C'mon Seth, why the Shipping charge on Parking?

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:

But yes the increased fees plus parking is making the Metro a more expensive proposition for two going into the City.

yeah, that must be it, cause we always got back from Caps games at like 10:15-10:30 and i never ever once paid. i see now.

yeah, $20 was steep. and the lots at RFK were $10 :)

Your Escalade won't fit in the parking space anyway.

Originally posted by Bags:

Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
Bigyawwwwwn.

Thanks for the story, but we DC people already know how the Metro parking system works.

i don't have a car or drive, and even i know that you need a smartrip to park there

I wouldn't have known that….

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
Your Escalade won't fit in the parking space anyway.

Hey, I can fit in places that would surprise you. Flip side, I'm willing to pay for two spaces so some poor sap doesn't ding my baby. Man, gotta watch out for two door coupes!

Concert Sales Down in '05, Ticket Price Up
By ALEX VEIGA
AP Business Writer
Thu Jul 7, 7:56 AM ET

North American concert attendance declined nearly 12 percent in the first half of 2005 despite the first drop in average ticket prices in a decade.

Fans purchased 14.5 million tickets to the top 100 concert tours from January to June, according to Pollstar, the industry trade magazine.

The tours generated $730.9 million in gross receipts, a decline of 17.2 percent from last year.

The decline in receipts and number of tickets sold comes after years of escalating concert prices turned off many fans, said Gary Bongiovanni, Pollstar's editor in chief.

"We've been constantly raising ticket prices and last year we saw a real push back from the public," Bongiovanni said. "I guess that's what it took to see an overall reduction in prices."

The average ticket price for the top 100 tours in North America between January and June was $50.27, down 6.1 percent from $53.55 last year.

"We had record revenues last year, yet the promoters, the people who are in the business, were losing their shirts because they were paying their artists so much money they couldn't make a profit," Bongiovanni said. "The upward spiral of ticket prices finally caught up with us. … That forced the artists to take less money."

Major acts such as U2 had no problem getting fans to pay several times the average ticket price in some cases.

The average ticket to the Irish supergroup's "Vertigo 2005" tour was $96.94, but some seats went for as high as $160, not including fees.

"The big acts can work to get away with that," Bongiovanni said. "For the right act, people will pay a lot of money for a good seat."

U2's tour, which is slated to return to North America in the fall, led all other concert tours with $48.4 million in gross receipts, according to Pollstar.

But country crooner Kenny Chesney, who married Academy Award winner Renee Zellweger in May, sold more tickets than any other act during the period â?? some 610,000.

The average ticket to Chesney's concerts cost $57.39.

Tours by Elton John, the Eagles, Motley Crue, Cher and Jimmy Buffett were among the top 10, according to sales receipts.

The No. 2-grossing concert series never left Las Vegas. Celine Dion's stage show took in $43.9 million with an average ticket price of $136.70.

Despite the downward trends in the year's first half, high-profile tours slated to hit North America in the fall by artists such as the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney have sold well.

Many of those tickets, and for U2's fall tour, were sold in the first half of the year and are not tallied until the shows occur.

Still, Bongiovanni said: "It's not like the Rolling Stones sapped all the money out of the market. That hasn't had a negative effect on all of the other shows that came before."

linkage

Originally posted by Bags:

Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
Bigyawwwwwn.

Thanks for the story, but we DC people already know how the Metro parking system works.

i don't have a car or drive, and even i know that you need a smartrip to park there

I wouldn't have known that….

I didn't know of the "update". That's b/c I'm a metro snob. I used to pay out the arse for parking. Then, it takes forever to find a spot. That's if you are lucky. Otherwise, station hopping is required just to find parking to jump on a train. No thanks, I drive.
What is Smartrip anyhow? Is that the same as SmartTag aka Fastoll?

here, i'm seth: "yeah . . . keep talking about those metro charges and ticket price fluctuations! you idiots have already forgotten about me charging you shipping on parking tickets. i'm going to start charging a fee to use the forum next, becuase i know someone will open a thread blasting me for it, then about five or six people later, they'll change the subject to who's going to aha performing in ny, or whether the new, new york dolls is better than the old. good ole computer nerds who can't keep track of the same topic."

did you order the parking along with tix?

if so, was there a seperate shipping charge?

metro starting requiring the cards for parking less than a year ago, so its relatively new. i knew that and live in baltimore.

Originally posted by Seth Hurwitz:
did you order the parking along with tix?

if so, was there a seperate shipping charge?

Thanks for the reply.

No, I had already purchased tickets and then later decided I wanted parking too. So it was a separate transaction, parking alone.

So, I would bet the answer is that tickets.com cannot distinguish between a "parking ticket" and a "show ticket", therefore when purchasing parking alone it charges "shipping" (or will call, whatever). Well, lesson learned, I guess: Decide about parking when purchasing tickets.

But couldn't they flag the parking transaction as a non-shipping charge item?

Originally posted by Got Haggis?:
metro starting requiring the cards for parking less than a year ago, so its relatively new. i knew that and live in baltimore.

do you want a cookie?

Originally posted by Arlette:

Originally posted by Seth Hurwitz:
did you order the parking along with tix?

if so, was there a seperate shipping charge?

Well, lesson learned, I guess: Decide about parking when purchasing tickets.

I buy often buy parking tickets online as a single purchase. I assumed this was a fee that is not up for debate.

if the parking is a seperate transaction, there is a seperate transaction charge

as much as we'd like to, we just can't seem to find any ticketing company that will do this all for free

I was just talking about this today…it just seems unreasonable to be charged a shipping charge for parking, especially if you order tickets the day of the show & you get charged for "willcall" shipping.

Originally posted by Seth Hurwitz:
if the parking is a seperate transaction, there is a seperate transaction charge

as much as we'd like to, we just can't seem to find any ticketing company that will do this all for free

It's not about free, I understand they and you need to make money. They are taking the $2.00 service charge and the $3.50 "shipping", same fees as the regular ticket. Since parking is a separate event, they can charge a lesser fee. Most online ticket companies use a sliding scale, not flat fees regardless of the price of the event.

If you really agree that $5.50 is too much of an add-on for parking, you can tell tickets.com to lower their fees.

I think a lot of the frustration comes from the all the little fees: processing fee, handling fee, shipping fee, building fee… if they would just quote the overall add-on cost as one fee, I think people would be less annoyed.

Originally posted by bellenseb:
I think a lot of the frustration comes from the all the little fees: processing fee, handling fee, shipping fee, building fee… if they would just quote the overall add-on cost as one fee, I think people would be less annoyed.

i completely agree and this is what I've been saying all along!! jeez.

its like, if the tickets are $20 and then you tack on $8 of fees, people bitch and moan, but if the tickets were $28 , people would shut up.

i dont see why this doesnt happen.

because people would still complain…. and why should people who buy tickets at the boxoffice pay the same as those you order over the internet.

Originally posted by sonickteam4:
its like, if the tickets are $20 and then you tack on $8 of fees, people bitch and moan, but if the tickets were $28 , people would shut up.

i dont see why this doesnt happen.

you're joking, right?

would you rather have a show listed as $20/25, $20 at the box office and $25 from tickets.com?