What? Ticketmaster is changing the way it handles service fees? Has the time come to watch out for airborne porkers? Well… not exactly.
The big change regarding Ticketmaster and service fees is that the ticket service will let consumers know up front what the total price of the transaction will be instead of sticking the fan with a much larger bill than expected at check-out time.
The company made its announcement today on its brand new blog, “Ticketology,” saying it had determined through research and conversations with fans that the “check out process is a huge frustration and hurts ticket sales,” and that the service will now list “all-in prices” for its wares. The blog's first-day post was written by Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard.
From Ticketmaster.com/Ticketology:
“This practice changes today. Over the next few days we are rolling out a new way of presenting pricing and fees on Ticketmaster.com. Going forward, just like almost every other business in the world, we’ll tell you up front how much you can expect to pay for a certain ticket. We’ll still break out the ‘face value’ from the other fees where required, and we haven’t broken down per-order fees yet (although you will begin to see many of our clients move to truly all-in pricing, because they know it sells more tickets and makes you happier). This user experience mirrors what you see across the web from leaders in their field – Amazon, Apple, Expedia, Zappos and more. It’s not complicated, it’s just the right thing to do.”
The blog posting also warns that some events may still be presented the old-fashioned way, mainly because of individual contracts with clients.
Needless to say, this development has been something of a conversation starter in concert industry circles.
Booking agent Bruce Houghton of Skyline Music fired up his Hyperbot blog, noting that an example of the new policy, as tweeted over the weekend by Live Nation Executive Chairman Irving Azoff, still included separate “Order Processing” and “TicketFast Delivery” fees at check out.
However, as Houghton points out, Azoff clarified the new policy with another tweet, stating, “Can’t boil all fees down to a per ticket fee until we know how many tix are bought and shipping method chosen, so it has to happen later.”
Along with the abrupt change regarding service fees, Ticketology also announced a new return policy for Live Nation venues, permitting customers to return their tickets within three days after purchase up to one week before the event.
We gotta admit we were somewhat surprised by the new return policy if only because many ticketing services, not just Ticketmaster, have no-refund policies unless shows are postponed or canceled. One of the reasons for such policies is because a ticketing service is there to sell you a ticket and is not responsible if you change your mind, come down with an illness or find something better to do than go to the concert.
Plus, promoters and artist representatives use sales data to make decisions regarding multiple shows in the same market as well as draw conclusions about other touring issues, leaving us to wonder how they’ll factor ticket returns into those equations.
Click here for the Ticketmaster blog, Ticketology, here for Hyperbot’s take on the announcement and here for Irving Azoff’s Twitter page.