The O2 - is there any way to avoid Ticketmaster when buying tickets??

martco

sick to the teeth of Ticketmaster and the extortionate fees they charge for tickets....For a while now I've been making the effort to goto the venue and pay at the box whenever it's possible thus avoiding Ticketmaster

Wanting to bring my young fella to his first gig next week at the O2 but never actually been since it was the old point depot

I guess the question is: does anyone know if the O2 have a box office onsite that I could call into this weekend to purchase?

thanks!

schemingbohemia

If you go to the ticketmaster booth in stephens green you avoid most of the fees.

rubadub

schemingbohemia wrote: »

If you go to the ticketmaster booth in stephens green you avoid most of the fees.

Yes, but you must pay by either cash or laser as far as I know, no CC. I think there should be a caravan type ticketmaster box office at the O2, if the gig is not sold out I think you can pay by cash/laser there too and avoid one of the fees.

Irish Aris

schemingbohemia wrote: »

If you go to the ticketmaster booth in stephens green you avoid most of the fees.

I second that. I would very rarely pay fees in St Stephen's Green booth.
There is another one in Jervis Center, usually I pay around 2 euro fee when I buy from them.
But again, that applies for non soldout concerts - and unfortunately you get plenty of those in Dublin generally (and the O2 in particular).

CiaranK

Sound Cellar on Nassau Street. Only €1 fee and you'll be supporting an independent music store

martco

sound cellar it is! (never occurred to me, jasus)

thanks!!
Martin

rubadub

But sound cellar is still €1 more than the ticketmaster kiosk up the road, and you are still paying ticketmaster as I think soundcellar are just a middleman for them. (maybe I'm wrong but I am pretty sure I got ticketmaster tickets form them in the past.)

Soundcellar seem to get actual tickets in hand, so often can have some when the kiosks or HMV or other outlets which print the tickets have sold out.

CiaranK

rubadub wrote: »

But sound cellar is still €1 more than the ticketmaster kiosk up the road, and you are still paying ticketmaster as I think soundcellar are just a middleman for them. (maybe I'm wrong but I am pretty sure I got ticketmaster tickets form them in the past.)

Soundcellar seem to get actual tickets in hand, so often can have some when the kiosks or HMV or other outlets which print the tickets have sold out.

Ticketmaster outlets charge the ticket price + €2.50ish/online around €6. Sound Cellar is the ticket price + €1. The tickets themselves are the same as ticketmaster (logos and layout) but the shop has nothing to do with ticketmaster. Just the way the tickets are printed

rubadub

CiaranK wrote: »

Ticketmaster outlets charge the ticket price + €2.50ish/online around €6. Sound Cellar is the ticket price + €1.

And the ticketmaster kiosk does not charge this €2.50, as said earlier.

So to the OP's wallet -paying soundcellar is the equivalent of paying soundcellar to head up to the kiosk, come back down and charge him €1.

CiaranK wrote: »

The tickets themselves are the same as ticketmaster (logos and layout) but the shop has nothing to do with ticketmaster. Just the way the tickets are printed

So are you saying ticketmaster get nothing out of the sale of this ticket in soundcellar?

I thought they would have got some percentage, like the booking fee, esp if it is printed on a ticketmaster tickets. If not the OP might still decide to pay over the odds for the ticket through soundcellar. But I always believed they were a middleman.

Do not confuse booking fee & service fees by the way. Whenever you see adverts it says "includes booking fee" and many people wrongly think this means it includes the €2.50 or €6+ fee you pay online or in the likes of HMV, but this is service.

Do we have to pay high online booking charges?

Thursday February 05 2009

Q Keelin from Dublin contacted Smart Consumer on behalf of her mum, who in December booked 10 tickets for Cirque du Soleil in the O2. The cost of the tickets was €69.50 plus a €6.35 booking fee per ticket bringing the cost of the transaction to €758.50.

