Ticket ripoff!

Originally posted by BoomBoom:
So the bottom line is you're just apathetic; you don't mind being ripped off. I do. And I know a lot of other people who are really put off by this and have just not been going to shows any more or being very selective about the ones they do go to. And, yes, since D.C. is a sprawling metro area, some people (myself not included, fortunately) can't go down to the club during its very limited box office hours and buy tickets.

limited hours?

The 9:30 Club Box Office Hours (815 V St. N.W.)
12-7pm M-F
12-11pm M-F during show nights only
6-11pm SAT. during show nights only
6-10:30pm SUN. during show nights only

I wont say people are apathetic… Who would you rather pay the convience fee to? The ticketing service or a ticket broker for a sold out show.

Ticket broker. It's a supply-demand issue with them. Here it's just a ripoff. No matter how many tickets are left, you have to pay $3.25 for postage/will-call on top of the other $4 fee.

Originally posted by BoomBoom:
Man, I would have thought their would have been fewer rah-rah capitalists in a rock club forum. What is the world coming to? Must be because it's D.C. – conformist, conservative and comfortably smug. I'm sure that Tickets.com is lavishing huge salaries on its employees and paying them Cadillac benefits. C'mon – these fees are lining the pockets of the execs and the club owners. Bottom line: they are not reasonable fees. They are a ripoff.

We were being nice about this… Those ticket fees also line the pockets of artists, keep clubs open, etc.

Originally posted by BoomBoom:
So the bottom line is you're just apathetic; you don't mind being ripped off. I do. And, yes, since D.C. is a sprawling metro area, some people (myself not included, fortunately) can't go down to the club during its very limited box office hours and buy tickets.

sounds like you're the apathetic one - you state its not a problem for you to get to the box office yet you choose not to?

Do you expect these companies to act as charities - its called the free market for a reason - if you don't like the charges don't go or buy em at the box office

Originally posted by BoomBoom:
Man, I would have thought their would have been fewer rah-rah capitalists in a rock club forum.

It's not about capitalism, it's about my (the consumer's best interest). There is absolutely no way someone like myself who travels up and down the coast seeing shows can do so without ticketmaster/tickets.com. If I had to be at every venue when tickets went on sale to buy tickets, I'd be out innumerable thousands of dollars in travel costs and time off work as compared to the relatively minute sum of $7/show.

Originally posted by BoomBoom:
Ticket broker. It's a supply-demand issue with them. Here it's just a ripoff.

You're not even responding to points people are making, nor are you being logical. People didn't "demand" someway to buy tickets without massive interruption to their life?

Originally posted by [username edited by p.c. moderator]:

Originally posted by BoomBoom:
Ticket broker. It's a supply-demand issue with them. Here it's just a ripoff.

You're not even responding to points people are making, nor are you being logical. People didn't "demand" someway to buy tickets without massive interruption to their life?

they did actually respond to my query…

it has also been pointed out by the club management that even if they brought the online ticketing in house, that people would still complain about the service charges.

if it's such a big issue then start your own competing firm and good luck with it…

Originally posted by BoomBoom:
How much do you think it costs them to set up and maintain an automated Web site? Not much.

Think so? Want to throw out a dollar figure there?

No, I don't expect them to act as charities and I don't expect them to go out of business, forcing you to go to the club every time you need a ticket. But I do expect them to charge reasonable fees, and they would if there were competition in this field, which is what true capitalism is. Otherwise, it's a monopoly. Again, I go back to my first point: a stamp costs 37 cents, a lot less for bulk mailers. Tickets.com is charging $3.25 for mailing or will call. That is not reasonable by any stretch of the imagination. It is a ripoff. They wouldn't do that if they competed against TicketMaster or someone else for venues/shows. It's a distorted market.

Originally posted by BoomBoom:
So the bottom line is you're just apathetic; you don't mind being ripped off. I do. And I know a lot of other people who are really put off by this and have just not been going to shows any more or being very selective about the ones they do go to. And, yes, since D.C. is a sprawling metro area, some people (myself not included, fortunately) can't go down to the club during its very limited box office hours and buy tickets.

did you just start buying concert ticktes or something?
they've been charging ridiculous fees for a long time. and the fees only go up as the cost of the tickets go up as well.

the convenience charge isn't really a factor in my buying or not buying tickets. what pisses me off is having to shell out 2x the $$ for the same artists that i saw in similar sized venues (or the same venues) in previous years.

