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Seattlest Pix 09Nov25
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A hot tip just arrived in our inbox. It's about a bill that was proposed in the House in Olympia yesterday that would enforce some transparency into ticket prices.
There's a bill introduced yesterday in the state House, HB 1978, that would require ticket vendors/promoters/etc. to disclose in their advertizing the full cost of a ticket. Remember when The End was advertising Endfest tickets for $10.77? And then once Ticketbastard levied its convenience charge and they threw on a "facilities charge" the price was double that, and they didn't tell you about these charges until you were on a screen that said "You have 1 minute to complete this page and then your tickets will be released and you have to statrt over." This bill is aimed at that. Rep. Dave Quall of Mount Vernon filed the bill, and it's got five sponsors already.
So no longer would Seattlest tell you that a show was $15 and link to you TicketMaster who will end up charging you $32 somehow. We'll get to know the full price. That seems pretty awesome, particularly with TicketMaster making inroads into more venues in Seattle (Showbox), not that they're by any means the sole perpetrator of this magic trick. A ticket to Rose Hill Dr. (which is a band we've never heard of, but it's also the name of the street our parents live on) at the Tractor is advertised at $12 on TicketsWest. Plus $3 service charge. Plus $2.50 handling fee. The tickets are $17.50 a piece and we agree that that's the price that should be advertised on their fliers, listings, whatever, and on Seattlest.
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They should be required to advertise it as separated costs... ie, $12 + $5.50 Ticketmaster fees. When people see what a rip off it is, there will be more pressure for smaller fees. Amazon can sell me a cheap book, process my order, and ship me to me for less than $5.50... all ticketmaster does is send me a PDF.
I would also to ask what exactly does that "convenience" fee or "customer service" fee buy? Has anyone everyone called up Ticket Bastard for some of that customer service? You wait on hold and listen to a message that says unless your event is in the next 48 hours, hang up and call back when it is. I don't know about you, but I prefer to plan my life a little more than 48 hours in advance.
As someone who worked at "TicketMonster" (the in-house monniker used by phone agents back in the day) many, many moons ago, the whole thing is pretty much a scam.
The "convenience charge", is presumably an overcharge for the fact you didn't have to go down to the venue to purchase the tickets in person - whoopee. The handling fee is of course there to cover the cost of processing the order, printing and mailing the ticket. But, given the volume of sales, particularly for large concerts & sporting events, I can tell you these charges far outstrip the actual costs, even when factoring in a modest profit margin.
But, venues like it because it means less overhead for them; promoters LOVE it, because it means they can deal with a single, national operation rather than scores of individual venues; ticket brokers (i.e. large-scale scalpers) wet themselves because they can purchase in huge volumes (despite the generally ineffectual limits on single-transaction purchases), and their mark up more than covers the various fees & charges.
As usual, it's the customer who gets screwed.
Not to mention, why should I have to put my hard-earned $$ into the pocket of the 10th or 11th RICHEST PERSON ON THE PLANET (*cough!* Paul Allen *cough!*) just to see a band at the freaking Showbox?
It's easy to ignorantly put the blame on the ticket company, but are you sure you know why? Go ask the Showbox how much they get from Ticketmaster on every ticket that's sold. It's more than the face value, that's for sure. There's a reason those service fees are so high, boys and girls, and it's NOT because the ticket companies are making a killing...They're just willing to deceive you into thinking they're the bad guys. This bill is a good one, but if you want change, put some pressure on your local venues to get some cajones and call a spade a spade. They're hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in service fee rebates from the artists who are playing their venues. And in the process they're deceiving the consumer by falsely advertising the price. There are two issues, here, and they're both equally ugly. We can either force the major players to change or we can stop going to concerts. If you're not willing to do one of those two, then shut the hell up about "Ticketmaster/Ticketbastard/Ticketmonster" and return to your robotic ways. Turn the light on and you won't be in the dark.