Beware of hidden ticketing costs
Hidden valleys and hidden charges are the same in some ways-they bring surprise and awe. Unfortunately for the consumer, with hidden charges, after the shock of looking at higher fees when finalizing their payments, they tend to fume and rant with the discovery. But to no avail.
This happens when you buy tickets online for sports and entertainment events. According to an explosive report released by the Choice, a consumer advocacy group, ticket buyers are often charged with hidden fees for printing tickets at home, phone bookings, and outlet pickups. Buyers are forced to shell out an estimated $4 to $9 of the payday cash from your pocket on top of the price advertised.
Add-on fees such as these don't help the consumer choose the best price for the tickets they want. Choice named the two biggest retailers, Ticketek and Ticketmaster, as the dominant players in this business. There are also territory-based and state agencies that have charges but these are much lower as the Choice study found. These are BASS, Canberra Ticketing, Qtix, BOCS, and Moshtix. Some of these even put extra charges for credit card bookings, express mail, and registered mail.
Instead of helping us stretch our cash til payday further, these double-handed practices by Ticketek and Ticketmaster are hurting the business and the small competitors. The study showed that the two ticketing giants have the exclusive rights with major sports and entertainment venues. It lists the venues for each ticket retailers. For Ticketek, it's the exclusive ticketing agent for Sydney Cricket Ground and Football Stadium, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Princess Theatre in Melbourne, and Adelaide Entertainment Centre. For Ticketmaster, the venues are Telstra Dome in Melbourne, Sydney Entertainment Centre, and AAMI Stadium in Adelaide.
To obtain these exclusive rights, these companies have to pay the venue owners 'key money', which they recoup through high ticket profit margins. The result is a duopoly - at the consumers expense. There's no room for competitive pricing and they can ark up prices as they please, holding our payday cash at ransom.
So ticket buyers, when in doubt about the price, do some research and compare ticket prices. In hard financial times, it's wise to save money wherever and whenever you can. If you're a regular event goer and you often buy tickets for games, better use the services of websites that offer to find you the best tickets possible that fits your budget.
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