I figured it out by going to the Live Nation page, where it said "parking fee included" and lists a $6/ticket "parking fee" instead of the $6/ticket "facility fee". Then I noticed that there was a "Premier" lot. So on the upside, you got a nice parking spot.

Michael Belisle

I know I'd be happier dealing with the upfront amount. Why is TM charging for parking anyway? What if I wanted to ride my bike? Don't advertise a $13 ticket when it's not going to cost $13. I don't buy a hamburger for a dollar only to be charge a facility fee, a parking fee, a ketchup fee or a disposal fee even tho they all add to the cost of a hamburger.

alfundo

jeff303

Trust me, I'm a doctor

jtheletter

That may be the case but if regular parking was included in the ticket price we did not see it as an option or stated on the order page. The only parking option given was what they called premier parking. If this is the case then it would have been nice if they had properly indicated that parking is included. I suspect they make it a bit confusing for a reason.

So yes, I may have fucked up as you call it. Having only a 104% markup would have made me feel much better.

yamahagrand

MrEvil

It's only 104% in mandatory fees when purchasing online. If he hadn't fucked up parking, they'd only have been about $1.50/person short. His nephew should fire him.

(On the upside, he saved $1.95 by going with Ticketmaster instead of buying direct from Live Nation. See? Not so bad after all!)

Michael Belisle

Venues, Managers, and TicketMaster/LiveNation need to face the reality that smart people will stop attending and they will need more security to deal with the morons who would drop 100plus bucks each on ANY concert ticket that does not involve a resurrected John Lennon. Or even at less than 100 considering the venue. Just last summer we wanted to see Tom Petty but to sit 300 feet away on the side of a hill in the rain at 74.50 each is not ever going to happen.

kylere

Greeper

Unfortunately people appear to be willing to bend over and take it.

rjhiggins

rjhiggins

I took a couple hours off work one Monday morning in February to drive to the venue and get Tom Petty tickets when they went on sale and found signs posted all around the box office that the same fees would be charged as online. Utter bullshit. Not only that, but tickets had actually gone on sale early the day before online. (Sometimes between when presale ended and official sales began.)

And it's worth noting that with most venues, driving and parking is the only option aside from taking a cab (which is more expensive than the $6 parking charge.) The amphitheatres are purposefully put out in the middle of nowhere where they won't disturb the neighbors.

In short, yeah you can skip out on the show all together to "stick it to the man" and not pay their outrageous fees, but what if you love live music and hate to miss the show? Having principles sucks.

annab

Parking IS optional at that venue but there is no other option except to bring a cab from town. The place is literally in the middle of farm fields and is accessed by County roads. You cannot park "down the street" and walk. You pay what they want or you pay that much twice for a cab to make two trips. Yes, the venue probably gets most of that but that doesn't make it right. I can get better parking on race day at the Indy 500 for less than that.

Parking at the venue used to be reasonable but then they got this bright idea... "Hey, we're the only game in town so let's stick it to 'em!"

yamahagrand

wdworld17nb

ceejeemcbeegee

ceejeemcbeegee

I suppose TM thinks the "convenience charge" is for the convenience of not getting jacked outside the venue.

ceejeemcbeegee

ceejeemcbeegee

ceejeemcbeegee

Yes, TM sucks, thet why I go the venue to buy the tickets.

internal

The only extra fee I've paid in the last few years was last month when I bought They Might Be Giants tickets through etix.com. I think the fee was less than $2 for a $20 ticket, and I knew that was pure profit for etix, but they have to make money somehow, and $2 is certainly resonable, in my opinion (It would have cost me the same in gas to drive to the venue and back to buy 2 tickets, anyway).

odhen

JustaConsumer

mariospants

raskolnik

The vendor? FrontGate Tickets.

DrJimmy

Look, I hate these stupid fees, too, but it's better than it used to be.

deserthiker

So we have a case of collusion between TM and LiveNation. I don't really like either one of them but I will say that MAYBE when LiveNation gets their ticketing on-line there could be some division between the two and possibly a quasi-truce between them before event goers decide to collectively stop going.

All I know is that I have been to hundreds of shows in my life and only in the last handful of years have the fees gotten this far out of control.

yamahagrand

SadhanImber

boxoffboy

rainmkr

shufflemoomin

vastrightwing

Here's another idea - buy the 'concert DVD' a few months later.

chrisbacke

RapperMC

These tickets were cheap at $13 but I think the fees should be either built in to the price or added in a manner that is proportional to the ticket price. I paid quite a bit to see my 8th Rush show at that venue so the fees represented a far smaller percentage of the total ticket price.

Having said that, I agree that the facility charges are BS. Using those facilities is part of the cost of doing business. I also agree that this is likely a sweet deal for the venue for allowing TM the exclusive right to handle their ticketing. A little kick back that keeps all the crooks happy. Fortunately Live Nation is about to give TM some competition.

Whoever asked about parking should know that this facility was built in the middle of corn fields several miles from the city. You don't have the option of parking down the street or choosing a different parking facility.

yamahagrand

mattbrown

mattbrown

thrillwill

lemur

suburbancowboy

Remember when they couldn't even finish a full tour because the venues were so out of the way/shitty?

