"A-List" Charges & Fees

Like a dutiful gay man, this morning I purchased tickets for Kathy Griffin's June show here in Phoenix.

I was pleasantly surprised the tickets were only $30 or $40 a piece.  We have been known to pay some astronomical prices to see our favorite gay-cons... so even Kathy would agree that her ticket prices are pretty D-list (heck anything under 3-digits seems to qualify as that these day)!

I am on TicketMaster and put in my "best available, somewhat centered" seat preference request... only $30 seats popped up... but not too bad (rear orchestra)... so what they heck, it's comedy show and not something that needs to be appreciated close-up (no offense Kath!).   

I go through the check-out process, but still a bit shocked by the final figure... call me silly, but for some reason I think it's going to be approximately $60... but then there's a...

facility charge fee + convenience fee + order processing fee...

Ok, convenience fee is fine... kids these days will never appreciate what we used to have to go through to get tickets to a live event.  I definitely don't miss the days of actually having to leave the house to go to a ticket booth or stay at home and hit re-dial and listen to buzzy signals for hours on end... or worse yet, be "tricked" into thinking I got through but instead receiving that "all lines are busy, try your call again later" operator message. Granted this likely would not have been an issue today (sorry again Kath!), but when everything was tallied up...

Those three items tacked 45% onto the face value of the ticket (actually 45.9%!)!  Now, it's not like we can't afford it or that I wouldn't have bought the tickets at the ultimate price... but it still struck me as slightly outrageous.

I guess the fees have no correlation to the ticket price ... it's just that when we're paying hundreds of dollars for tickets the additional charges seem like the proverbial drop in the bucket.

Comments

[TV Goddess]

That is RIDICULOUS. I think they need to include these "fees" in the price, so that people have realistic cost expectations.

[Scott C]

The fees are ridiculous. We bought tickets for the "True Colors" tour when it comes to Chicago, and added $50 on top of the already pricey tickets.