One, depending on the venue, you NEED to purchase them through TM. Um, huh? Why am I paying ticketmaster if I can walk to the venue and pick up the tickets? For the printing of the tickets? Here's a nickel. Two, the ridiculous lumped-on charges, somehow a $35 dollar ticket turns into a $50 ticket. WHA?!? Exactly. And we're not talking taxes here. If it's a $50 dollar ticket, say that. Don't say well, it's $35 dollars plus $15 worth of ridiculous surcharges. Include it within the price. Duh.
Three, and I still can't believe this, I had to pay extra to have the "convenience" to print out my own tickets. Yes, you read that right. I saved Ticketmaster money on both the physical printing of the ticket, and the postage, so that I could have it in hand (I bought them the day of the concert and didn't want to go to will call). Yes folks. I was charged EXTRA to save THEM money. And oh, yeah, that wasn't readily apparent until checkout. And I was afraid I'd lose the tickets if I tried over. Ticketmaster needs to either burn in hell, include the garbage fees within the ticket price, or both.

choochoobear

stini777

JustaConsumer

One company basically maintains a monopoly and charges excessive fees.

The other competes in the consumer electronics market.

hmmmmm

hejustlaughs

TM FTL!!!

smackswell

Ticketmaster takes the cake on this one by far. We should probably skip the formality and bump them into the final.

bruhkgb

nardo218

The worst site in this regard probably on the planet is TicketMaster, which purposefully pulls the plug after as little as one minute during a ticket transaction if you don't type fast enough. (They generously give you three minutes on the page where you enter all your personal information, including name, address, phone, the junior high your mom attended, etc.)


Take too long and TicketMaster drops the tickets you were about to purchase back into the pool for customers who are either younger, not disabled, or don't feel compelled to read the fine print-or even the large print for that matter. When they do so, they throw away all the information you've already entered, expecting you to type it all again, and again. If you're over 20, you are much better off calling on the phone, even if it does cost them much more to handle such sales.

SpaceCat85

It's unfortunate, too, because Sony's the champion of DRM from way, way back. DAT devices and MiniDiscs were screwing consumers before people had ever heard the term. But at least you have the choice to avoid their products, albums released by their labels, movies released by their studios, etc. Ticketmaster's a straight-up monopoly.

mavrc

The Count of Monte Fisto

I also worked for Sony several years back, and the employee benefits were incredible.

richcreamerybutter

Sony has their in-house game developers who make some incredible games (even if GT4 did suck). That's SOMETHING at least.

TechnoDestructo

Them be fightin' words!

But seriously, I agree, I've had quite a few sony products(mostly playstation related) and I have been over all satisifed.

rndmideas

No brainer.

seanmcleary

Balisong

TrilbyGadgey

Yessizzle

overbysara

Empire

I won't even buy anything Sony makes; DVDs, CDs, consumer electronics, etc. I can no longer trust them, so I will not give them my money, end of story.

HeartBurnKid

Pixelantes Anonymous

its a monopoly, its a scam. its not uncommon for the fees to match or exceed ticket price. its virtually impossible to get tickets without an offsite presale or artist sponsored sale anymore.

vote over sony primarily because the situation has been unchanged for the last decade. never gets better, only worse.

nosidedown

Rootkits and DRM are evil, but so is adding enough fees to almost double the cost of stinking concert ticket.

In the end though, I had to go with Ticketmaster. Thanks, in part, to them, I no longer bother going to concerts.

MPHinPgh

Genocyde

Byzantine

Everybody on this site has their own problems with individual companies and industries, whether it be Tim Hortons, Wal Mart, big tobacco, big bottled water, big HFCS.

Then the threads become full of complainers.

Lets have a survey about what companies that we least complain about.

AD8BC

(Actually, though, I kind of like some of Sony's stuff -- the rootkit BS never affected me because I use a real operating system)

kc2idf

Trai_Dep

pmcpa2

pmcpa2

m1k3g

I'm sure Cory Doctorow blathered about it, but I can't stand the guy, so I tune him out.

National Security breach > Annoying fees

zundian

flamincheney

Sony's boys are just a bunch of bumbling fools. I offer Betamax and Memorysticks as an example.

cwlodarczyk

Serpephone

Ticketmaster is the reason I can only afford to go to one or two concerts per year. Excluding Pearl Jam. =P

Moosehawk

I went to the venue's website, and parking's available for $20. Guess who DIDN'T get my money?

BigElectricCat

EyeHeartPie

BlackFlag55

1. "No reason for this submission was given [but we're putting it out there anyway]", or

2. No description of either company's wrongdoing.

As it stands right now: Consumerist "Worst" voting? EPIC FAIL.

blackmage439

At least with Sony you have a choice

arras

Froggmann

That70sHeidi

bummer.

zentex