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Fans want to be masters of their own tickets
Friday 19th October 2012 | David
Ticketmaster has come under heavy fire for charging customers £2.50 for the privilege of printing their own tickets at home, which is often more than the cost of delivery itself.
Fans are upset that the fee has been attached considering they are providing the service for themselves. Consumer watchdog Which? has agreed, stating that “companies… should include costs in the headline price”.
Ticketmaster has hit back, however, at what they are calling a lack of public understanding. They have stated that the extra printing fee covers the costs of admin at their end, as well as the validating of tickets at venues. These systems apparently protect against more than one of the same ticket gaining people entry to events.
An interesting theory, considering gigs tend to have people with barcode scanners on the doors making sure that doesn’t happen. I managed to print off a ticket, complete with barcode, to Sonisphere festival three years ago, without a charge. There were no issues at all on entry and I highly doubt I was the only one to do so. It begs the question, why start charging now?
Sort it out Ticketmaster; otherwise you’re going to lose a lot of customers.
By Dave Rees
@DavidWRees
