I Hate Ticketmaster

I just bought one ticket for the Kathleen Edwards/Dan Wilson (of Semisonc) show at Irving Plaza...I Mean "The Fillmore East at Irving Plaza".
I went online to buy the ticket. $18.50. Not too shabby. That's a pretty cheap ticket, right?
Somehow, when all was said and done, the ticket cost $31.55. Amazing isn't it?

How could a single ticket jump over 70% in price?

Let's take a look at the charge that our good friends at Ticketmaster tacked on.

Full Price Ticket US $18.50 x 1
Facility Charge US $1.50 x 1
Convenience Charge US $6.40 x 1

Delivery (Standard Mail) No Charge
Order Processing Fee US $5.15

Total Charges US $31.55

First off, $1.50 facility charge. I guess Live Nation keeps that one. Shouldn't that price be figured into the ticket price already? The ticket is to enter the facility and see a concert.

Next up the convenience charge. $6.40. Over one third of the actual ticket price, is being charge to me as a convenience charge? Unbelievable. Now I do understand that it is much more convenient for me to order online, than to wait online in the cold at the venue, or at a ticketmaster counter (which I don't think even exist anymore). but is also more convenient for Ticketmaster as well. Ticketmaster only has to pay bandwidth (which is negligible). a few web programmers to build the site, and make sure it is working), and the initial fees for their servers etc. They don't have to pay a live human being to talk to me on the phone and take my order. It is much much cheaper for them to sell me my ticket this way, yet they charge me a fee for this.

And finally we have an order processing fee of $5.15 cents. Again, it cost them almost nothing to have an automated system process my order. Certainly much less than having a live person type it in manually. Oddly enough, they do not charge anything to mail you the tickets through regular first class mail. They do however charge you $2.50 if you want to print the tickets on the spot from your own printer. Huh? It cost $2.50 to use your own printer, ink and paper, and save them the effort of printing them, putting them in an envelope, and mailing them to your house?

Is this fair? No. Its despicable. But it will continue, because we let it continue.