Ticket rip off?

[Beef Oven!]

This afternoon I tried to buy as ticket for Laibach's London gig at the O2 Forum Kentish Town in April 2016 (thanks for the heads up MrGG). All was going well for a £20 ticket then the add ons were:

Service charge: £2.50
Facilities Charge £1.00
Link to page to print off your ticket at home on YOUR printer (cheapest option) £2.75 (FFS!!!)

So a £20 ticket becomes £26.25

I absolutely adore this band, but out of principle, I'm not going. And it seems that if you want to talk to the venue, it's a profit earning 0845 type number.

I think I can afford the ad-ons, but no way. I'm seething - I need to lie down in a dark room for 45 minutes.

[MrGongGong]

Isn't "free enterprise" a wonderful thing?

That's more than a little excessive.
Maybe not as much a rip off as the new "Rattlesnakeoil Hall" will be?

[Beef Oven!]

Isn't "free enterprise" a wonderful thing?

That's more than a little excessive.
Maybe not as much a rip off as the new "Rattlesnakeoil Hall" will be?

I'm all for free enterprise, as you know, BUT service charge, facilities charge and charging for a link to your ticket to print off and take with you is a right royal pee-take. I'M NOT GOING!!!!!

When I saw them earlier this year, I bought my ticket, downloaded it to my phone and scanned it on the entry at the gig (Electric Ballroom). End of.

[MrGongGong]

I'm all for free enterprise, as you know, BUT service charge, facilities charge and charging for a link to your ticket to print off and take with you is a right royal pee-take. I'M NOT GOING!!!!!

Go on
You know you want to go
and you will regret not going if you don't

"Free enterprise" innit

We could really do with some way of officially dealing with this outside the chummy world of Dave and his mates...
How about a pan European organisation?

[Beef Oven!]

Go on
You know you want to go
and you will regret not going if you don't

"Free enterprise" innit

I will regret not seeing them, but will be comfortable with my reasons for not going.

If it can alienate a free-marketeer like me, there's something wrong (£2.75 to print me ticket off in me own home, my asre)

[teamsaint]

I will regret not seeing them, but will be comfortable with my reasons for not going.

If it can alienate a free-marketeer like me, there's something wrong (£2.75 to print me ticket off in me own home, my asre)

really shoddy.

I think you are right to follow your feelings on this Beefy !

(perhaps they will help pay for a new printer cartridge).

WTF even is a facilities charge, also?

Edit, the internet booking fee at the Barbican is £3, AFAICS.

I think its £4 if you phone up for a ticket and help keep somebody in a job.

Edit: at Poole Lighthouse and the Anvil( I think) they have inclusive pricing, ( so the fees are included) which just feels so much more honest and acceptable, somehow.

[Beef Oven!]

really shoddy.

I think you are right to follow your feelings on this Beefy !

(perhaps they will help pay for a new printer cartridge).

WTF even is a facilities charge, also?

Edit, the internet booking fee at the Barbican is £3, AFAICS.

I think its £4 if you phone up for a ticket and help keep somebody in a job.

Edit: at Poole Lighthouse and the Anvil( I think) they have inclusive pricing, ( so the fees are included) which just feels so much more honest and acceptable, somehow.

If the ticket had been a straight £26, I would have paid, downloaded the ticket and put the date in my diary. But having it set out like that, really got my goat.

(and the whole thing is electronic/automated)

[Petrushka]

I'm afraid that this sort of thing goes on everywhere these days and most of us just grumble and stump up. I like Beefy's stand and hope the venue knows about it.

Question: out of curiosity does this go on in concert halls abroad or is it yet another example of 'rip-off Britain'?

[ahinton]

really shoddy.

I think you are right to follow your feelings on this Beefy !

(perhaps they will help pay for a new printer cartridge).

WTF even is a facilities charge, also?

Edit, the internet booking fee at the Barbican is £3, AFAICS.

I think its £4 if you phone up for a ticket and help keep somebody in a job.

Edit: at Poole Lighthouse and the Anvil( I think) they have inclusive pricing, ( so the fees are included) which just feels so much more honest and acceptable, somehow.

Well, that's another problem. On the assumption (which may or may not be valid) that some or all such extra charges go other than to the venue where the performance is to take place, what happens in such cases when they're absorbed into the overall ticket price? Does the venue then have to distribute percentages of the gross ticket praice to those whose extra charges have been absorbed into that price? If so, who pays for the administration needed for that? A simpler version of this is restaurants that impose a percentage surcharge on the bill as a "discretionary serevice charge", which usually means that the punter has to pay it and the only discretionry element of it is that said punter may challenge it if the food, wine and/or service has been particularly bad (whch not all disaffected punters would do in such circumstances because that involves being seen to make a fuss and possibly get enmeshed in acrimonious arguments); I say that this is a simpler version of the same kind of problem insofar as all the monies being paid, including this "extra", are all going to the restaurant itself rather than to third parties. Some restaurants don't do this and instead add it to their advertised prices.

Ticket touting being what it is, it's perhaps no surprise, however, that the "legitimate" side of that activity is big bsiness today.

[Petrushka]

Another aspect, rarely noted, is that you are giving money upfront to a performance months in advance. April 2016 isn't too bad as these things go but there have been cases when I've booked for concerts more than a year in advance.

[Beef Oven!]

I'm afraid that this sort of thing goes on everywhere these days and most of us just grumble and stump up. I like Beefy's stand and hope the venue knows about it.

Question: out of curiosity does this go on in concert halls abroad or is it yet another example of 'rip-off Britain'?

Thanks Petrushka, but even if the venue knew about it, they wouldn't give a monkey's.........

I will make sure the band knows, though.

[MrGongGong]

If the ticket had been a straight £26, I would have paid, downloaded the ticket and put the date in my diary. But having it set out like that, really got my goat.

(and the whole thing is electronic/automated)

Aaaah so it IS "Free Market Capitalism" that you object to.
Nice to get that one sorted then

[Beef Oven!]

Aaaah so it IS "Free Market Capitalism" that you object to.
Nice to get that one sorted then

Stop it! You are in no position to get into a fight

[MrGongGong]

You are in no position to get into a fight

Indeed not
But is IS the gig with "free market capitalism" i'm afraid.

Don't do yourself out of a great gig for the sake of a making a point that won't even register on the radar of those who it is directed towards.

We could do with a EU directive about these things

[teamsaint]

Indeed not
But is IS the gig with "free market capitalism" i'm afraid.

Don't do yourself out of a great gig for the sake of a making a point that won't even register on the radar of those who it is directed towards.

We could do with a EU directive about these things

although we have been in the EU since about 1973, so I guess they either ought to have got round to it by now, or they really don't give a flying one.