Cat's Cardle uses etix.com which costs $1/ticket, but there aren't really tickets, just massive will call lists/print outs.

Originally posted by BoomBoom:
Ticket broker. It's a supply-demand issue with them. Here it's just a ripoff. No matter how many tickets are left, you have to pay $3.25 for postage/will-call on top of the other $4 fee.

i would never give money to a ticket broker.

if you really want to avoid having to pay fees or ridiculous prices, make yourself friend with the band and get guestlisted. then you could complain about something like drink prices.

Originally posted by [username edited by p.c. moderator]:
Cat's Cardle uses etix.com which costs $1/ticket, but there aren't really tickets, just massive will call lists/print outs.

and the line takes forever to move there sometimes too.
i like having actual ticket stubs also.

I've been going to concerts for a long time. And I remember a time when supposed "alernative" clubs like the 9:30 cared about their customers and did everything they could to save them a few bucks. I'm just fed up. $3.25 for postage? C'mon.

Originally posted by [username edited by p.c. moderator]:
If I have to ride the metro for 45 minutes each way to buy the ticket, I'm out probably $2 for the metro plus 1.5 hours of my life. 1.5 multiplied by what I make in an hour comes out far more then $7. Certainly if I was going to the 9:30 Club in the near future for another reason, I'd buy my tickets then if it wasn't going to sell out. But to make a special trip to avoid $7? Foolish. (Particularly for those of us - gasp! - who don't live in DC and it would be 2 hours each way plus gas! Think how much less our costs are compared to a tank of gas and 4 hours of our life times whatever quantifiable value you wish to attribute to our time).
[/QB]

if i only had to ride the metro for 45 minutes to get tickets at the box office, i would be pretty happy. i do have to drive 2 hours each way to get tickets so i only am able to buy tickets at the box office when i'm already up there for something.

i go ahead and pay the fees. it's not really an option for me if i want to go to certain shows.

Originally posted by BoomBoom:
Again, I go back to my first point: a stamp costs 37 cents, a lot less for bulk mailers. Tickets.com is charging $3.25 for mailing or will call.

NO! This is where you're mistaken. Tickets.com DOES NOT charge $3.25 for mailing you the tickets or for holding them at will call. That 3.25 is part of the "CONVENIENCE fee". That's $3.25 is the cost for the CONVENIENCE of you not having to come to the venue like I've outlined. This is why it's called the "CONVENIENCE fee" not the "COST OF MAILING IT TO YOU fee."

Originally posted by distance:
and the line takes forever to move there sometimes too.
i like having actual ticket stubs also.

Oh, I agree on both points, just adding that to the conversation.

monopoly: NOUN: 1. Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service

If Seth thought tickets.com was charging excessive fees and it was hurting his business he would switch back to ticketmaster (which I believe has happened before).

Now, if tickets.com and ticketmaster got together and agreed to keep their prices high then you have illegal price fixing. Call your congressman! Call 60 Minutes!

It also should be pointed out there are alternatives to tickets.com & the box office. bands often presell tickets via their own ticketing agency with fees sometimes, lower, equal or higher than tickets.com. The amount of the handling fee can be argued to death…

there are also tickets.com outlets one can go to… don't think the additional handling fee is applied there.

http://www.tickets.com/b2b/maryland_virginia_outlets.html

I'm not aware of artists getting a cut of those ticket fees, but I may be mistaken. Here's an anecdote: A few years back Billy Bragg played a show at the Smithsonian and the fees charged by TicketMaster doubled the face value of the ticket – and it was a show honoring Woody Guthrie, no less. I sent a query to Bragg's Web site, not expecting a reply. But I did get one and it claimed they have no control over those fees and don't see a dime from them. The predatory mentality that drives this is the same one that causes record companies to charge twice as much for CDs as they did for vinyl when it's actually cheaper to make a CD. Then they wonder why people pirate like crazy.