, producers, sponsors, etc. service charges go to ticketing agent. so if TM, ticketweb, tickets.com, telecharge, etc want to get greedy, their only avenue is service charges and surcharges. they don't set, and don't have authority to change, face price.