Paperless Tickets: Inconvenience In The Name Of Convenience
from the up-is-down,-black-is-white dept
An interesting post from Braden Cox talks about how Ticketmaster's new "paperless ticket" initiative, which Ticketmaster claims is all about making the experience convenient for event ticket buyers, isn't at all convenient compared to traditional ticket buying methods. The so-called "convenience" is because ticketbuyers supposedly won't have to wait on a will call line to pick up tickets that were ordered. Of course, most will call lines only matter if you didn't order in time to get tickets sent to you. Furthermore, to get into the event, you now have to present both the credit card you used to make the purchase and a photo ID -- meaning that rather than just handing over a ticket, you need to hand over two separate cards, which then need to be scanned into a machine, slowing down the whole process. Also, if you bought multiple tickets everyone has to be there at the same time to get in and of course, you can no longer resell your tickets. This doesn't sound particularly convenient. Instead, as noted in the comments to Cox's post, it appears to really be about cutting out the resale market. Of course, Ticketmaster may find that this backfires on them. Part of the value of the ticket is its resale value. Remove that and you lower the value of the ticket, meaning fewer people willing to buy those tickets at existing prices.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: convenience, paperless tickets
Companies: ticketmaster
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Ugh.....ticketmaster
When buying resale I always specify hard tickets. I won't buy PrintPass tickets unless I have to. I've never had a problem using someone else's PrintPass though. If anything, if you have problems just throw the ticket scanner a ten-spot.
And I have noticed hard tickets will sell for about 20% more than PrintPass.
DOWN WITH TICKETMASTER. Support FrontGateTickets!
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Also....
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corporet scalping ladys and gents!!!! come on iiinnnn!!
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What do you expect from a monopoly?
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And helping to facilitate identity theft.
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Maybe an ID and some cash in my front pocket... a wallet in your back pocket is a bad idea.
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Non-convenience charge
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I hate ticketmaster,
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Gifts
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Self-serve bank tellers (ATMs) and self-serve DMV booths also cost more than getting service through a person (or at least used to), yet I'm sure the later cost a lot more.
Money grabbing.
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Re:
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doesnt make sense
doesnt make sense!!! , if some one is ready to pay YOUR overpriced price on the resale market, gladly will be if you didnt buy it and is ready to be sold, at the REAL retail price.
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Re: doesnt make sense
What really bothers me, though, is that companies like ticketmaster are legally allowed to buy mass quantities of tickets they have no intention of using, and sell them at a profit. Anyone else who does that is breaking the law. You can call it a convenience fee all you want, but if it weren't for them, I could've just bought the ticket from the venue without paying an additional fee. I've missed a number of shows I wanted to see because ticketmaster was the only way to get a ticket, and I absolutely refuse to give them any of my money. I will likely continue to miss shows for that reason in the future. If they weren't able to buy tickets until someone actually placed an order through them, it could be called a convenience fee; but when they buy tickets by the thousands before anyone has so much as picked up a phone, it's scalping pure and simple.
Mind you, I don't really have a problem with scalping in and of itself, but either everyone should be allowed to do it, or nobody should.
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Print your own tickets
Now, charging me $2.50 for the 'priviledge' of this is ridiculous. But I do see value in being able to print my own 'e-ticket'.
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Cut out Ticketmaster from your transactions!
Your favorite band's going to a Ticketmaster-only venue? Skip the show and send the band a short note about why they should use a competing company.
And lastly, support bands/venues who use Frontgate Tickets! There is a fee-free world out there, folks -- time to put your money where your mouth is and boycott Ticketmaster.
BTW, the scalpers do serve a purpose- they buy all the tickets to all the shows, so bands don't need to sell out venues to get gigs. For every ticket scalpers sell for double face value there's a few they sold for no profit or didn't sell at all.
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As bad as usury
Last month, I bought two $32.50 tickets ($65) for a concert here in town, but the end cost was over $90 dollars! I was charged $9.25 PER TICKET "Convenience" Charge. This is nothing more than a blatant cash grab and is so high relative to the cost of the product sold (almost 30%) that it must border on being illegal.
I'd like to know what $9.25 could possibly be the cost of when the entire transaction is digital without any human interaction other than my own. It is certainly far more than the credit card transaction fee. If anything, Ticketmaster should be *discounting* my purchase for saving them the cost of not employing a ticket sales person. Also, how does the charge to send me the tickets by regular mail ($0.50?) come to $4.35? I know it "includes Order Processing Fee" – but was that really $3.85?
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Paperless tickets
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Ticketmaster is AWFUL
it says to provide the cc used to purchase...but only a valid ID, not that the 2 have to match- just sayin'
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