Well known ticketseller: v. high charges to captive market but not adding any value.

Transferred from another thread

The other option is to buy through a well known online ticket seller who has a reputation for charging relatively large amounts of money for the simple task of issuing 10s of thousands of tickets a day.

I am one of those people who feel that this company extracts excess profit from what is a largely captive market. For example, the ticket price is €88.50 including booking fee. Booking through the online retailer will incur a further 12.5% charge - €11.06. Booking through agents will cost €2.50. That's an extra 10% of the ticket cost just to book online.

I don't mind too much paying a poor struggling artist (as if !) a significant amount of money to come to Ireland, bring his retinue with him and play good music for me and the missus for a few hours. I do object to paying some company a very significant proportion of that entire fee for 5 seconds of their computer time.



z


NB -> I specifically didn't name the retailer in my post, but when this section was split from another thread the moderators put in a title which does not reflect my views. Given a choice I would prefer to shop elsewhere, but this is not the same as saying I do not like Ticketmaster. They are handy for certain situations. Does that mean they are good value ? Does that mean I don't like them ? No and no.

Re: Where are the "usual outlets" for tickets ?

Most of "the usual outlets" operate as agents of Ticketmaster.

Re: Where are the "usual outlets" for tickets ?

agree with sound cellar usually only a euro charge per ticket not sure if it will be more for leonard cohen but i'm not sure how many tickets he would get for this so in this case it may be easier to get tickets online and pay the charges. hopefully this won't be like the neil young tickets where the touts were facilitated by having a limit of 9 tickets per person!

Re: Well known ticket seller: charging large amounts of money but not adding any val

Hi Zag,

Ive changed the title. Let me know it thats ok.

aj

Re: Well known ticketseller: v. high charges to captive market but not adding any val

Hi Zag

I split the thread. I can't remember what the title I put on it was. I had not thought that the title I used expressed "a view". I thought I had framed it as a question. Sorry if I attributed views to you.

As it is your thread, feel free to edit the title to reflect your views.

Re: Well known ticketseller: v. high charges to captive market but not adding any val

I bought 4 tickets on Friday for Leonard Cohen. I don't have the full details to hand but it cost me around €24 I think to buy them online through Ticketmaster.

I suppose Aitken Promotions could sell the tickets for €24 more and pay a commission to Ticketmaster. The trend is to show costs separately. Intermediaries should display their charges and commissions. But when they do, we accuse them of being bad value.

For me it was good value. I logged on and bought the tickets. No queuing up around the block like we used to do before Ticketmaster. The tickets will be posted out to me.

So is €24 too expensive? I have heard some people say that they should not charge per ticket, but per transaction. This is too simplistic. Presumably Ticketmaster will want to make the same overall revenue from the concert. Instead of splitting this revenue between, say 4,000 tickets, they could split it over the 2,000 transactions and charge twice as much per transaction. But then the people who buy just one ticket would be up in arms because they would have to pay €12 per ticket.

I think that the system is fair.

Ticketmaster has a monopoly because they provide a good service. I am sure that others have tried to set up a rival ticket system. And maybe someone else will provide an alternative.

Re: Well known ticketseller: v. high charges to captive market but not adding any val

Hi Brendan and aj,

I tried to change the title but couldn't - or couldn't work out how. The new title is grand, thanks.

As it happens I was in the middle of posting a reply to this (or the original thread, can't remember) a few days ago, but got distracted by work and forgot to come back till now. The actual fee charged was only about 5% or so and not 12% as originally indicated on the pod.ie, so the price differential was not nearly as big as expected.

You say "But when they do, we accuse them of being bad value" - but my point was that at the original rate indicated on the website and in contrast to a shop in the street selling tickets for a much smaller amount, then they are bad value. Why would you pay (as originally indicated on the pricelist) about €25 for two tickets when you could pay < €10 for the same tickets in a shop if the shop is convenient ?

z

Re: Well known ticketseller: v. high charges to captive market but not adding any val

Why would you pay ... about €25 for two tickets when you could pay < €10 for the same tickets in a shop if the shop is convenient ?

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The difference is €15. And it's not particularly convenient to go to a shop at 9am on a weekday morning. It is certainly worth that to me not to have to queue and to do it from my pc.

Brendan

Re: Well known ticketseller: v. high charges to captive market but not adding any val

Going to a shop in a city centre, suburb or provincial town at 9am on a weekday morning is an absolute non-runner for 95% of people. Ticketmaster's service may be expensive but like Ryanair they're unpopular but generally worth it.

Re: Well known ticketseller: v. high charges to captive market but not adding any val

I agree that for a lot of people going to a shop at a particular time may not suit - no argument there, online is flexible and usefull. I would debate the 95% figure though - what about all those people who work in city and town centres and can go to the shop on the way to work ?

I would still argue that for those people who have the option of the shop or online that the shop shows a significant saving.

z

Re: Well known ticketseller: v. high charges to captive market but not adding any val

zag said:

I would debate the 95% figure though - what about all those people who work in city and town centres and can go to the shop on the way to work ?

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I still reckon "all those people" are a tiny minority. Of all the people working in the Greater Dublin area, from Swords to Bray and the suburbs in between, how many of them walk up Henry Street, Grafton Street or Nassau Street every morning?

Re: Well known ticketseller: v. high charges to captive market but not adding any val

But don't forget, approx. two thirds of the the population don't live in the greater Dublin area. I'm sure for a lot of these people, nipping out to their nearest outlet wouldn't be much of a problem - not for me anyway nor most of the people I know.

Re: Well known ticketseller: v. high charges to captive market but not adding any val

Folks

I don't think that the percentage of people, for whom it is convenient, matters. If it's not convenient to go to the shop, then buying online is a great service, for which some of us are prepared to pay.

Brendan

Re: Well known ticketseller: v. high charges to captive market but not adding any val

Caveat said:

But don't forget, approx. two thirds of the the population don't live in the greater Dublin area. I'm sure for a lot of these people, nipping out to their nearest outlet wouldn't be much of a problem - not for me anyway nor most of the people I know.

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I'm not so sure. Most people working in towns like Athlone or Mullingar, for example, work in industrial estates, business parks or institutions (hospitals, schools etc) on the edge of town, not in the centre of the town itself.