The times they are a-changin’.
This post seems to be older than 11 years—a long time on the internet. It might be outdated.
Rachel and I are going to Portland this weekend (after we were preempted by a family emergency)!
Rachel suggested we see Ovo, a Cirque du Soleil touring production, and I thought it was a great idea!1.
I went to go purchase tickets2 and was about ready to check out when I noticed there was $26 in fees3.
“Convenience fees” are nothing new, Ticketmaster has been making untold millions on them for years. And perhaps in the beginning it really was a convenience for people to not have to trudge down to the ticket office. However, these days I believe that offering tickets online is more of a convenience for the seller instead of the buyer. So why the fees?
I called Hadley Media, the marketing group that was responsible for the discount, and asked about it. Their response was something that I’ve grown all to accustomed to hearing: “That’s a fee typical of the industry.”
That, ladies and gentlemen, is an argumentum ad populum4 and is a logical fallacy.
Why not simply include the “fee” in the actual cost of the ticket? What would you do if a company listed hamburgers on their menu for $2.65 and then charged you $1 for actually consuming the food?
To me, that’s lying. They are not disclosing the true cost of the item in a place where such costs are purported to be. When a company uses such tactics, my trust of them lessens.
I should make clear that Hadley Media doesn’t actually sell the tickets or charge the fee, they’re fault in this matter was explaining the fees as: “everyone does it”. Shockingly, even Ticketmaster isn’t behind this. Interestingly enough, this fee appears to be the result of a joint venture between AEG, Outbox Technology, and Cirque du Soleil presumably designed to compete against Ticketmaster.
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