Thursday, November 13, 2008

Ticketbastard Waives "Convenience Fees" for Eagles Tour

Ticketmaster, having recently acquired Front Line Management and it's head and long-time Eagles manager Irving Azoff, has made a bold move in attempting to appear less bastard-like by eliminating the controversial/hated convenience charges on all tickets to the upcoming winter Eagles tour. I appreciate the sentiment of the move, but I doubt the tickets will really be any cheaper.

And not that I am going to be buying tickets for said Eagles concerts, but those that do buy them, I suspect, will feel some satisfaction in not paying for the added convenience charges (who's convenience are those fees going towards anyway?) even if the fee is just buried into the overall ticket price. So this is certainly a step in the right direction for TM. Practices like charging $10 in convenience fees on top of a $10 ticket was getting ridiculous. I would rather just pay $20 for a show advertised as $20 and not feel violated by the additional charges.

I imagine that this no-fees trial with the Eagles will be pervasive soon enough, and it will perceptively be a nice change from the ever increasing convenience charges. . . . they're still bastards though.

2 comments:

WeightStaff said...

The irony is that the people who pay to see the Eagles are typically wealthy enough where they don't care about, let alone notice things like "convenience fees."

But what really infuriates me is that despite the millions of dollars TM has generated from these exorbitant "fees," they have yet to address their faulty (rigged) "word verification" system which continues to reward brokers and punish the true fans on a daily basis. TM remains an eternal bastard.

very truly yours,

DS
Weightstaff

Anonymous said...

I want to see some accounting of the ticketmaster books. How can convenience fees of almost 30% of ticket value be justified? I just dont get it. Sally, Get me Jeff Ament on the phone.

It's not a matter of risk/reward analysis. What risks are they taking?

What is their overhead? An internet network? online payment system? do they lay out advertising dollars? security issues? How much could all of this cost...the weight staff operates out of a starbucks bathroom on the corner of 33rd and 3rd.

Mailing? ef'ing mailing? 43cent stamp? that cant be it. and if you express it mail you pay more for it, and if you opt for will-call, there is no additional discount. So where is it going.

They even charge you to print out your own ticket? What the FUCK is that about.

Tickets are non-refundable, so there is no loss to them once the sale is final. I just dont get it.

someone please explain.

ak