The web has been a boon to convenience for things that used to require us to drive around town and stand in lines like to bank, pay bills, and buy tickets - which brings me to Ticketmaster. Not that I've been buying many event tickets in the last 10 years but when I've wanted to, I've been disgusted by the audacious "convenience fees" to which they then add onerous "processing charges"! This is usually one of those lumps we're told to take with a smile.
As you can see from their charges summary, I was trying to make a nice father son evening out of the local FC Dallas football game. We've got arguably the nicest stadium of any MLS team in the U.S. and I've never been to it. Since it's not so conveniently located 20 miles to the north, it's not feasible to buy tickets at the box office or a such "green" idea to round trip 40 miles. So, my punishment is more than 30% tax by the ticketmaster lords. Argh! Some would argue that's it's worth $12.23 to save driving 40 miles and the time. That's not my point though.
This absurdity of this arrangement (imho) is similar to the current (hopefully crumbling) strangle hold MLS holds on buyers and sellers of real estate in the U.S. If the same "convenience" charge argument is applied here, it doesn't make sense to me. While it's certainly convenient not to have to hassle with showing your house, is it really worth 6% of the sale price? Another lump we've been conditioned to take.
Always rooting for the iconoclasts and disruptors, I'm a fan of Zillow (except for their lack of Safari support), Trullia, and of course Craigslist! They are collectively going to put billions dollars back in homeowners pockets.
In the ticketing arena, I recently saw a demo of ZAPTIX for more egalitarian approach to event tickets for promoter, venue, and buyers.
In sum, I hate ticketmaster and its ilk. Tyranny has competition on the web. Long live the web!
Technorati Tags: christianperry, FCDallas, mls, ripoff, ticketmaster, trulia, tyranny, zaptix, zillow
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