That sucked.

char

as a venue, your option is to either use ticketmaster to handle your box office needs, contract a different service (seriously, is there even another one out there?), or do everything in-house yourself. the high cost of creating a functional ticket outlet that can be accessed by thousands of people in an hour via phone, web, or in person usually forces venue administrators to sign exclusivity agreements w/ TM.

as an artist, refusing to do business with ticketmaster shuts you out of virtually every venue with more than a few hundred seats. even worse, as an artist, you lose complete control of the price of your product.

& somehow, a congressional investigation a few year back determined ticketmaster wasn't a monopoly. *shakes head*

mac-phisto

wdworld17nb

Anyway, the folks from tickets.com were there taking a tour of the facility since it was the first day of ticket sales for the season - they walked the entire length of the line not too long after I got there and I got the feeling they weren't too happy with the number of people who decided to get their ticket the old-fashioned way. It was the look on their faces alone that kept me in line (well, that and the desire to save almost $30 in fees) while others bugged out early or called friends/family to ask them to order tickets from home.

PSUMarkDC

Before you are charged the TOTAL price is shown and you can either accept or reject it. If you can't afford it then don't buy it. And since you probably got your favorite band's on torrents they've got to make $$$ somehow to support their rock star lifestyles.

deserthiker

nybiker

cockeye

uricmu

However, there is usually an option to not buy parking, and also, convenience charge has nothing to do with the outlets/internet/phone/etc. it has to do with buying tickets through TM. Often, you will get it charged from the box office as well.

uricmu

Shizznid

camman68

eeebee

seashell1

When I hear music industry execs complain about p2p stealing of their music, I just laugh and laugh. Turn about is fair play.

FilthyHarry

evslin

These shows are all hosted in house so the facility charge is horseshit.

But when I got hit with the Convienence charge for walking up to the window I asked straight up "What's convienent about me having to drive down to Mandalay Bay on the strip in the middle of the day to buy a ticker?"

As you can imagine that brought back blank stares...

PSN: kingpsyz

sleepydumbdude

ViperBorg

Zephyr7

rewinditback

uberbucket

carterbeauford

nevergod

That said, the convenience charge is only part of the gouging. Facility fees and the like I blame on the artists. It's dishonest to to advertise your show as costing $20 and then tack on "facility fees" to cover the cost of renting the facility. Those costs should be included in the price of the ticket. You don't go to a grocery store, buy a gallon of milk for $1.50, and then get nailed for a $1 "milking charge" and a $1 "bottling charge". Why do concert organizers, cell phone companies, and so many other industries think this sort of pricing tactic is an acceptable business practice?

The sad part is, it's killing music. Traditionally, most musicians don't make most of their income from record sales (due to the asshattery of the RIAA, but that's another rant). They get paid for performing. But between overpriced tickets and scalpers, going to live shows is just becoming a less and less worthwhile thing to do. Why blow $50 to see a band for a couple hours (which is about the average price of a standing room only ticket here in Las Vegas) when you could spend that same $50 on a video game that will entertain you for 10 to 15 hours, or even go to a theater and see five movies?

NathanLV

I like 3DD, I'm just saying if we couldn't see the fee's, and it was the same price...would you still go?

sobebelushi

Orv

stre

boobaloob

trujunglist

i stopped going to concerts long ago because i got so feed up with TM.

Best typo ever.

kelrod

WNW

graffiksguru

razremytuxbuddy

KogeLiz

i'd rather save the money on fees, which is too bad because i really enjoy concerts.

lowlight69

Of course, Ticketmaster lets you print out your own ticket online now..

... and then they charge you for using your own printer, ink, and paper.

joemono

se7a7n7

UlaElephino

But anyway, the facility charge can be $0 up to however much the facility owners wishes to charge per ticket. I believe that TM keeps a few cents for each dollar of the facility charge.

davere

Yes, yes righteous indignation from the OP, but really, would he have felt better if TM's fees weren't transparent and he had paid $26.56 for a 3 Doors Down ticket?

zundian

AbsoluteIrrelevance

itsallme

elephantattack

Franklin Comes Alive!

This is from the "Code Of Ethics" page of the parent company of TM, IAC. What a joke.

gatopeligroso

Besides the fees, they require a valid e-mail address to purchase tickets and then immediately start spamming you with no opt-out.

On top of that, they make little effort to prevent scalpers from buying up all the tickets first, leaving everyone else to have to buy from the scalpers.

We only do business with them because we are forced to, because we love the performers and shows they represent, and those people have no choice either unless they want to set up their own ticket sales companies.

humphrmi

Roadkill

However, it's another reason NOT to see Three Doors Down.

elephantattack

President Beeblebrox

cde

rmz

Next time, say "fuck it, I'm not going." And be sure to email the artist about why you're not going. Every time you DON'T do that, you are part of the problem.

Oh, and I like how they have the option to charge you a "facility charge" and "convenience charge" for the parking, too, but they have kindly decided to give you a discount. How nice of them?

TechnoDestructo

The facility charge is just that, a facility charge. Some buildings are being rented by the concert organizers and they tack on that charge to pay for it, it's not a Ticketmaster fee. The processing charge is s'posed to handle the actual equipment that prints the tickets - stock, printer, labor. Of course, Ticketmaster lets you print out your own ticket online now, so that doesn't apply most of the time.

Doesn't the venue have a ticket office you can walk up to? Most of 'em do, you can avoid the TM fees that way.

LiC

thedude2u

Ticketbastard needs to be burned to the ground.

grayem98

snoop-blog

what ever happened to going to the gate and buying 1 ticket for a fair price ?

chartrule

snoop-blog