The tickets were booked online with Ticketmaster as this was the only place her mum knew to purchase them from. Keelin asks "should she have paid a total of €63.50 in booking fees and is there anywhere she could have purchased these tickets without incurring this fee?"

A Booking fees have long been a thorn in the side of consumers, but from a legal point of view, as long as they are clearly advertised, there is nothing illegal about charging them. However, it remains difficult for many to reconcile the fee charged (€63.50 in this instance) with the job of processing and administering the booking.

Smart Consumer contacted Ticketmaster who confirmed that this booking fee should have been charged. They say: "this is a service charge intended to cover such items as credit card processing fees, postage, handling, administering a call centre etc."

Ticketmaster also added that you can purchase the tickets without incurring a booking fee, either by purchasing tickets at the Ticketmaster outlet at St Stephens Green Centre in Dublin city centre or at the venue box office, in this case at O2.

So Smart Consumer reckons that if anyone is buying concert tickets and wants to avoid the booking fee, get them directly from the venue or get someone you know in Dublin to buy them at Ticketmaster's outlet for you.

The person here was confusing booking & service fees.

CiaranK

rubadub wrote: »

And the ticketmaster kiosk does not charge this €2.50, as said earlier.

It does, it is a 'handling charge'. Ticket price with Booking fees + a handling charge of €2.50 so going to sound cellar rather than the kiosk saves the op €1.50 per ticket.

Irish Aris

CiaranK wrote: »

It does, it is a 'handling charge'. Ticket price with Booking fees + a handling charge of €2.50 so going to sound cellar rather than the kiosk saves the op €1.50 per ticket.

I repeat, most of the time, there is no charge whatsoever on the kiosk at St Stephen's Green shopping center.
Just the ticket price as advertised.

Edit: actually, it might not be so straight forward. I just checked my receipts from three tickets that I bought from St.Stephens Green. One has no charge at all, just the ticket price. The other two (both at the Button Factory) have a 2.15 € service charge. I know I didn't pay any additional charge for Lady Gaga (cause it was when I realised that I paid the ticket price only), Marc Almond (it was aventually cancelled and got my money back) and I don't pay any charge for events at the Borg Gais Energy (formerly the Grand Canal) Theatre.
Could it be a matter of venue/promoter?

nomoreindie

Irish Aris wrote: »

I repeat, most of the time, there is no charge whatsoever on the kiosk at St Stephen's Green shopping center.
Just the ticket price as advertised.

Edit: actually, it might not be so straight forward. I just checked my receipts from three tickets that I bought from St.Stephens Green. One has no charge at all, just the ticket price. The other two (both at the Button Factory) have a 2.15 € service charge. I know I didn't pay any additional charge for Lady Gaga (cause it was when I realised that I paid the ticket price only), Marc Almond (it was aventually cancelled and got my money back) and I don't pay any charge for events at the Borg Gais Energy (formerly the Grand Canal) Theatre.
Could it be a matter of venue/promoter?

You are wrong, they do charge a booking fee in the Stephens green ticketmaster booth, sometimes they just dont give you a receipt so all you have is the ticket.

Irish Aris

nomoreindie wrote: »

You are wrong, they do charge a booking fee in the Stephens green ticketmaster booth, sometimes they just dont give you a receipt so all you have is the ticket.

No, that's not always the case.
For Lady Gaga the ticket price was 86 euro, and I paid 86 euro, no booking fee.
I am going to see Wild Nothing next week at the Workman's Club, ticket price is 14.50, I paid 14.50.

Unless you mean that the booking fee is hidden in the ticket price. . .
And I never had a case where they wouldn't give me a receipt.

jack presley

Every ticket, no matter where bought or whether bought with credit card, laser or cash has a booking fee built in so if Ticketmaster are selling the tickets they are getting a fee so there's no way to avoid them.

The extra charge is a credit card charge and has nothing to do with the booking fee

Irish Aris

jack presley wrote: »

Every ticket, no matter where bought or whether bought with credit card, laser or cash has a booking fee built in so if Ticketmaster are selling the tickets they are getting a fee so there's no way to avoid them.

