I hate ticketmaster

Tue, Jun 17, 2003

I freakin' hate ticketmaster.  I just had to buy a baseball ticket -- just one as we have another person going to the game.  The base ticket price is $16 but the total ended up being $22.81.  That is a 43% service charge.  That is more than I pay in income tax.

Beyond this, I had to actually use the phone instead of doing it online because I wanted to get a seat as close to my other tickets.  In addition to ripping me off they:

  1. Asked for my email address to send me confirmation and then asked me if it is okay to sign me up to some random spam list.
  2. Tried to give me a trial subscription to sports illustrated.
  3. Tried to give me a trial subscription to entertainment weekly.
  4. Tried to entice me to some other offer that I didn't catch because the poor guy in their phone center was mumbling.

Selling tickets can't be that hard a business to run.  Are these guys just money hungry?