Incorrect ticket price advertising (1 Viewer)

[Thayl]

Does anybody out there know anything about the law regarding the incorrect advertising of the price of a product and/or service?

Here's my beef.

MCD and other promoters often advertise gigs on their websites/mailing lists/internet boards and their ticket details are usually along the lines of "tickets are 35.50 (inc. booking fee) available from Road Records, Soundseller, HMV and also online from http://www.ticketmaster.ie"

An example of this is the current ad for the group "Lemon Jelly" (never heard of them, I just picked the first one I saw on the http://www.mcd.ie site):

"Tickets for Dublin are ?38.50 (inc. booking fee) On-Sale Now from Road Records (16B Fade St, D.2), Soundcellar (Nassau St, D.2), Ticketmaster and usual outlets nationwide. Buy online at www.ticketmaster.ie and www.mcd.ie"

If you try to buy online from http://www.mcd.ie you get directed to the http://www.ticketmaster.ie site. When you buy a ticket form Ticketmaster the final price is not 38.50, it is 43.30 (which is the original 38.50 plus a "service charge" of 4.80, the service charge remains the same if you pick "mail me the tickets" or "box office collection").

The original advert says "38.50 including booking fee", but the final price is greater than this. Is advertising the price incorrectly against the law?

 

[sarah]

I'd imagine they'd just justify the extra cash as being a 'handling' fee
as opposed to a 'booking' fee and get away with it.
Have you read the terms and conditions?

 

[billygannon]

http://www.evilgerald.com/Issues/Issue7/index.htm

 

[Pantone247]

http://www.ticketmaster.ie site. When you buy a ticket form Ticketmaster the final price is not 38.50, it is 43.30 (which is the original 38.50 plus a "service charge" of 4.80, the service charge remains the same if you pick "mail me the tickets" or "box office collection").

That would be Ticket Masters fee

all 4. fuckinh 80 of it...

utterly seperate to MCD, so they would argue they are in the right


hey Thayl everytime you post I think "that's the dude who's house I stated in after pavement at the TBMC years and years ago"....

that's all.... thanks again like!

 

[Wavioli]

Werent they in trouble recently for charging fees for the tsunami benefit gig? making money off massive human tragedy, thats their game.

 

[Pilchard]

Werent they in trouble recently for charging fees for the tsunami benefit gig? making money off massive human tragedy, thats their game.

full story on http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=68232

if MCD are saying that in the ad (ie 38.50 inc booking fee) and then the booking fee is added on, they are breaking the law. there was a big hullabaloo last year or the year before about that and was one of the things which led to the ticeidi.com petition.

ticketmaster are horrible people to deal, like any other company which has a virtual monopoly. this lack of competition is thanks to the main promoters dealing exclusively with them. for the promoters, ticketmaster is great because they just have to deal with one vendor and the lazy fucks dont have to go around getting cash from Road, Sound Cellar, HMV etc before the gig. its because of MCD and Aikens that Ticketmaster have such a monopoly. i'm sure that there are loads of other business links between the Ticketmaster directors and the concert promoters as well if i could be arsed to put on me investigative hat and spend a few hours at www.cro.ie

 

[Justin Toner]

if MCD are saying that in the ad (ie 38.50 inc booking fee) and then the booking fee is added on, they are breaking the law. there was a big hullabaloo last year or the year before about that and was one of the things which led to the ticeidi.com petition.

ticketmaster are horrible people to deal, like any other company which has a virtual monopoly. this lack of competition is thanks to the main promoters dealing exclusively with them. for the promoters, ticketmaster is great because they just have to deal with one vendor and the lazy fucks dont have to go around getting cash from Road, Sound Cellar, HMV etc before the gig. its because of MCD and Aikens that Ticketmaster have such a monopoly. i'm sure that there are loads of other business links between the Ticketmaster directors and the concert promoters as well if i could be arsed to put on me investigative hat and spend a few hours at www.cro.ie

If you sell a 30 euro ticket through TM, it's subject to a 12.5% handling fee, to a maximum of 4.95, so it should cost you 33.75, of which the promoter gets 28. TM takes from both punter and promoter. I'm a promoter (and no lazy fuck) and while it is certainly easier to deal with TM on general issues, ticket printing, etc., we do make a point of selling exactly the same tickets through our own office at 30 euro total. We absorb any credit card fees so the punter pays 30. We often do offers of e.g. 4 for 100, again incl. fees.

Bottom line: there is nothing stopping you from setting up your own ticket agency and selling at cost, below cost, free... Barriers to entry are what make a true monopoly.

J.

 

[Pilchard]

If you sell a 30 euro ticket through TM, it's subject to a 12.5% handling fee, to a maximum of 4.95, so it should cost you 33.75, of which the promoter gets 28. TM takes from both punter and promoter. I'm a promoter (and no lazy fuck) and while it is certainly easier to deal with TM on general issues, ticket printing, etc., we do make a point of selling exactly the same tickets through our own office at 30 euro total. We absorb any credit card fees so the punter pays 30. We often do offers of e.g. 4 for 100, again incl. fees.

Bottom line: there is nothing stopping you from setting up your own ticket agency and selling at cost, below cost, free... Barriers to entry are what make a true monopoly.

J.

my "lazy fuck" point was to do with the bigger promoters not the likes of IMC, Umack and co. the bigger promoters do the bulk of the shows in this country and so people who want to go to these shows have to deal with ticketbastard

but u are right, u can set up an agency and not charge huge booking fees. the Whelans/Village booking office doesnt charge a booking fee for most gigs. LIke, if u wanted to go to see American Music Club, you could buy your ticket thru ticketbastard and it would cost u 22.95 euros - 20 euros plus 2.95 booking fee, which is actually 14.75 percent which is higher than the 12.5 figure u mentioned above. go to WAV though and its just 20 euros. it would be very interesting to see what percentage of tickets are sold thru WAV compared to ticketbastard for whelans and village shows.

 

[F. Fred Palakon]

The original advert says "38.50 including booking fee", but the final price is greater than this. Is advertising the price incorrectly against the law?

Probably not: http://www.odca.ie/cfmdocs/c_query/ad_concert.cfm

It says they have to specify that an additional fee may be payable, but not how much it is.

 

[shidheat]

one of the things which led to the ticeidi.com petition.

For all the good that did the world. Or did I miss something?

 

[das funkinstein]

anyone remember tickets for deaf 2 years ago ?
20 euros in shops 26 euros via ticketmaster ( 3 or 4 euro boking fee).
so they are probbly addding more into the price than just ticket booking / handeling.

I saw before they were charging a booking fees for a charity gig also.

there is some irish crowd startup that does on line tickets they did them for mor this year something along the lines tickets.ie