Service charges a little high?

[Seth Hurwitz]

if we made it all one price, and didn't break out service charges, wouldn't that make it LESS transparent?

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

On one hand, yes service charges are a ripoff because surely it costs LESS to sell tickets over the Internet than it does to have a paid staff person sitting in a booth all day collecting money and handing them out.

On the other hand, prices throughout the economy are set according to what the market will bear.  People may bitch and moan, but they pay the fees, and that's the only thing that matters from an economic perspective.  For that reason, service charges will always be with us.

[kosmo vinyl]

There is no requirement to buy parking in advance, one can easily pay when arriving to the show at the lot.  And should the lot be sold out there is on street parking available unlike at Nissan which gladly tacks on parking to every ticket.

There is a nifty feature in the FAQ forum, where one can find out from the 9:30 Staff what the status of tickets sales are.   If it appears tickets will be available at the door, then the consumer needs to decide if it's worth the risk to try and buy at the door or paying the fees to ensure they have the tickets.

I'd be curious to find out percentage of shows sell out in advance of doors opening.   It seems to me that other than the obvious instant sellouts, plenty of shows have tickets at the door.   And at that point one has to decide if seeing Them Crooked Vultures, etc is worth paying the extra fees or not.   Sitting at home grumbling is always an option....  Plus even at some sold out shows there are people desperately trying to selling extras.

[nkotb]

I think this hits to the root of the issue.  Did you buy the tickets with the charges?  Or did you opt to speak with your wallet and not purchase them?

If the manager doesn't have an interest or concern with this issue, he should know that he is losing business.

[wags627]

if we made it all one price, and didn't break out service charges, wouldn't that make it LESS transparent?

Yes I am glad I get to see the large dick approaching from behind before taking it deep.

[nkotb]

Look, I agree to a certain extent that it would be nice if Ticketmaster, TicketFly or any of those sites published the full rates before you bought.  Seem ticket price + convenience fee + shipping + etc. would be a nice feature up-front.  But it's not like you're FORCED into those fees once you say OK...you do have the option of not purchasing once you see the total.  Plus, do you people bitch when buying items at the store or online that they don't tell you taxes or shipping upfront?  You lot act like once you add the ticket to your cart that you're stuck with hundreds of dollars of fees and no way to back out of it.

if we made it all one price, and didn't break out service charges, wouldn't that make it LESS transparent?

[andyrichter]

if we made it all one price, and didn't break out service charges, wouldn't that make it LESS transparent?

Yes I am glad I get to see the large dick approaching from behind before taking it deep.

lol

[kosmo vinyl]

But if they were to add the cost of the fees into the base price, people would then complain that concert tickets in DC are higher than the rest of the country.  Because LiveNation has never meet a service they didn't like.

And is the club going to have to sell tickets at the boxoffice at a discount,  since you know  that would be the next complaint. 

[Driveway]

everything that the 930 club does wrong, the black cat does right.  

they have reasonable service charges and they sell drinks that normal people can afford.  they have the best nachos on earth.  AND they switched tickets to a company with really low service charges.  

ticketfly has shiny holograms on their printed tickets though.  i like shiny things.

[kosmo vinyl]

Driveway reminded me of something...  If it's been awhile since someone was at the club,  be prepared not to find any bargins on beers . talk about killer service charges

[Driveway]

Beer bargains are across the street, at Duffy's.

[MonkeyPants]

everything that the 930 club does wrong, the black cat does right.  

they have reasonable service charges and they sell drinks that normal people can afford.  they have the best nachos on earth.  AND they switched tickets to a company with really low service charges.  

ticketfly has shiny holograms on their printed tickets though.  i like shiny things.

Right, but a lot of things BC does wrong, 9:30 does right - like having an amazing sound system and staff who are not complete jerks (unless you're a Disco Biscuits fan apparently ).  But I still choose the crappier venues most of the time because I can see a lot more shows at their more reasonable prices.

Oh, and TicketAlternative has shiny things on the back of their tickets, too but you have to go get your tix in advance of the show at the club (not online) if you want the shiny things 

[MonkeyPants]

Oh, and p.s. mr_goodbomb - just ignore Julian.  At least that's what the rest of us do....

