Ticket agency fees

[runcible]

I know we've touched on this at various points but I am getting increasingly concerned about all these fees for tickets from agencies.

They charge so much for doing almost nothing it seems and I'm starting to see them as touts really. I just paid almost £6 in fees for a ticket to see the Cult (I don't care what anyone thinks - they are playing the Love album which I've always loved!). This broken down into 2 sections. Over £2 was for the privilege of printing the ticket myself (incredible!) and there was an additional £3.50 which was simply a 'fee'. For what? Even if I wanted to pick up the ticket from the venue it would cost me £1.50. Again, for what?

I am always struck by the memory of going to the Rocket Recordings 10th birthday party in London last year (hello Neil Transmit - you were there too). This involved SIX bands that included The Heads, The Notorious Hi-Fi Killers and White Hills as well as also up and coming Rocket stars Teeth of the Sea. It ran from 7 p.m. til about 1 a.m. and I even got a free CD to commemorate the glorious event which featured all the bands. The cost of my ticket? SIX POUNDS. That's a quid a band and what a brilliant night it was. That's what I call value and I won't forget how much fun I had for such little expense.

Point made?

[johnnyboy]

Indeed. Totally agree.

Today I've just bought tickets to see Fuck Buttons and The Stooges. Printing my own ticket cost the same as having it posted. How does that seem OK???? Plus you have a mixture of booking fee, handling fee, postage fee on various sites I've used over the years. It's a disgrace. You also pay a higher fee if you book seated tickets compared to standing. I just don't understand it. The usual outcome of purchasing a £10 ticket is paying about £14 instead.

As for The Cult? Go for it!! I'll wait for the Electric album tour so I can take along my plastic fantastic lobster telephone. Love is a great album too.

[runcible]

The Apollo isn't listing tickets for the Stooges yet which leaves Seetickets. I refuse to use them after the fiasco with the LAG shows so I'm likely to miss these.

Your experience is even worse than mine! Paying more to book seats? It's a complete rip-off!

I'm glad at least one other person sees the quality of 'Love' - I can see it finding it's way onto the stereo tonight during a frenzied cooking session.

[johnnyboy]

I got my tickets for the Stooges from Gigantic as their fees came out at £1.50 something less than Seetickets. On the ATP link it's now only showing them two as selling tickets whereas this morning there was Stargreen and about 3 others (unless I'm thinking of the Fuck Buttons).

Yeah, the seated price came from a gig sometime back. That was through Seetickets. I booked standing but was in a bolshy mood because of their fees so questioned them as to why they charged more for seating. Their reply was something about it being due to the fact that seated tickets are allocated an actual seat number whereas standing is a free for all. If you cancel a seated ticket or it's lost in the post then it involves more 'admin' chuff. I think that was the jist of it.

It all needs a closer looking at by someone higher up than you and me. I'll write to my local Tory bastard MP next week, get him on the case. Not sure what else he does around town.

The Cult whilst cooking. Nice touch. Foot stamping, spatula in hand, sauce flying everywhere. Marvellous.

[sunray]

I'm glad at least one other person sees the quality of 'Love' - I can see it finding it's way onto the stereo tonight during a frenzied cooking session.

Make that two. Love is a good album but for me its Electric everytime, for me one of the best produced albums ever.

Oh yeah and we get stung big time on ticket charges here in Ireland too. Ticketbastard pretty much has a monopoly over here, it's only rival is Tickets.ie which only caters for very small independant gigs, it is the cheaper of the two though.

[purespace]

I was blasting Love just yesterday afternoon in the back yard and saw the live back in the late 80s. As for tickets, it's been standard Ticketmaster practice to charge the equivalent of 1 ticket face value for every 2 purchased as "convenience" fees. Bastards.

[James T]

I work for ticketmaster and think service fees are totally neccesary but way too high at times.

[gassjack]

Ticketmaster fees are often a bit steep but nothing beats the evil that is See Tickets - they are filth!!!! I think I'd rather buy from a tout than go to See.

[stegraham]

I've got tickets to go and watch the Cult also - at the Royal Albert Hall. Looking forward to it. I saw them last year at the Kentish Town Forum and the 100 club and they were fantastic. This "Love" tour is getting good reviews. BTW, if you are interested Beggars Banquet have just released an Omnibus edition of Love. The packaging is great and it comes with a nice 50 page booklet and 4 CDs all for 15 quid. Disc 1 has Love remasterd, disc 2 is the b-sides from the Love singles, disc 3 is demos and disc 4 is gig from 1985. It's a great box set.

http://archive.beggars.com/

Ste

[runcible]

BTW, if you are interested Beggars Banquet have just released an Omnibus edition of Love.

On order. It's been delayed though.

[stegraham]

I wonder what the delay is? I pre-ordered mine in August and it arrived at the beginning of last week. Maybe there's been more demand for it than Beggars expected. Anyway, hope it comes soon - it's well worth the wait.

Ste

[runcible]

Could just be Amazon being slow...