Online ticket sellers agree to display fees upfront
Some of the biggest online ticket retailers will now display their delivery and booking fees upfront.
Seven online ticket retailers have agreed to display their delivery and booking fees upfront.
All compulsory charges, such as delivery costs and booking fees, will be made clear from the outset by ATG Tickets, BH Live Tickets, See Tickets, Stargreen, Ticketmaster, Ticket Soup and Ticket Web.
See Tickets has already put the changes in place, while Ticket Soup has promised to update its website this week. ATG, meanwhile, has pledged to get its website up to speed by March.
The agreement follows the Play Fair on Ticket Fees campaign by Which? So far more than 37,000 people have pledged their support for the campaign.
However, Which? wants the firms to go further and justify the fees they charge. The consumer champion’s research found that in some cases people were hit with extra charges worth more than a third of the ticket’s face value. It found examples of people being charged up to £2.50 to print the tickets out at home or £3 to pick them up from the box office.
There are no regulations that limit what ticket retailers can charge for these additional ‘services’. However the rules of the Committee of Advertising Practice Code (which is administered by the Advertising Standards Authority) clearly state that all compulsory fees should be disclosed at the outset.
The Advertising Standards Authority said that it has been conducting “comprehensive enforcement work” since last September to ensure ticket sellers are upfront about the fees they charge, having assessed 130 websites so far. Now 55 ticket sellers have amended their ticket pricing as a result. It is now looking at regional theatre sites; around half of the 650 sites need to make changes to fall into line with the rules.
What do you think? Have you been caught out by hidden charges? Should these charges be capped? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the Comments box below.
Get cashback when you buy tickets with a cashback credit card
More on consumer rights:
Ryanair voted worst brand for customer service in UK
Credit card protection mis-selling: how to claim your compensation
Gym chains agree to make cancelling easier
Comments
-
@ifonlyitweretrue: These organisations only charge these excessive fees because people are willing to pay them. The answer is in everyone's hands. Don't buy for a period of time. This is the free market working; if people are willing to pay the excessive fees, then that makes it the market price. If people choose not to pay them, the seller will either reduce prices or go out of business (eventually). You don't need state intervention. The answer is in your own hands. r.
REPORT This comment has been reported. -
I think one way to deter the ticket touts is to sell "group tickets" that way however many tickets you buy there should just be one piece of paper for that group to get in. Might be a bit frustrating if one of your group turns up late but if it helps stop the touts block buying the best tickets and selling them at ridiculous prices then I'm sure it would be the best option.
REPORT This comment has been reported. -
It's true with rail tickets you can buy with a fee at thetrainline and with no fee at sites like southernrail. But with other tickets you don't have a choice. Odeon charge you for booking online. It's ridiculous - you pay less if you pay at the cinema - how does that make sense/ Concert tickets are a particular problem area since the various agencies act as a cartel and you cannot buy tickets without going through one of them. But there are several other extremely devious practices carried out with concert tickets: -Announcing "onsale 9.00am tomorrow" without advertising the prices so at 9.00am you are bounced into paying without time to think about the price. -Sham pre-sales - pre-sales are usually just a marketing trick to make you buy because you think you are getting a great deal. Very often the tickets on pre-sale are not the best seats available. Especially if it's through one of the credit card or O2 so-called "preferred" schemes. Do people really believe that being an O2 customer gives them an inside track - there are millions of them. -Unfair ticket allocation - by the time the tickets are on sale, even for a pre-sale, the best tickets seem already to be for sale on Seatwave, Viagogo etc for several times the face value. I have nothing against Seatwave and Viagogo (except their fees are too high), but how come these sellers have got hold of the best tickets? The OFT have pussy-footed around with this market for years and never sorted it out. I could go on!
REPORT This comment has been reported.
Do you want to comment on this article? You need to be signed in for this feature
09 February 2014