I have absolutely fucking no love for TicketMaster. I go to a fair amount of concerts. Usually three to four a month, sometimes more. Recently, I’ve been booking my next couple months and have had to buy several tickets through TicketMaster or TicketWeb. TicketWeb is reasonable enough. Their service fees are usually anywhere from two to six bucks and they let you download and print your ticket for free. This, I can live with. Ticketmaster fucking bends me over and reams my wallet like it was a doe-eyed boy in a prison shower room.

For example, I’m going to see Amon Amarth at Irving Plaza, here in New York City in early December. The cost of the actual ticket is $19.99. If I’m going to buy it from Ticketmaster, first I pay a “Convenience Charge” of $6.20. Then, I’m slapped with a $4.90 processing fee. Finally, if I want to download and print my ticket, I’ve got to shill out another $2.50 for the privilege. This brings my bill to a randy, fat and sweating $33.59. They’re nailing me in fees for an additional 68% of the cost of my ticket. Totally fucking disgusting.

So screw them. From now on, any venue that uses them for online sales will be getting my money from ticket booth sales unless it’s something I absolutely have to see and can’t get a ticket any other way. It just sucks because I like to research what I want to go see online and then nail the ticket right then and there. It’s convenient for me, but I also spend a lot more money on venues that way. Impulse shopping…it’s supposed to be encouraged, not bludgeoned to paste.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 7:47 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.