Paying for Convenience

I was excited to discover that The Reverend Horton Heat are coming to Portland on the 12/30/2010. Tickets are listed on their web site as being $12. I went to buy two tickets this morning and discovered that the online sales were being handled by Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster was advertising the show for $15.95 ($12 + $3.95 service fees). I hate service fees but that was within my tolerance level.

I went to purchase them and I was faced with a series of options on delivery. Everything from printing at home to UPS overnight. To simply drop them in the mail and send them to me would cost me $12 more. I decided to print them. For the connivence of printing them from my own printer with my own ink and paper it would cost me another $2.50. Rationalizing to myself that at least it wasn’t $2.50 per ticket I forged ahead. That is when I was hit with a $4.50 handling fee. There was no explanation on how this was different than the $3.95 service fee I was already being charged.

Suddenly my $12 tickets were now $19.50 each from all the hidden fees. I abandoned my cart and closed my browser in disgust. You know the thing is, I would have gladly paid $19.50 a ticket but by the end of the checkout process I felt like I was dealing with a used car salesman who was trying to up sell me on a bunch of crap I didn’t want…