The extra charge is a credit card charge and has nothing to do with the booking fee

I get extra charge even when paying with cash, but not all the time.
The receipt says service charge, sometimes is zero, sometimes is 2.15 euro

jack presley

Irish Aris wrote: »

I get extra charge even when paying with cash, but not all the time.
The receipt says service charge, sometimes is zero, sometimes is 2.15 euro

Well then I haven't got a clue obviously. I really thought it was just cc that got charged

rubadub

jack presley wrote: »

I really thought it was just cc that got charged

So did I, there was some article and a ticketmaster spokesman even said it. But it was years ago.

dan185

The €2ish charge is the fee that the stall gets. The credit card charge is something like 6% and is charged online and at that booth.

rubadub

dan185 wrote: »

The credit card charge is something like 6% and is charged online and at that booth.

I don't think this CC charge is as high at the booth. I think the 12.5%/€6.10 max charge is only online or over the phone.

The €2.15 is what many agents charge, and I think if you pay by CC in one you also pay this.

Then people are saying the booth in the green usually or used to have none of this €2.15 if you paid cash or laser -and with CC it would be €2.15.

This €2.15 appears to be similar to a "recommended retail price" for agents to sell at, and the sound cellar must choose to only charge €1, just like a supermarket might sell stuff lower than RRP.

http://www.olympia.ie/buy-tickets/

Please note - Ticketmaster telephone & Internet Bookings subject to 12.5% service charge per ticket (max €6.10). Ticketmaster outlets €2.15 service charge per ticket

http://www.theo2.ie/event/katherine-jenkins/

Buy On-Line: www.ticketmaster.ie| By Phone: 0818 719300 Northern Ireland - 0844 277 44 55
In person: Ticketmaster outlets nationwide |Telephone & Internet bookings subject to 12.50% s/c (max €6.10) per ticket , Agents €2.15 per ticket

grimm2005

I used to never get charged for tickets at the Stephen's Green ticketmaster booth when paying by laser but the last time I went (to get 2 tickets to Dara O' Briain in Vicar st.), I was charged the usual TM booth fee. Quite disappointing that they've seemingly added charges there now.

maps and atlas

grimm2005 wrote: »

I used to never get charged for tickets at the Stephen's Green ticketmaster booth when paying by laser but the last time I went (to get 2 tickets to Dara O' Briain in Vicar st.), I was charged the usual TM booth fee. Quite disappointing that they've seemingly added charges there now.

The kiosks (Jervis and Stephen's Green at least) changed ownership a few years ago - I think it was just before the display screens were installed in the kiosks. Since then there's been a card charge in addition to the service charge (plus the booking fee already included in the ticket price).

Confused about these charges and names of these charges? Well that's exactly the aim of breaking a massive charge into two or three different charges and refer to each charge by different names.

We really need pricing inclusive of all ticket charges so customers can see exactly what they are paying. If necessary have two prices listed if retail is cheaper than online; a retail price and an online price.

Dravokivich

rubadub wrote: »

But sound cellar is still €1 more than the ticketmaster kiosk up the road, and you are still paying ticketmaster as I think soundcellar are just a middleman for them. (maybe I'm wrong but I am pretty sure I got ticketmaster tickets form them in the past.)

Soundcellar seem to get actual tickets in hand, so often can have some when the kiosks or HMV or other outlets which print the tickets have sold out.

When have HMV started selling tickets again?

blastman

Dravokivich wrote: »

When have HMV started selling tickets again?

Only in the UK, AFAIK

** EDIT **
Actually, it isn't just in the UK, it seems, but it's "powered by TicketB@stard" anyway, so not exactly competition.

rubadub

Dravokivich wrote: »

When have HMV started selling tickets again?

Must be as the previous poster said. I never knew they stopped, so I was just using them as a random example of a seller who is not ticketmaster or soundcellar or a box office.