They rip you off because they can

[andrewducker]

I just bought tickets to see Dara O'Briain when he comes to Edinburgh. I
went to the Edinburgh Playhouse site last night, which told me that tickets
were £22 each. But when I selected two tickets they wanted to charge me
£27.25 per ticket _and_ a £4 transaction fee.

F^ck that, I thought, and handily working a five minute walk from the
Playhouse I walked over there at lunch to see if they were cheaper in
person. Indeed they were - £22 each plus £2.20 if I paid by card. So I
walked to the nearest cash machine and paid for it in cash.

So that's £44 for two tickets in person versus £58.50 online - a 33%
surcharge for buying online.

The company I work for has spent a fortune on improving our website so that
people will use that rather than calling us, because automated systems are
cheaper to run than hiring people, training them, etc. What the hell is
the theatre business playing at?

Comments

[matgb]

If Edinburgh is anything like London, all ticket sales except on-the-door sales are subcontracted to agencies, who're effectively licences touts.

Did some market research for a new firm wanted to promote a quite good new eticketing idea while I lived down there, not a single theatre was interested because they'd all gone over to one of two big ticketing agencies.

Both of whom were charging booking fees, arrangement fees, posting fees, etc.

If it was an area I cared about, I'd be stomping about cartels and price fixing, but...

[zz]

ims amazon operate on the principle that if a site user needs to talk to a human staffer, they've failed somewhere.
we try to an extent at work, but we don't have the scale to spend the time automating little/rarely-occurring things.

paying-by-card and especially not-paying-by-direct-debit fees make me livid.

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

I wish more online services had that principle.

My bank now wants to talk to me if I try to send money to a place I've never sent it before. I appreciate that they're trying to avoid fraud, but I hate talking to people on the phone. I'd much prefer that they send me an email, or have me set up another question/magic word/password. Even better, a thump print.

[dreema.livejournal.com]

> Even better, a thump print.

Yeah, i can see that taking off. Smack it till it works :)

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

Well, perhaps it could analyse your particular bash/smash/gah pattern!

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

Does the Playhouse sell the tickets themselves online or do they redirect you to a ticket agency? If the latter then that's probably where most of your additional money is going. If they sell tickets themselves then they are just maximising their revenues. They know people are now used to booking fees and most either don't have the option to drop into the box office or can't be bothered and so will just pay the booking fees without question.

[andrewducker]

I'm now curious as to what I'd get charged if I phoned up.

And also, what they'll do when the new laws come in on credit card surcharges.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

That will depend on the definition of "reasonable charges". Their credit card charges are 5%. A company of that size will have negotiated a rate of about 1% for processing those transactions. There are additional costs such as rental of the card processing equipment, so it seems likely to me that an argument could be made that 5% is "reasonable".

[autopope.livejournal.com]

If you went via Leith Walk with your nose in an ebook reader as you passed Gayfield Square, you missed me by about two metres. (I waved, honest.)

[andrewducker]

Yes, and hi! Sorry to have missed you!

(I was reading Halting State too!)

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Very funny that you were so wrapped up e-reading a book about augmented reality that you didn't notice its author. Yeah!

[steer.livejournal.com]

Guess -- the online reseller is outsourced. The theatre has to have someone manning the phones and box office anyway. The marginal cost of selling in the theatre is "nearly zero" as the person doing it is "there anyway". The online reseller, on the other hand, needs to operate a server farm, coders, etc and passes on these costs.

Friend of mine used to work for an online ticket selling company -- despite the overheads they charge they went bankrupt. I guess that this is a case where the automated system is, in fact, much more pricey.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Warner Village cinemas are the same, charging me for the privilege of being my own ticket clerk.

At least the supermarkets aren't charging extra to use the self-checkout stations, for being your own checkout clerk and bag packer.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

Off topic:
by the Gods of Hellfire I hate those arseing self-checkouts. With a furious, bile-inducing passion.

I stopped using Edinburgh Central Library after they went exclusively to self-service. Which properly fucked my ability to study for a good while.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

When did they do this, and when did they stop? I haven't been in there for a while admittedly. Maybe I should take something out, just to show that libraries are important even with the internet etc.

[andrewducker]

I am very glad that Cineworld don't.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I tend to feel that the Technical Term for this is "goudging" -- but in fact, if they're outsourcing the ticket sales the additional cost might not be entirely unreasonable.

[recycled-sales.livejournal.com]

Doesn't this open up the prospect of a courier-alike service where one buys tickets for people? It'd be difficult to avoid non-payers without adding surcharges, but it does seem like a local business opportunity if more than one theatre behaves this way.

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

If I can, I always book in person for just this reason. I was trying to get Andre Rieu tickets for my parents and they were going to charge me £7 per ticket booking fee. Given the tickets were already £75, I sent my BiL to Glasgow, since he studies in Paisley, and he got them for face value.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

kickbacks
The box-office "out-sourcers" pay the theater a cut out of each fee.

[kashandara.livejournal.com]

Early last year we decided while the kids were visiting to go see Chitty chitty bang bang at the Pavilion (I think). As we wanted to go on a Saturday matinee it seemed a good idea to book in advance. Having tried to buy them through ticketmaster and seen the markup, it was actually cheaper for me to travel from Stirling by train at peak time, and buy myself a quick dinner to eat on the train home again, than to buy them online for collection at the theatre on the day. That seemed a little bit ridiculous to me, but was what I did anyway.

[magenta-wings.livejournal.com]

Not 'the theatre business'. ATG.

[andrewducker]

Aha! More info please!

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

Ambassador Theatre Group
They own/run the Playhouse and a number of other theatres.