If you don't want to go to the show because of the price, don't. Seth's just trying to keep his club awesome and have great bands continue to play there.
When Seth has no audience because of practices like this, or at least no audience outside of those right in the heart of DC, then he won't be able to "keep his club awesome," because he'll be broke.
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.
How many of those "bitching and moaning" do you think went ahead and paid for the tickets anyway? Here's a little insight: I didn't. Nor did any of my friends who wanted to see this show.
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?
I didn't purchase them, no. But if I had said nothing, then no one would have known that a ticket, or two tickets, or 1000 tickets, weren't sold for a specific reason.
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.
No, I understand that shipping and (rarely, because there's a very small chance the place you're purchasing from will be in your state) taxes are part of the total, that total being the TOTAL AMOUNT I'll have to pay, not the total amount the seller claims they'll be making. I also know damn well that, if a seller ships me something that costs 10 dollars, and it costs them 2 dollars to ship it, but they charged me $22, they're not just making $10. They're making the entire sum that I paid minus the ACTUAL cost of shipping, so they've made $30 dollars but claimed it was a bargain because the "item's price" was only $10. Anyone can see through this sort of scheme, and I think very few people who shop online will pay excessive shipping anymore. They'll go someplace where the TOTAL THEY PAY, even if the item costs more but the shipping costs less, is lower. It's as simple as that.
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.
I'm not sure who you're out to make a snide remark against here, but while my business is none of yours, I'm not missing out on any money by posting here. However, I would be if decided to quietly pay excessive surcharges.