12 August 2015 / Money, Travel & Leisure

Is this the highest ever ticket mark-up?

Rob Goodman Senior Money Researcher

Comments 23

Have we found the largest ever ‘processing fee’ charged by a ticket company? If you were to guess how much that fee might be, what would you say? £10? £50? £100? Try again…

What would you think if you were charged £178.99 for buying tickets to see your favourite band? That’s exactly what one Which? member was faced with.

She was left outraged after purchasing six tickets from GetMeIn! (the Ticketmaster-owned secondary ticket website) to see Fleetwood Mac at London’s O2 arena. It wasn’t paying £159.50 for each one, despite a face value of £80, that made her blood boil, but GetMeIn!’s £178.99 ‘processing fee’ (almost £30 per ticket). To add insult to injury, GetMeIn! charged a £2.40 ‘delivery fee’ for the print-at-home ‘e-tickets’.

Fleetwood Mac concertgoer hit with £179 ‘processing fee’

We contacted GetMeIn! to ask what its processing fee is made up of, and it said that ‘all fees are calculated on a per order basis’. It told us that, like most online marketplaces, it charges a fee that ‘corresponds with the transaction size, as this best reflects the risks and costs of the transaction’. GetMeIn! also said it is transparent about its fees and they are clearly displayed on the order summary page.

This explanation offered little consolation to the Which? member, who didn’t spot the fees before the payment went through. She told us:

‘Outrageous rip-off. I will never do business with this company again.’

Have you been hit with a bigger ticket fee? Don’t be shy, share your examples in the comments below.

Comments

NFH says:

13 August 2015

I have more of a problem with the £2.40 “delivery fee” than with the £179 processing fee. If customers print tickets themselves, then there is no objective justification for GetMeIn to surcharge for it.

There is often a flawed argument put forward by such companies that the surcharge covers the IT development costs of their systems, but this is one of their many fixed costs of doing business, and does not merit a surcharge on top of the headline price. It’s just another dishonest form of drip pricing.

dieseltaylor says:

13 August 2015

I have looked at the site and indeed it is clear what the processing cost is so I do not have any particular feeling of outrage.

I did a test purchase of two Ashes tickets and the processing cost was £39.18 for two tickets at £110.00 each for seats originally sold at £90.00.

Web of Trust has warnings for this site as to value and trustworthiness . I suspect if you are prepared to buy tickets from touts and people who genuinely cannot use their tickets in a more secure on-line environment then companies will be there to profit.

If they choose to operate on a sliding charges scale so be it.

Sue says:

13 August 2015

GetMeIn up there charges to the highest prices that people will accept because they CAN and people are prepared to pay.

malcolm r says:

13 August 2015

Was the final payment amount not visible before you entered credit card details? Surely you would not proceed with a transaction without knowing this.

dieseltaylor says:

13 August 2015

It is very clear even before you get to the payment stage.

Apart from that even saying it were invisible dividing by six the total cost would have revealed the cost per seat.

Whilst interesting to look at the mechanics of the secondary ticket market the rather sensationalist first paragraph falls rather flat when analysed:

” Have we found the largest ever ‘processing fee’ charged by a ticket company? If you were to guess how much that fee might be, what would you say? £10? £50? £100? Try again… ”

I daresay buying multiple tickets will give the biggest fee – lookee here I win : )

6x Tickets (£660.00 each):
£3,960.00
Processing Fee:
£720.41
Delivery Fee:
TBC
FANGUARD Guarantee:
Free
Enter a discount code
Order Total:
£4,680.41

NFH says:

13 August 2015

Dieseltaylor, it should be clear well before you get to the payment stage. Why doesn’t GetMeIn display the minimum full price for each ticket right from the beginning? Because it prefers to give a misleading indication of price.

The consumer doesn’t care about the breakdown of how much goes to GetMeIn and how much goes to the original seller and how much GetMeIn thinks its IT systems cost to run. All the consumer needs to know at the beginning is the minimum total price and the face value of the ticket.

dieseltaylor says:

14 August 2015

We may be looking at different screens as the one I see has the ticket price and also the information I have quoted.

It is totally clear what the costs are.

I am using a PC , what is seen on a smartphone may be different.

Ian says:

13 August 2015

Most ticket agencies retain usage of expensive 084 or 087 numbers. Calls to these numbers incur an additional Service Charge paid to the benefit of the called party and their telecoms provider. This, on top of all of the other fees and charges, adds further insult to injury.

NFH says:

14 August 2015

For any after-sales enquiries, an 084 or 087 number would breach Regulation 41 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Payments) Regulations 2013. I notice that GetMeIn breaches Regulation 6(1)(c) of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 by failing to publish an e-mail address through which it can be contacted.

dieseltaylor says:

14 August 2015

Well done NFH – good sleuthing.

Which? what is the penalty for breaching these requirements? I trust you informing the relevant body will carry some weight.

Richard Piggin says:

17 August 2015

Hi Ian – which ticket agencies did you find with 084 or 087 numbers?