Look kid. Don't get snippy with me. You're the one coming here and rehashing an argument for the five hundredth time with the same logical fallacies and inaccuracies. I love how every one of you who bitch about ticket charges think you're the first one to do it. No way, in your mind, could this have been discussed ad naseum, no... you're the one who's going to bring it to people's attention and get changes made.

Fact remains, Seth has heard this a trillion times and has said he does not care. He just changed ticketing agents (effective January 2010) and said reducing ticketing fees was not his motivation at all. You will not get them changed. Period, end debate.

And the fact remains, for you (and for most people) buying online for that convenience fee is your cheapest option. In the old pre-internet days, it would have cost you markedly more time and money in gas driving to the venue to purchase tickets ahead of the concert date. Then ticketing agents come along and save you, possibly, hundreds of dollars when you factor in the cost of your time in driving to the venue and pass along a convenience fee of maybe 15% of WHAT IT WOULD COST YOU OTHERWISE TO GET TO THE BOX OFFICE AND BUY TICKETS and you complain about the fee. Ticketing fees are too high? In relation to what? They're pennies on the dollar in comparison to your only other option.

I also love your intelligent, erudite claim that printing and mailing tickets cost the ticketing agent "nothing... to perform such a service." O RLY? You're absolutely right that servers and software to handle credit card transactions, credit card fees, customer service, custom printers with the ability to print holograms, watermarks, and other things making counterfeiting harder and mailing out tickets cost nothing. NOTHING. Pure, 100% profit.

Lets just hope your post count never climbs above 2 because your comments are clearly never going to rise above the level of the useless and nonsensical ones presented here.

Hmm, maybe it's been discussed so much because it's a valid issue? It seems the only person so far who's fighting to the teeth for its practice is you. Do you somehow profit from it, friend?

If the manager doesn't have an interest or concern with this issue, he should know that he is losing business. Maybe when the venue is in decline, and people stop traveling for shows because of the added costs ON TOP of the already taxing price of travel and leisure events in this economy, he'll be concerned.

Maybe you have a reading comprehension issue, and judging by your childish and petty presentation of your argument, it wouldn't surprise me if you did based on your clearly low level of intellect, but your "15%" and "pennies on the dollar" is an extremely incorrect statement. The $17 surcharge compared to the cost of the other three items makes it a 34% markup.

No, in the "pre-internet days," people would get to the show earlier to purchase them, because generally, those from any distance wouldn't travel to get tickets early and there would still be limited access available the day of. Now, because of people who DON'T say anything about the issue of markup and excessive service fees, tickets WILL sell out, and they may not be available at the door by simply arriving early. For all your claims of "logical fallacies," you certainly seem less than capable of logic.

This isn't a debate on ticket prices. a $20 tickets is perfectly reasonable. A surcharge costly 34% of that isn't.

As for the costs of ticketing, WillCall doesn't ship. Shipping tickets is unnessicary. If someone will be attending the event, then they can pick them up, and that in itself costs the ticket distributor nothing. The computers, the ATM processing, ticket creation, those devices are there already. How do you think this website, or the business as a whole, is managed, presale processes aside? How do you think things are sold and monetary transactions are made AT the venue when physical cash isn't exchanged? No services charges of debit card fees for the customer there. Tickets EXIST and are sold without service charges in person, so how does printing tickets for WillCall cost ANY extra? It doesn't, you say? You're goddamn right it doesn't. And the ticket seller has very little "customer service" to speak of, believe me, I've tried.

It seems post count and intellect have little to do with eachother. Look at yours. I'm sure it's so high because the less time you spend thinking or deducing rational thought, the more you have for typing.

[James Ford]

If some of us spent less time typing out long diatribes on internet message boards and more time on actually doing work while at work, we'd probably make more money, and high ticket fees wouldn't matter as much.

[azaghal1981]

everything that the 930 club does wrong, the black cat does right.  

they have reasonable service charges and they sell drinks that normal people can afford.  they have the best nachos on earth.  AND they switched tickets to a company with really low service charges.  

ticketfly has shiny holograms on their printed tickets though.  i like shiny things.

Right, but a lot of things BC does wrong, 9:30 does right - like having an amazing sound system and staff who are not complete jerks (unless you're a Disco Biscuits fan apparently ).  But I still choose the crappier venues most of the time because I can see a lot more shows at their more reasonable prices.

I like most of the BC staff.