Ticket Ordering System Must Be Changed

Holy crap, I just bought Gogol Bordello tickets online. How is it that two $20 tickets come to a total of $53.50?

20 (Ticket)
20 (Ticket)
9.50 (Convenience Fee)
4 (Handling Fee)
———-
$53.50

Clearly, we're getting bent over and reamed here. I'm fine with the ticket price, but that $4 handling fee just covers tickets.com mailing me the tickets, which is totally separate from the "convenience" fee. I know this is an old gripe and I know that ticket agents are necessary, but this is excessive and there seems to be no end to the price escalation in sight.
So, how do we solve it? Its not like we're going to stop seeing shows, so the fans can't do it. It's not like the bands can fix it (see Pearl Jam). I think the venues need to come up with a better system if the ticket agents aren't going to be reasonable about prices of their own accord. What do you guys think?

What do you suggest? Ticketmaster?
You could have bought tickets at the box office for $1 a ticket charge. It's very highly unlikely that Gogol Bordello will be sold out in a week…

Originally posted by georgewendt:
What do you guys think?

I think the forums need a search function.

i dont understand why for will call you are charged extra. its understandable if your tix are actually shipped to you.

Originally posted by Joe M.:
What do you suggest? Ticketmaster?

I actually think Tickemaster is better. They don't charge for standard mail delivery or will-call. And they can handle the surges for the big shows, instead of putting you in a "virtual waiting room".

They do still have 2 separate fees though. The convenience fee which is typically slightly more than tickets.com and an internet processing fee which is like $4.50. This guy would've paid somewhere closer to $60 for those tickets if TM was used. Then again, the TM convenience fee varies depending on the price of the ticket(s).

Originally posted by amnesiac:

Originally posted by Joe M.:
What do you suggest? Ticketmaster?

I actually think Tickemaster is better. They don't charge for standard mail delivery or will-call. And they can handle the surges for the big shows, instead of putting you in a "virtual waiting room".

Originally posted by azaghal1981:
They do still have 2 separate fees though. The convenience fee which is typically slightly more than tickets.com and an internet processing fee which is like $4.50.

That's right - I forgot about that. I usually buy at the box office anyway, whenever possible.

Originally posted by amnesiac:
I actually think Tickemaster is better. They don't charge for standard mail delivery or will-call. And they can handle the surges for the big shows, instead of putting you in a "virtual waiting room".

sing it…

that virtual waiting room is my only real beef with tickets.com - i'd be happy to support them if they could deal with surges.

i believe that the difference between the two is political, i.e. TM is the big corporate meanie while tickets.com is perceived as the indie little guy. their prices aren't that different - that's why i'd rather have TM, given their ability to handle surges.

also, i've gotten TM to re-issue tickets i've lost, which was nice - dunno if tickets.com can do that.

Tickets.com is owned by Major League Baseball. Not really too indie.

Are you willing to pay higher service charges to have lots of servers sitting around doing nothing so that it they can handle the occasional 15 minute surge in ordering? If you land in the Virtual Waiting Room it's a good sign the show is already soldout. It's not going to take very long for 500 or lower orders to be placed. Granted people can lose orders due to browser crashes, bad credit card numbers, etc, which is why it's worth retrying but… As explained here before those Virtual Waiting rooms are created so that the servers don't crash while existing orders are being processed.

Besides Ticketmaster has their own waiting system in place. When I got U2 there was a screen that appeared which said my order would be processed in xx number of minutes which fluctuated as time went by. Obviously seeing 20K tickets is going to take longer than 1000 tickets.

Are bands still using musictoday to presale their own tickets? While I recall lower service fees they still existed.

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
Besides Ticketmaster has their own waiting system in place. When I got U2 there was a screen that appeared which said my order would be processed in xx number of minutes which fluctuated as time went by. Obviously seeing 20K tickets is going to take longer than 1000 tickets.

I've seen that plenty of times.

I always got the impression the TM "waiting room" was a queue. I get the impression that the tickets.com "waiting room" just dumps you there, then retries every 30 seconds or so. It seemed more a way to stop people from hitting "refresh" repeatedly, rather than giving them a place in line.

Yes there is a difference… But as you said the Tickets.com virtual waiting is in place to slow people down… The key question would be whether or not it gets put into place before or after the tickets have are snapped up? Obviously only a tickets.com person would be able to answer that question…

Originally posted by amnesiac:

Originally posted by Joe M.:
What do you suggest? Ticketmaster?

I actually think Tickemaster is better. They don't charge for standard mail delivery or will-call. And they can handle the surges for the big shows, instead of putting you in a "virtual waiting room".

They don't charge you for standard mail delivery but they do charge to have them emailed. THAT I never understood.

Like my computer class instructor from Serbia said last week:

You Americans, you are a country of Why? Why? Why? I am from Serbia. When they say it's so, it is so.

Originally posted by terry:

Originally posted by amnesiac:

Originally posted by Joe M.:
What do you suggest? Ticketmaster?

I actually think Tickemaster is better. They don't charge for standard mail delivery or will-call. And they can handle the surges for the big shows, instead of putting you in a "virtual waiting room".

They don't charge you for standard mail delivery but they do charge to have them emailed. THAT I never understood.

Originally posted by sweetcell:

Originally posted by amnesiac:
I actually think Tickemaster is better. They don't charge for standard mail delivery or will-call. And they can handle the surges for the big shows, instead of putting you in a "virtual waiting room".

sing it…

that virtual waiting room is my only real beef with tickets.com - i'd be happy to support them if they could deal with surges.

i believe that the difference between the two is political, i.e. TM is the big corporate meanie while tickets.com is perceived as the indie little guy. their prices aren't that different - that's why i'd rather have TM, given their ability to handle surges.

also, i've gotten TM to re-issue tickets i've lost, which was nice - dunno if tickets.com can do that.

I had an instance where tickets we bought for a sold out show at the 930 were never received. We had our email confirmation with us. When we went to the box office to explian the situation all we had to do was make a quick call on our cell to an 800 number and within a few minutes we had tickets at the box office. This of course was through tickets.com.

You're lucky you were only purchasing $20 tickets. Have you ever bought $60, $70, $80…$200 tickets from Ticketmaster before? The "convenience fee" on two tickets can usually buy you another seat.

But we know it sucks. For shows that aren't going to sell out right away like Gogol, go to the club and forfeit that extra dolla. It saves you ten.

Man, your allowance must be pretty hefty if you're forking over $200 for a show. Is that what taking the trash out is worth nowadays?

Originally posted by you be betty:
Have you ever bought $60, $70, $80…$200 tickets from Ticketmaster before?

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
Are bands still using musictoday to presale their own tickets? While I recall lower service fees they still existed.

yup, i got my primus tickets through musictoday, services charges were about half that of a TM order. and i got kick-ass seats :) i'm about to add a few comments about the show in the appropriate thread…

Originally posted by nkotb:
Man, your allowance must be pretty hefty if you're forking over $200 for a show. Is that what taking the trash out is worth nowadays?

Originally posted by you be betty:
Have you ever bought $60, $70, $80…$200 tickets from Ticketmaster before?

I get $12 a week from my dad and that's it, period. Sometimes I tutor and I make about $18 an hour doing that…one hour a week when I'm doing it…so for all of you that have ever stooped to calling me spoiled, $12 barely pays for a movie in Bethesda…

When I payed for a $200 ticket I payed the entire thing myself and it took a loooooong time to save up. Sometimes I'll do more pricey shows too if I really want to, but that's the most I've ever paid for a ticket. I finance all of my own concert expeditions, because my father doesn't like the area OR sharing his money with his kids. You can do the math.