I have been coveting tickets to see Willie Nelson at the House of Blues in Orlando for some time. I've only seen him live twice and the last time was 7 years ago. I needed to see how big the hole in his guitar has gotten. Logged on to Ticketmaster and the tickets are a bit steep ($58.50), but TM is charging nearly $15 per ticket on top of that for "convenience" and facility charges. I'm buying two tickets, so that's $30 in bogus fees. Last night, I loaded the kids in the car and set off to HOB to buy them directly from the box office. The problem with this is that while I see the waste in me driving over there, I'm not at a place in my life where I'm willing to pay a company $30 to save $4 in gas and my time. If the fees were $10, I'd have the tickets already. Not to mention, if I buy the tickets in person, the box office has to pay someone to sit there and sell them to me, and they have to have a building with lights and a/c, etc. It should be cheaper to buy them online and print them from home, but instead it costs me $2.50 to print them from my printer but it's free for TM to print them and mail them to me.
The point I'm getting at is that Ticketmaster is encouraging people to buy directly from the box office because their fees are so jacked up. The beauty of the web is supposed to be that it reduces the need for such trips and transactions. Do you agree? By the way, the box office was closed last night (I didn't check their hours on their very convenient website), but that one's on me. I'll be going back soon and will still come out money ahead.
Can you think of other companies that are so backwards in their thinking when it comes to things like this? I'll report back on how the concert went.
Is Ticketmaster the Most Un-Green Company Ever?
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I think they're more annoying than anything. That's just annoying to have to pay to use any web-based service in this day and age. Web-based services are commonplace and pretty close to becoming the default way of doing business. Ticketmaster is outta date man.
Obviously, the title was a bit of hyperbole, but I do think that the way companies do business will begin to be under more intense scrutiny by the public. They will have to re-think the way they gain additional revenue. I'm also thinking that's an old picture of Willie's guitar, because when we saw him on "willie 3:16" I remember it being much larger.
The hole, that is.
Yeah $15 is bogus, considering the only 'work' being done is by a automated database. What's even more classic is that Tickemaster has advertisements on their site. Aren't you as the consumer supposed to be compensated for seeing ads by being given a free or nominally priced service?
You did the right thing Trevor by boycotting their service even if it was not quite green.
hmmm..Other companies? I would say every fast food restaurant who gives you like 500 napkins when you only ordered one taco (okay ten, or was it twenty?).
Buki, I believe it was was only 10 tacos along with another 10 bean burritos that you ate at Taco Bell in Auburndale after that football game.
And anyone who can manage one napkin per food item at Taco Bell is a talented SOB.
I'm a strict 2-napkin guy: one for in-process maintenance and one for the inevitable post-gustation clean-up project. Works for me.
What annoys me the most is when Wendy's gives me 15 packets of crackers for my delicious chili. Do they think I'm going to Cedar Key to feed the one-legged ducks or something? I'm good with just a packet or two, really.
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