AnitaAlice says:

13 August 2015

Likewise; had simialr experience getting 21 Pilots tickets,

2 turned up a day or so later.

Others – haven’t materialised yet I paid for them months ago now. Well at least a month. They can turn up up to two days prior to the gig…

They are un r e a l.

I was a Dir of Press in the music biz for years, and quite relish having little to do with it now; I take it all back…This was the biggest unashamed scandal I ever did see….And you can stick a cherry on the top of that….

MsSupertech says:

31 August 2015

Thought I might share this with you… A £172.50 booking fee!

My partner has just sent the following to ‘The Cricket Paper’. It’s not just about rip-off fees but inflated resale prices too, something the ECB specifically prohibits in the ticket sales T&Cs.

The ECB says it wants to stamp out ticket touting. Yet Stubhub, Viagogo and other dot-co.uk websites are awash with tickets for the forthcoming England v Australia ODI series at massively inflated prices.
For example, Stubhub is selling 104 tickets for the September 5th Lords ODI. Tickets with a face value of £70 are on offer for up to £413 each. On Viagogo, £110 tickets in the grandstand are on sale for an eye-watering £575 plus a booking fee of £172.50.
Why is this blatant touting allowed to go unhindered?

Aiping says:

11 June 2016

I purchased two football tickets Euro 2016 from Viagogo for 170.41 pounds. After, I saw Which news and warning so I asked Viagogo refund and did refused delivery. Viagogo does not have any phone can go through a person, no reply for my concern, no office address in UK. They used their term and conditions to protect them self. I read your new like before match turn up, I might get money back from bank. But as I paid by debit card, it seems so hard. I knew Viagogo is doing wrong, but in which way I can get my money back?

joan norman says:

21 November 2016

i have just been charged a $188 booking fee by viagogo for two adele tickets which wasnt visible when i booked the tickets, has this happened to anyone else

Jeanette Butler says:

6 February 2017

I have just purchased two tickets to see John Mayer through Viagogo. It was VERY pressurised, with clocks counting down the seconds and telling me that I was running out of time. I knew that I was paying over the odds for the tickets but nearly died when I got the confirmation email. Booking fee 76. 75 euros, handling fee 4.95 euros and VAT 15.35 euros…. 98 euros more than I was expecting.
Apparently there is a drop down button that you have to click at the final stage of payment that reveals the extrs charges but unfortunately, I didn’t see it.
I must say, it’s taken the shiny off going to see my favourite singer in Amsterdam that I was so looking forward to.

Laurie says:

14 January 2018

I’ve paid over £400 for 2 Foo Fighters tickets in Manchester with Getmein. I have only ever bought festival tickets so 139 a ticket didn’t ring alarm bells to me. I had gone into ticket master website and hadn’t realised they had linked me to Getmein. Nearly cried when I saw the total. But it’s for my 40th birthday and I didn’t want to risk not getting them. Think it is outrageous that ticket master are allowed to do this.

Joe says:

7 March 2018

First time I booked a ticket to Apollo Hammersmith. I saw a ticket resale £72 on Ticketmaster website. I clicked on the price and purchased the ticket which redirected me to GetMeIn. The scumbag con website charged me £13.89 for processing fee and £10.57 for delivery!! Maybe Amazon should get into the ticket business and get them out of business.

Adnan says:

12 March 2018

Bought 4 tickets to WWE Raw at £110 each. Hit with a £125 booking fee and £5.95 Delivery (Even though they are E-tickets.)

I understand that the ticket prices are high as they are resellers, thats fine but the booking and delivery fees is outrageous.

malcolm r says:

12 March 2018

May I ask why, if you considered the fees outrageous, you continued with the transaction? Presumably you thought the money you spent was worthwhile?

I understand all fees should be shown clearly up front. If they are concealed until the last minute, and not shown clearly, then there is a case to answer. ASA have ruled on this recently.

bishbut says:

13 March 2018

Obsession with what ? minor “celebs” ? people MUST go to see them whatever the cost They are blind to anything else only wanting to see them in the flesh so will do anything at all just to do just that Mostly media made “celebs” too very few talented “celebs” these days but some get obsessed about them helped by the media hype

duncan lucas says:

13 March 2018

Exactly Bishbut here today-gone tomorrow none of them come even close ton real stars , actors/personalities/ comedians/ singers/composers with world recognized talent who will live forever in history . its the “3 minutes of fame ” syndrome but I blame the media and entertainment industry who know full well that they are going to exploit young people to get as much profit out of them in a short time and then discard them . Unlike REAL personalities who live forever in peoples minds and history. I wont name the “exploiters ” as it might upset some but they are well known for “factory ” personalities production.

Adnan says:

13 March 2018

You got very fast selling tickets and you have a clock with a timer. Which is down to me I understand.

I honestly don’t remember seeing the fees until really late in the process and others are saying the same about being hidden under a drop down at the end.

I’ll do a test on Viagogo and see if the fees are clearly displayed, it may be a fault on my part. I just don’t know how they can charge around £30 booking fee for each ticket, that’s mental, but then you have people like me who are purchasing very quickly .

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