The Great Booking Fee Rip-Off!

Booking fees for tickets: yet another scandalous rip-off we can't avoid... or can we?

Have you recently booked tickets for an event, concert or cinema screening and found yourself slapped with a hefty booking fee?

These days, booking fees are everywhere. Whether it's a festival or the latest art exhibition, if you book online or via the telephone you're likely to be hit by any number of `service charges' and `booking fees' on top of the ticket price.

What's more, recent research by Which? found that some ticket agents add up to 30% to the price of a ticket - with agents not even having to refund the cost of a ticket should the event be cancelled.

The Price Of Convenience

There's no doubt that online booking has made buying tickets much more convenient. However, in a recent survey, four out of five Which? members felt that booking fees were too expensive and 89% felt the fees should be included in the advertised price.

For example, those yearning to see golden oldie Neil Diamond at the O2 arena later this month could be in for a nasty surprise.

This is because as well as forking out £70 per ticket, fans not only need to cough up £7.75 in `service charges', but an additional £2 to take an advantage of its `Ticketfast' service.

To add insult to injury, this extra £2 charge is simply for the pleasure of printing out your ticket at home, using your own printer and ink. Now if that's not a rip-off I don't know what is.

So, for a pair of tickets with a face value of £140, you would in fact end up paying £157.50. That's nearly £20 extra for what amounts to absolutely nothing.

Sub-Standard Service

What annoys me even more about Ticketmaster is the fact that they don't even show you the service charge until it's time to pay. Because tickets are hot property, you are often faced with a timeout screen stating something like, `After 2:00 minutes, the tickets we're holding will be released for others to buy.'

Racing against the clock, you're left with little choice but to pay the extortionate fees if you want to see your idol in concert.

And if you choose to phone Ticketmaster's hotline, it doesn't get much better -- as I found to my own detriment when booking tickets a few months ago. The extra £9.50 I had to fork out in service charges provided me with very little in the way of actual service.

Instead, in my best attempt at the Queen's accent, I found myself talking to a machine, only hoping that my details and ticket requirements would be noted correctly.

Ticket agencies have been getting away with this for a while. Almost three and a half years ago, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) proposed a shake-up in the way concert and theatre tickets were sold, after stating that customers suffer from a clear lack of pricing information. Today, the situation seems only to have gotten worse.

So what can you do to combat this?

Playing Detective

Unfortunately, in most cases there is very little you can do to avoid these fees. When I rang the O2 arena, I was told the only way I could avoid paying these charges would be to go to the venue itself and purchase the tickets in person.

So, while we wait for a clearer and fairer ticketing system to emerge (which, let's face it, could be a very long time), in the mean time it's important to both know your rights and be able to locate the best deals for tickets.

Going directly to the box office may not entail booking fees, but they don't always offer the best deals either.

For example, when it comes to theatre tickets, Theatremonkey is a good site which lists a range of current offers, as well as handy hints as to how to get cheap tickets and where the best seats in the house are.

In fairness to sites such as Theatre Tickets Direct, which was criticised by Which? for its extortionate fees on top priced tickets, they also have some good deals on seats which you won't find at the box office. Lastminute.com is another good example.

On top of this, National Rail's Days Out Guide allows rail travellers to take advantage of a range of offers, including 2 for 1 on theatre tickets. To qualify, all you need to do is buy a valid train ticket for the day.

So, in cases such as these, you have to weigh up whether paying the booking fee is worth it or not.

Know Your Rights

In addition, it's also important to know your rights when it comes to tickets and booking fees. Here are a few tips:

         Firstly, you are entitled to a full refund of the ticket plus any charges if the event you have booked is cancelled, rescheduled or the venue is changed. You are not, however entitled to one if an understudy appears in place of the show's headline star.

         Secondly, if your tickets don't arrive in time for the event, you are also entitled to a full refund, plus any additional costs if the replacement tickets are more expensive. If the agent refuses to cough up and is a member of the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (STAR), use its complaints procedure.

         Beware of secondary ticket sellers such as Seatwave, Viagogo, No1soldoutevents and Getmein, where the mark-up on ticket prices can be extortionate. Which? also advises that people buying tickets through the secondary market should be especially careful, as in the event that the event is cancelled, the original authorised seller is not obliged to give you a refund.

         Finally, if your tickets purchase amounts to over £100, be sure to pay with a credit card, as the credit card provider is jointly responsible if the contract is breached, so you're covered if the event is cancelled.

So, it seems that unless you're prepared to resort to the good old days of camping outside the box office, booking fees are here to stay. After three-and-a-half years of procrastination, we can only hope that the OFT get their posteriors moving soon.

In the meantime, remember to compare different agencies when buying your tickets as booking fees will vary. Also don't forget your rights. That way, if anything goes wrong, they can't sting you with any more hidden surprises...