MSE News: Concert booking fees getting beyond a joke, Which? says

A question about : MSE News: Concert booking fees getting beyond a joke, Which? says

Which? launches a push to reform fees that can add over a third extra to the cost of music, comedy and theatre tickets...

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Concert booking fees getting beyond a joke, Which? says

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• Still cheaper than the secondary market.
• I can understand paying for delivery, but Јlots when simply posting 2nd class, or paying to print yourself is IMHO ridiculous
• i know jason manford told people to boycott somewhere due to there fees. as for secondary tickets its all about timing as i went to the big reunion for 27.50, 5 rows from the front when it should have been 48 each
• I go to many concerts so I spend a lot of money and time organising everything, but that doesn't make the extra fees and charges much more predictable.
  Apart from supporting the Which? campaign, my two pieces of advice would be to:
  - Sign up to Songkick and use their ticket comparison
  - If possible, try and find a ticket office near you for pickup (I use Stargreen as they're close to my work)
• I use the ticket factory quite a lot and noticed than when the regulations changed regardin booking fees, theirs simply changed to a fulfilment fee, then on top of that they charge an admin fee and a renovations levy.
  Booked some tickets the other day from the Wolves Civic... they charge you to print out your own tickets.
  Just all about squeezing every last penny out of you!
• It's high time credit and debit card firms ban companies from charging more than the actual fee for processing the transaction. If they can't take cards their business would be in ruins.
  But if fees were banned they would simply be rolled into the ticket price.
• Is it just me, or did these fees not exist 10-15 years ago? Perhaps I'm looking through rose-tinted specs, but my recollection is that you used to pay a Ј1-Ј2 fee max when buying tickets, and that these would be per transaction rather than per ticket?? What's changed to justify the exponential increase?
• I booked tickets to see Beyonce through her website on Saturday morning. Her website redirected you to an agency called Turnupgroup. On top of an Ј85 ticket they charged me Ј8.90 Convenience Fee per ticket, Ј4 Processing Fee per ticket and Ј11 for delivery. Overall, it ended up costing roughly Ј105 per ticket. That's almost a 20% increase in cost. Of course, by the time you know anything about these fees you've gone through the whole buying process and there is very little you can do.
• I can, at the very least, understand booking fees and charges from third-party sellers. Ultimately, it's how the likes of Ticketmaster and Co earn their money.
  My problem with booking fees is when I am buying direct from the vendor / promoter.
  For example, if I used the Vue Cinema website to book a ticket for a film being shown in a Vue Cinema, I'm charged a booking fee on top of my ticket fee. Why? That is where, to me, the idea of a booking fee is needless.
• That said, I don't remember booking tickets through third party sites 15 years ago - you would do it through the venue, so these additional fees wouldn't be incurred. What's changed to make Ticketmaster etc the preferred model?
• The only way to even attempt to stop this would be for people to stop going to concerts unless there was transparancy.
  I am astounded at some of the terms used - convenience fee (= an easy way for us to charge a mark up), renovation levy (= we want to give the office a makeover). I accept that the companies need to make their cut to exist, but they should have fees shown upfront - e.g. Ј45 (face value Ј40), but what they do now is no different to what airlines have been lambasted for for years now.
• If I want to book tickets at a local venue, I now make a point of going to the box office and paying in cash. It seems to be the only way to avoid the fees completely.
• Most ticket sites are now automatically "ticking" event insurance as well, which adds more to the cost of tickets. Obviously you can "untick" this option, but when you are rushing to buy in demand tickets this is not the thing you are always looking for!! surely this should be unticked to start with?