Booking fees - extortionate and non-refundable

chrisotherwise

Our local forest has just released tickets for a live concert next summer. Ticket price is £40 with a booking fee of £5.70 per ticket. The booking fee will not be refunded if the event is cancelled. It seems unreasonable that you won't get your money back if you don't receive the service you've paid for. What's to stop venues from imposing ever-larger booking fees then pocketing them whether or not an event goes ahead?

sheramber

The booking fee is to cover the admin.  If they process your order then you received   these  services and the person doing it has to be paid.

chrisotherwise

And that admin costs £5.70 per ticket? Purchased on a fully digital platform and emailed to me? Really? 

comeandgo

chrisotherwise said:

And that admin costs £5.70 per ticket? Purchased on a fully digital platform and emailed to me? Really? 

I think that's about the average cost for admin fees these days.  

CKhalvashi

sheramber said:

The booking fee is to cover the admin.  If they process your order then you received   these  services and the person doing it has to be paid.

That's great, except they're also earning from the other side, so being paid twice.

As a rough guide, our total office costs, plus card processing charges averaged to £40 a ticket, was less than £1.70 last year per ticket. That includes various things that couldn't be classed as 'admin' of live music events.

And no, we don't charge admin fees, our pricing structure to our clients takes the costs of admin into account leaving 1 price for tickets.

sheramber

chrisotherwise said:

And that admin costs £5.70 per ticket? Purchased on a fully digital platform and emailed to me? Really? 

You can always ask them to explain the charge. They are the only people who can.

sheramber

CKhalvashi said:

sheramber said:

The booking fee is to cover the admin.  If they process your order then you received   these  services and the person doing it has to be paid.

That's great, except they're also earning from the other side, so being paid twice.

As a rough guide, our total office costs, plus card processing charges averaged to £40 a ticket, was less than £1.70 last year per ticket. That includes various things that couldn't be classed as 'admin' of live music events.

And no, we don't charge admin fees, our pricing structure to our clients takes the costs of admin into account leaving 1 price for tickets.

So you include it in the cost of the ticket rather  than showing it separately.

Sandtree

chrisotherwise said:

Our local forest has just released tickets for a live concert next summer. Ticket price is £40 with a booking fee of £5.70 per ticket. The booking fee will not be refunded if the event is cancelled. It seems unreasonable that you won't get your money back if you don't receive the service you've paid for. What's to stop venues from imposing ever-larger booking fees then pocketing them whether or not an event goes ahead?

So the tickets are £45.70... do you want to go or not?

Separate fees make more sense when there are different channels which you can buy tickets through but that isnt always the case. Is the "forest" selling the tickets themselves or is it a third party agent that is selling them? Whilst certainly a well established box office will have lower admin costs than that if its an exceptional event then its likely they are inefficient and so higher costs. If its an agent then you are not aware of the commercial arrangements in terms of any commission on the tickets themselves, it could be the "forest" has agreed a 0% commission in exchange for allowing a the sole distributor charging higher fees and so no double dipping by the agent.

And the admin fee is a service fee for selling you the ticket, dealing with enquiries etc and they will have done that... even more so most likely if the event is cancelled, so not sure why you think you wont have been sold a ticket if you get a ticket but the event is cancelled.

CKhalvashi

sheramber said:

CKhalvashi said:

sheramber said:

The booking fee is to cover the admin.  If they process your order then you received   these  services and the person doing it has to be paid.

That's great, except they're also earning from the other side, so being paid twice.

As a rough guide, our total office costs, plus card processing charges averaged to £40 a ticket, was less than £1.70 last year per ticket. That includes various things that couldn't be classed as 'admin' of live music events.

And no, we don't charge admin fees, our pricing structure to our clients takes the costs of admin into account leaving 1 price for tickets.

So you include it in the cost of the ticket rather  than showing it separately.

No, the price you see is the price you pay.

We make our money through the fee we charge our client and often equipment rental instead of having both of these fees plus a booking fee on top. Pay £40 = get £40 returned (the face value of the ticket), not pay £45.70 and only get £40 back. This is morally wrong.