Tick tock ticket companies – one month to justify your practices

Ticket price should never have any surcharge. You don’t buy a toaster and pay5% extra? The ticket seller should be paid a % of the ticket price or per ticket from the game / gig organiser. No hiking prices on resale at higher prices. What is good for football should be standard across all.

Almost all these charges are unjustified. They are what I call the Green Shield Stamp Money Making System. This is a technique where a company positions itself neatly between buyer and seller, taking money from both while offering a ‘service’ that the customer does not want or need. Their sole reason for existence is to take a ‘slice’ of the ‘action’ for themselves.

Once upon a time I would call the box office of the theatre in question, get a clear picture of ALL available seats, make my selection and pay the seat prices declared. The only extra charge was postage. (Now one, otherwise excellent, theatre charges an ‘internet fee’ when I do all the work on my computer. What, pray, does that encompass?) There are still, thank goodness, some theatres where this is still possible.

I have some sympathy for credit card charges as the banking system also wants their cut – equally unjustified in the age of the electronic funds transfer and the internet. Even then, these should only cover the banking costs. It is evident that a little extra on this expense is taken as a bonus. Even so, credit card ‘charges’ would not be acceptable in a restaurant, so why here? I have no sympathy at all for debit card charges.

So I am not really interested in whether these crafty charges are too high, or how clearly they are documented, I am interested in why they exist at all. Let’s be done with them and dispose of these carpet-baggers altogether.

Our local theatre is managed on behalf of the local authority. It charges a £1.50 booking fee on top of the seat price even if you print your own tickets. Not a major extra (5-10%) but this conversation prompted me to ask them why they did this. Their answer was:

“The reason that the majority of entertainment venues have booking fees is down to the industry partnership between promoters and venue managers.

The costs of running and maintaining venues has risen hugely in recent years. However venues showing touring work such as the (**** theatre) only retain on average 20% of the ticket income – the remaining 80% goes to the producers of the show.

Therefore of a £15 ticket price, the (**** theatre) is likely to retain after tax £2.50. In some cases the producer takes all the ticket income money, so our only income is what we take on the bars etc, and the booking fee.

In an ideal world it would be simply included in the price for the customer but, quite rightly, the Advertising Standards Authority and the producers are keen that we explain and display our prices clearly.

We always aim to be transparent with our fees and charges and display them so the customer is aware of the final price they will be charged.”