Service fees suck / Support local business

I’m very excited about the Sonic Youth concert April 25 in Nashville. I’m excited because I haven’t seen them in about 10 years or so. I’ve been a fan for a very long time. I was a member of the “Sonic Death” fan club back in the early 80′s. I even got to speak to Thurston Moore on a radio call-in show. I have no idea what I asked him, it was too long ago.I would love to make this post all about my love for Sonic Youth, but it’s not. It’s about Ticketmaster and it’s about how we need to remember to support local business.

I went on to the Ticketmaster site on Friday to purchase a ticket to the show. Tickets are $25.00 which seemed like a decent enough price to me. I went through the details and when it came to finalizing my purchase I noticed the price had increased substantially, by more than $10.00.

Additional fees:

• Facility charge $1.00 – Isn’t this suppose to be part of the cost of the ticket in the first place?)
• “Convenience” charge $6.25 – Well, isn’t that convenient? In my best Church Lady impression.
• Order processing charge $3.40 – Isn’t this process computerized? Are they paying the computers?

This story has a happy ending. There is an incredible record shop in Nashville called Grimey’s. It reminds me a lot of Rotate This and (the sadly defunct) Record Peddler in Toronto. Think of the shop in the movie “High Fidelity” to get an idea of what I’m talking about.

I called Grimey’s when I discovered Ticketmaster’s crazy fees. The cool dude who answered the phone told me they had tickets for $27.00, $2.00 more than the regular price, now that’s convenient.

When I popped in to the store to buy the ticket the guy informed me that he was going to the show too. He’s very excited to see Sonic Youth for his first time, he’s been a long time fan. Nice.

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