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[bobyn]

can somebody please explain to me the point of them? i can fully understand them if you are actually booking a ticket in advance, over the phone.. i can understand having the usual 50p charge slapped on in places like ripping records if you pay by card, but why do booking fees exist? it's like going to macro and having vat added. and it's so fucking annoying. why isnt it just included in the ticket price anyway, so you dont notice it's even there?

[Jim]

In 1UP's case, booking fees are in place to cover VAT and credit card charges. Places like Ticket Scotland, Stargreen etc have charge a booking fee so they can actually make money.

[bobyn]

so why cant they just include a booking fee in the ticket, buy the tickets wholesale at a cheaper price, and mark it up to the price actually on the ticket for sale in the shop?
i appreciate what you're saying, but nothing irks me more than, for example, seeing an advert and squealing 'patti smith tickets for £20? i'll take 2!' only to discover i have to pay another £10 in secret charges.

[Ross]

The Booking Fee is a seperate entity...

A promoter leaes tickets to go onsale.... The Agent/Re-seller sells the the tickets with a booking fee to cover their costs.

If an all in one ticket price was arranged then a promoter wuld have to sort out a buy in and sell price with every agent that they use....

If you say Patti Smith tickets £25 each and then get them in the post and they say £20 on the ticket then you phone and enquire as to why you have been charged extra.. It`s a double edged sword....

Hence s.t.b.f on tickets...

There are however no bookig fes on tickets bought in Henry J Beans/The Bassment

[Charlotte]

My favourite ever are tickets scotland who not only charge you a couple of quid extra per ticket, but then charge you an extra couple of quid per ticket if you pay by switch, let alone any credit card. Nice way to make some extra cash guys. I love how they won't refund any of these extra charges 2 weeks later when the gig is cancelled, and how generally they are just smug corporate bastards. My applause to the most evil company the world has ever spawned.

I actually hate them with the fire of a thousand suns. Them and Hewlet *our printers are shit* Packard.

Companies should watch out. The internet really is an evil spawning ground for bad word of mouth.

[daveofficer]

ticketmaster and ticket scotland also charge absolutely phenomenal rates of postage.

as for one up, we try and keep our booking fee as small as possible but if we didn't charge a booking fee we wouldn't get any money for selling the tickets. and as helpful as we are we're not a charity. i know that sounds shit, but hey we gotta eat!

[Charlotte]

I think you can understand that you have to pay a booking fee - it's when you realise that TS and Ticketmaster are also making money off you for 'credit card charges' (that are about 10% of what they take off you) that it gets a bit crazy.

If anything goes wrong with your order, ticketmaster are an absolute nightmare to deal with as well.

[Cloud]

Ticketmaster are well known though, apparently they're even worse in the US for scamming people as much as possible. I recall reading some website in which you had to pay extra just to print a ticket out - how the fuck can they justify doing such a thing? I remeber getting a ticket for the Manics gig at the SECC in 2002, ticket price was £19.50, ended up paying over £27 for just the one ticket.

The Lemon Tree deserve credit for going it alone with ticket sales rather than going through any of the big ticket companies.

[bobyn]

there's the pure unrefined delight of gigsandtours too..

but yes. i can understand all this about agents having to put the price up to cover their own costs, and why it wouldnt work to have booking fees included in the price.. but still. it's annoying. like if you buy tickets in advance so (you think) they'll be cheaper, but when you arrive on the night, find that sales on the door are just as much as advance bookings, due to fabulous extra fees.. anyway. whine over.