PPT mouthpieces

Ryan Air eat your heart out

Moz

Well-Known Member
Messages
655
Locality
North of Liskeard, Cornwall,UK
Just booked tickets at Plymouth Pavilions to see a show.

Now I always objected to a 'booking fee' on principle but now...now, on top of the booking fee we have a £1.25 'fulfillment fee'. I might be wrong but I think someone somewhere is taking the piss now. When we get used to a fulfillment fee will they then hit us with a 'gratification fee' to ensure we enjoy the show or we waste our money, a 'seating fee' to ensure you get somewhere to sit (no, you can't bring your own chair unless you pay a 'secondary ass-support fee')? I'm waiting for the sods to start charging to use the friggin' loo. Methinks they are taking lessons from Ryan Air.

I'm sure it is even worse in London.
 
Did they explain what a "fulfilment fee" is? I'm curious.... Booking fees usually go direct to the vendor (probably direct to the venue in this case) but I've never heard of a "fulfilment fee".
 
This is from their website:

"Why a fulfillment fee? This fee contributes towards the cost of delivering your tickets to you, as well as other operational costs and overheads associated with ticket fulfilment e.g. ticket stock administration and inventory control, ticket stock/stationery, collection facilities and/or postage and/or packaging costs if it applies to the event/tickets."

...
which I thought was the purpose of the booking fee, shows what I know. :(
 
This is from their website:

"Why a fulfillment fee? This fee contributes towards the cost of delivering your tickets to you, as well as other operational costs and overheads associated with ticket fulfilment e.g. ticket stock administration and inventory control, ticket stock/stationery, collection facilities and/or postage and/or packaging costs if it applies to the event/tickets."

...
which I thought was the purpose of the booking fee, shows what I know. :(
So if you collect the tickets?...
Or print at home?...
 
Nope, printing at home, same fee. Collect at store? Nope, same fee, I checked at the time and I just checked again. No way round it unless one doesn't buy a ticket.

I did write and complain, here is the main part of the reply:

"I am sorry that you are unhappy with the costs we charge, however you may find that we are one of the cheapest places for fees. All agencies charge a fee to cover a number of things. Our costs are shown below.



Our fulfilment fee is one standard fee of £2.50 per booking and covers the cost of administration, running the system, creating orders, ticket stock, envelopes, postage and the facility of sending tickets or emails.



Our booking fee covers the cost of the box office agent to help assist with your order. All orders require some form of box office input, and this fee covers that."

So, you pays or yous don't go, capice?
 
Much simpler to just include it in the ticket price, next we'll have shops charging for tilling your goods!

Jx
 
I agree.... What at first seems like a bargain actually isn't once they've added all their extra charges. I suppose they also create an artificial sense of urgency about it too so that people snap the tickets up in case they lose them to someone else.
 
It's a result of our own gullibility. It starts with the 4.99 instead of 5. But it goes a lot further. With the price based searching, what comes up is the ticket price, not all the extras.... Not much different with mobiles. Lots of plans which hide real costs. Here we see lots of ads for them at a euro, sounds great for a 500 euro phone. Except you're locked into a 2 year contract at 59.99 euros a month... And you're effectively paying way over 500 for the phone.

And the sellers treat all of us as morons, assuming we're all stupid enough to fall for it.

About the only good thing is that for some of the flight charges, you have an option. If I travel with hand luggage only, my ticket is cheaper. Same if I don't want a poor sandwich on a short flight. But when it's like the booking and fulfillment fees in the original example... And that reply was lame, very lame.

If we want honesty in pricing/advertising, we all have to lose gullibility, otherwise it'll continue cos the sellers know they'll increase sales because of the gullible ones. Effectively they're preying on the weak.
 
I'm wondering if you just walk into the theatre and buy a ticket from the booking office what happens then ? Will they add a good enough to buy a ticket and actually want to come charge
 
I'm wondering if you just walk into the theatre and buy a ticket from the booking office what happens then ? Will they add a good enough to buy a ticket and actually want to come charge

Probably.

Even if there were no charges if I went and bought the ticket at the venue it wouldn't help as it is a fifty mile rouind trip to the theatre and I'd just end up financing the petrol companies and the government. Cheapest thing I suppose is to watch what other folk have videoed and put on Youtube...then we get to the dilemma of people going to a venue to capture live shows on their phones rather than watch the, er, live show. But that's probably for another thread starting with Adele's [justifiable ] rant at people filming her act.
 
...then we get to the dilemma of people going to a venue to capture live shows on their phones rather than watch the, er, live show. But that's probably for another thread starting with Adele's [justifiable ] rant at people filming her act.

and not something we would condone!

Jx
 
Then there is that blog by the young lady who had just started working in the recording industry who finally realized that no artist had made any money from the 15,000 odd songs she had downloaded for free. Oooops. the realization that taking something from someone and not paying for it has some consequences. Look at the graph of record sales. On a sharp uphill incline until Napster started.
Been on a sharp downhill incline ever since
 
Then there is that blog by the young lady who had just started working in the recording industry who finally realized that no artist had made any money from the 15,000 odd songs she had downloaded for free. Oooops. the realization that taking something from someone and not paying for it has some consequences. Look at the graph of record sales. On a sharp uphill incline until Napster started.
Been on a sharp downhill incline ever since
In some ways it's understandable. You listen to radio for free, but don't see the payments the radio stations make for using the music.

Then there's the record companies cut... But let's not go there.
 
You listen to radio for free, but don't see the payments the radio stations make for using the music.

It was interesting when I first started working backstage in theatre - my parents, who had taken us when possible as children and teenagers, suddenly realised just why tickets are so expensive...
 
Tickets for any commercial show are expensive and deservedly so when you add together payments for actors/artists, electricians, riggers, office staff, scenery, transport, business rates, royalties, et al and ad nauseum and I do not complain about the price. I would williingly pay £100 to see a good performance of a quality opera, ballet or West End-style show but the price I am given for a ticket should be just that. I don't care if ninety percent of a ticket price goes to the cleaner of the lead singers underwear, if I feel I have got the right amount of bang for my Buck how they distribute the ticket fee bothers me not at all. I just want them to give me a price for a ticket, I pay, enjoy the show, then go home. Booking fees and 'fulfillment' fees seem to be proof that the ticket is already too expensive and the venue feel guilty about charging more and attempt to justify it with weasel words. All these fees should be sorted out between the venue and the promoter and should be completely opaque to me, the end-user.

Imagine you employed a company to build you a house. They will give you a quote for the house and you will either agree with it, object to it, or reject it. Once you have accepted the price you do not want to be told that the electrician will cost that bit more again, then there's the fee for the plumber, a fee for taking the order, transport fees from the wood supplier, danger pay for the roofer and so on.

My final(ish) comment to show venues is this: Take one price for the show and do what you want with it, it is not my job to distribute the money for you.
 
Back
Top Bottom