Why Ticket Master Sucks
Monday, May 12, 2008
Today marked an important day for all LA Kings fans. The pre-sale tickets for Frozen Fury XI opened today at 10AM. What’s the Frozen Fury, you ask? If you don't know, let me enlighten you.
For the past 10 years, the Kings have held a pre-season game in Las Vegas against the Colorado Avalanche at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. I attended last year and made a pact with my brother that we would go every year from now on. The energy was beyond electric and everyone was having a great time. The Kings won in the shootout with Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar, and Michael Cammalleri scoring for the Kings. This was the first time I had seen the Kings’ future in net with Jonathan Bernier making a fantastic opening. In a bar afterward I met a guy who randomly had gone to my college and we both whipped out our ID Cards, whereupon, my brother pretended like he didn’t know me.
Bottom line: the Frozen Fury is AMAZING.
So, why is my post titled as such when I’m doing nothing but talking up the Frozen Fury? Well let me explain how this worked. I needed a total of 10 tickets and since I’m a new season ticket holder, I was able to get in on the Kings VIP pre-sale discount through Ticket Master. So I went to the site, and lo and behold, I was only able to get 8 tickets. So my friend and I were thinking of buying 7 and then going in and buying another 3, which meant that we wouldn’t have all been sitting together. When we took a closer look, we saw that the Convenience Charge was $8 FOR EACH TICKET. So for $28/ticket + $8 multiplied by 10 equaled $360!!! I immediately called my ticket guy and asked him what he could do for us since we wanted 10 tickets anyway. He said that if we went ahead and bought the Group deal (15 tickets), it’d be cheaper AND the service charge would only be $10 TOTAL.
So I had to choose 10 tickets for $360 through Ticket Master or 15 tickets for $385 through my ticket guy. Can you guess which one I went for??
cross-posted to HLOG
11 comments:
Yeah, TicketMaster sucks (insert your favorite expletive, body part, etc. here). Can't stand paying their surcharges. I'd rather drive to Staples Center to buy tickets or Dodger Stadium, etc. Even at today's gas prices, buying at the box office is less expensive. Of course, you can't do that easily in this particular case, but you know what I mean :-)
You would not BELIEVE how many issues I had this afternoon trying to get ONE ticket for a concert in Toronto. Now, I understand that I am in the States, and Canada is a vast foreign country the likes of which people never actually visit...oh wait no. It's a twenty minute drive away and until recently you didn't even need a passport. Seriously, Ticketmaster? Seriously?
Gann - Surcharges are such BS. I'm so glad I didn't end up buying them through Ticketmaster.
Steph - Haha, man that sounds.... STUPID. Why must they make things so difficult. I mean, we're willing to give them our money!
I mean, I understand that yeah, they have to make money. But their surcharge per ticket is exorbitant.
Seriously! I paid $9.75 of service charge on a $35 ticket. That's completely ridiculous.
Chris and I bought 4 tickets and got gouged too. I absolutely agree with your post. Pearl Jam was right all these years!
Gann - You're preaching to the choir.
Steph - $9.75 is like a meal! Ticketmaster just took your lunch! What a jerk!
KingsCast - Dude, did you not read the post?? I have 5 extra tickets! I could have just let you have them for the base price without the surcharge! *rolls eyes* =P
Hey kingscast: one thing though...you deserve to be gouged!! :-)
Maybe this year I'll cover the Frozen Fury game...wonder if the Kings will give me a credential for that game...then again, there's a damned good chance I wouldn't be able to tear myself away from the blackjack tables. :-)
Oh, that's right; you love the Blackjack tables. But hockey is so much cooler.
Hey...last time I was in Las Vegas, I won $550 at the blackjack tables...that's pretty damned cool too! :-)
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