So as a trance lover and clubber, I am accustomed to the usual tactics that clubs employ to suck an extra $5 or $10 from all of us. You know what I'm talking about. For instance, if you get on such and such discount list and get there by a certain time or if you are of the first x number of people there, you can get in at a discount. They also sell a very limited number of tickets at special "early bird" pricing, then start pumping up the prices, usually in increments of $10, at pre-determined number of tickets sold.
Well tonight I just purchased tickets to see W&W/Menno De Jong at the Exchange in downtown LA through groovetickets aka Flavorus.com. The tickets were $20 but the service charge was $5.20!! That is 26% of the cost of the ticket!! What's worse is when I printed up the ticket, it states on the ticket itself that the service charge was $2.50 and not the $5.20 that it charged me. So I investigated this further only to find that charging me $5.20 as a service charge was not a typo or mistake. Turns out, groovetickets receives $2.50 as their fee and then Insomniac, the promoters, take $2.70! So I went back at some other recent trance show tickets I have purchased to see what they charged in "service fees." I bought two tickets to tomorrow night's Dash Berlin show a while back and guess what? They charged me 17.25% for "service fees!"
This just doesn't seem right, didn't Ticketmaster get busted a year or two ago for charging huge service charges? Please tranceaddicts voice your opinions on this matter here.
Also I'm going to set up a poll on this as well. The poll has been set up and will run for a period of 30days.
Feb-24-2012 07:32
LAdazeNYnights
Crossing Swords
Registered: Nov 2009
Location: Los Angeles, CA
I agree with you on this. What is a 'service' charge really supposed to cover after all? If you were buying it at a ticket counter then perhaps the service charge is to help to cover the persons wage that is selling you the ticket. That makes sense. Is our 20%+ of ticket price going towards the 'service' of promotion (more and more ads on the internet and so on and so forth) ?? Of course I could be totally off base here.
It's especially annoying as ticket prices rise. For big festivals the service charges can be game changers. The main issue to me is that tickets are advertised as costing x amount and then invariably cost x+y amount or even x+y+z amount.
Feb-24-2012 07:51
in2muzikk
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Jul 2005
Location: Los Angeles, California
Yeah, I went to the link for the Menno/W&W/Schossow tix and saw that too. I decided to empty the cart instead of getting them for this reason. The airlines got caught at their own game, perhaps ticket sellers will be next...
I remember buying a $70 ticket with a $3 service fee for Digweed NYE, that seemed reasonable to me, around 4%.
___________________
My favorite song is the one that hasn't yet been written. | fb | myspace
Feb-24-2012 08:18
fantasyexctasy
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Dec 2009
Location: Orange County, CA
It's going to feed the wealthy piece of shit that runs this greedy scheme. People need to stand up and protest somehow. Change.org is really useful
___________________
Puddle Stomping since '06
Feb-24-2012 10:35
Direct
I invented the pushup
Registered: Aug 2006
Location: Fresno, CA
tldr, I made a random vote.
Feb-24-2012 14:57
bigperf
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Dec 2006
Location: santa barbara
Solution:
Don't buy tickets. Get on the comp list.
Feb-24-2012 16:14
jonmitz
soundcloud.com/jonmitz
Registered: May 2004
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
lol, just wait until you order from ticketmaster. no other ticketing service even comes close to their 30% "convenience" fee
Feb-24-2012 17:04
Tosh
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: May 2009
Location: Monterey, California
Sure it costs them money to run the servers, mail tix, run the website, high salaries, phone service, will call, etc etc
But the amount they are skimming off the top is way too high to be paying these things alone. Let's just say they make $5 per ticket for EDC alone..... That's a lot of freakin money!!!
Ticket price should include all fees. Let the greedy companies fight over it from there.
Feb-24-2012 18:06
bigperf
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Dec 2006
Location: santa barbara
quote:
Originally posted by in2muzikk
I remember buying a $70 ticket with a $3 service fee for Digweed NYE, that seemed reasonable to me, around 4%.
you could have picked it up via randy s for $55 no service fees!
avalon tickets used to start at $15, with service fee of $3(20%) so they just changed ticket prices and left service fee at the same amount...they werent doing you a favor...
if you check out tickets for avalon shows(still $15, but service charges are now $4.) at least its statys $4 as price continues to go up. Some promoters(eventvibe) start off at $10, and $1.20 service and then tack on $0.60 every time the price tier goes up $5. so a $30 ticket has a $3.60 service charge, still lower than avalon.
Feb-24-2012 18:09
MelBeat
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Mar 2008
Location: Torrance, CA, USA
Seems service fees are too high only for Insomniac events.
Feb-24-2012 18:33
hadi
pb and j - the way
Registered: May 2001
Location: Los Angeles, Ca
quote:
Originally posted by MelBeat
Seems service fees are too high only for Insomniac events.
they doesn't seem too high. they are too high. How can insomniac charge a service fee when you are already paying for a ticket? either way, i dont attend this stuff so it doesn't matter much to me but it is ridiculous.
Feb-24-2012 20:10
MelBeat
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Mar 2008
Location: Torrance, CA, USA
Yes, they are too high. My point is only Insomniac events have such high fees. Look at Judge Jules @ Circus. $20 with $2.50 fees. But W&W is $20 with $5.20 fees.
Exorbitant Service Charges noticed
