Ticketmaster is a horrible company
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Ticketmaster is my least favorite shopping experiences on the internet. Each screen I click through I feel like I’m being taken advantage of. Just now, during my previous shopping experience, I decided I’ve finally had enough. If I can help it, I will never order another ticket from them again.
I would rather spend my time to go directly to box offices, which can be incredibly inconvenient and time consuming, than give them my money.
Let’s take a look at some screenshots:
Okay, here is the subtotal. That’s not so bad, less than I expected… but still: a $1.50 facility charge? You're not the facility. Surely I wouldn't be charged this facility charge if I went directly to Neptune Theatre and purchased tickets – and they're the facility. So what the fuck?1
Alright then, that’s not so bad. I’ll just select my shipping and move on.
Oh! Another $4.00 that is unavoidable. For processing! Right, because credit cards are so prohibitively expensive to process that we need to charge you another $4.00. And another $2.25 if I want physical tickets.
Both of those things I would get for free if I purchased them at the box office. And it wouldn’t take me 10-14 days to get the tickets in hand, they’d print them right there for me.
And while I’m on that point – why the hell does it take 10-14 days to ship those tickets? Is it the time it takes to print the tickets? Is it the USPS taking so long? It couldn’t be.
A very conservative estimate gives each of those things taking 2-3 days. Which puts the estimate closer to 4-6 days. Which means that ticketmaster is purposefully delaying their efficiency in order to get people to purchase more expensive shipping times.
Fuck you ticketmaster.
But here is the kicker that put me over the edge:
Right at the bottom of the page, right before hitting the “Submit Order” button, people are presented with a seemingly good product. Initially, since there is no price noticeably shown, one might think it’s a convenience that ticketmaster does for it’s customers. You know, out of the goodness of their hearts.
But in the small text, if you read through what ticketmaster meant for you to skip, you’ll find out it is actually $7.99.
But wait! Even if you click “YES, Protect my ticket purchase!” it doesn’t even update the subtotal at the top of the page!
So Ticketmaster not only deceptively hides the number $7.99, but when the user accepts the charge, they don’t even update the subtotal. My legal understanding of ecommerce could be better, but I’m pretty sure that’s teetering on illegal.
So that’s it, then. I’m done with ticketmaster. I’m going to go hop on my scooter and drive 15 minutes out of my way to the theatre’s box office to go pick up a single ticket. Out of spite!
Okay, okay, enough already! Enough negativity for the day.2
Hope you all have a good new year. :)