SeatGeek's New Fees

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 4:26pm

I'm online buying tix and their fees are now $33 PER TICKET. I thought the $22 per ticket they charged was insane but this is now getting out of hand. 

[halfhourcheckwithmerman]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 4:42pm

Oh, dear!

[sassylash3s]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 4:46pm

I’m pretty sure Seatgeek’s fees are based, in part, on a percentage of the face value of the ticket, although in a few minutes of playing around with a calculator I haven’t been able to determine the specific formula. Are you looking at $250+ tickets?

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 4:46pm

$33 for what price ticket?  It's always been a percentage (around 12%) of the base price, and $22 (now $23) have been the fees for $199 seats as long as I can remember, and still are, at least for Funny Girl, specifically.

Updated On: 12/19/22 at 04:46 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 4:51pm

TaffyDavenport said: "$33 for what price ticket? It's always been a percentage of the base price, and $22 (now $23) have been the fees for $199 seats as long as I can remember, and still are, at least for Funny Girl,specifically."

Ah thanks for that, Taffy (still my favorite username on this board). I suppose that makes sense but still doesn’t make it easy to swallow. I was looking at “Into the Woods” and the seat prices are just insane so I suppose that explains the higher fee. But still…

[JSquared2]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 4:55pm

They're still cheaper than TicketMaster. 

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 5:03pm

I can imagine a higher fee to accommodate the credit card fee going up, since that percentage is based on the ticket price, but anything else is plain ol' greedy. (See: Ticketmaster. Or Broadway.com.)

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 5:22pm

I've always found SeatGeak fees to be the best of the bunch. Definitely better than Ticketmaster and often than Telecharge too. 

[lily carver]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 5:31pm

Is this for ticket from theater or reseller ( do they do both sorry not too up on these things)?  preCovid I would go to boxoffice for friends or even friends of friends to get tickets because the fees were CRAZY. I also found the people at the box office super helpful since they obviously know the theater. Whenever possible go directly to box office and you can probably have a nice meal on the money you savel.

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 5:34pm

Because it's a percentage, their fees on cheaper seats are very reasonable compared to other sellers, particularly Telecharge, but, once you get to $149, they start to exceed them. On SeatGeek, a $449 seat for Funny Girl adds $52 in fees, for a total of $501, which is way higher than either Telecharge or even Ticketmaster (standard, not resale) ever get.

Updated On: 12/19/22 at 05:34 PM

[StageJunkie2]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 5:39pm

Telecharge, to me, continues to have the most “reasonable” fees. Looking at Funny Girl for my May trip, SeatGeek wanted $52(!) in fees. Granted that was for a Friday premium orchestra seat ($542) for a Lea performance….which is why I happily went with a Julie Benko Thursday show for, literally, half that cost. Not remotely interested in paying 2x the cost for the same show…and not necessarily a fan of Ms. Michelle anyway. Different strokes.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 6:41pm

Yeah if you're in NYC, would definitely recommend going in person to the box office if possible as that's saved me so much.  Though I think in my experience Telecharge has been the nicest in terms of fees (even more so before they started doing fee tiers), though at least SeatGeek will drop a 15% off code every season or so.

[LuPita2]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 6:54pm

Yeah if you're in NYC, would definitely recommend going in person to the box office if possible as that's saved me so much.

Exactly, tons of money saved.  And most people know that the price of the ticket corresponds with the fee anyways so it shouldn't shock anyone. 

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 8:42pm

Their website says "When you buy tickets on SeatGeek, service and delivery fees can vary based on the event and the type of ticket that you’re receiving." 

Meaning there's not necessarily a consistent formula they're using, it's just whatever they want the fees to be.   

[Bigserver1]

Posted: 12/21/22 at 5:17pm

Paid ~$50 in fees per ticket for Funny Girl last night. Base price of the seats were $449 (which just feels so ridiculous but when in Rome...), so yeah, it seems like the more the ticket, the more the fee.

[StageJunkie2]

Posted: 12/21/22 at 10:13pm

But the burning question is WHY? What the hell do they actually DO to warrant charging such outrageously exorbitant fees?  And the “well, It’s a percentage of the ticket price” just doesn’t cut it. It may be the way it is, but it sucks bigtime and is clearly just another money grab that they get away with. No logical reason why it should be calculated as a % of the ticket price. They do NOTHING…including not even printing a damn ticket. Disgusting…though I’m sure I’ll be pillaged as a curmudgeon.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/21/22 at 10:16pm

StageJunkie2 said: "But the burning question is WHY? What the hell do they actually DO to warrant charging such outrageously exorbitant fees? And the “well, It’s a percentage of the ticket price” just doesn’t cut it. It may be the way it is, but it sucks bigtime and is clearly just another money grab that they get away with. No logical reason why it should be calculated as a % of the ticket price. They do NOTHING…including not even printing a damn ticket. Disgusting…though I’m sure I’ll be pillaged as a curmudgeon."

Not a curmudgeon at all, I don't think there's any ticketing site people actually like--I still fondly remember when the TodayTix fee was $5 flat, and Telecharge also I think used to have a flat rate of $8 or so per ticket before they went to tiered pricing.

And well, just look up "Taylor Swift Ticketmaster" if you want to see other people complaining about insane fees charged by ticketing platforms.

[veronicamae]

Posted: 12/21/22 at 11:23pm

StageJunkie2 said: "But the burning question is WHY? What the hell do they actually DO to warrant charging such outrageously exorbitant fees? And the “well, It’s a percentage of the ticket price” just doesn’t cut it. It may be the way it is, but it sucks bigtime and is clearly just another money grab that they get away with. No logical reason why it should be calculated as a % of the ticket price. They do NOTHING…including not even printing a damn ticket. Disgusting…though I’m sure I’ll be pillaged as a curmudgeon."

You seem to grossly underestimate the costs that go into running a ticket-selling website/app/business.

"They do nothing."

You're right - they don't print the ticket; instead, they developed proprietary technology to not require printing. It cost money to do that.

They've also built a huge website and an app, to transact and allow the public to resell hundreds of thousands or even millions of tickets a year, with very few technical glitches (Taylor Swift aside), and there are human beings that have to run and maintain all that and answer your customer service questions who get paid - while also turning a profit because it's not a charity. 

Conversely, Telecharge has used the same ticketing system since it was first launched (unless they finally changed it in the past 2-3 years, but I doubt it UPDATE they didn't, I just checked and they are still using their STAR system). If you don't spend a lot of money, you don't need to raise a lot of money.

The real question is: how much should they be allowed to profit as a for-profit business before it becomes unfair to the consumer? It's a question that is rarely answered and if it is, it's answered via legal action or consumers deciding to end their patronage and allowing it to collapse.

And just for the record - I hate fees, too, as a consumer, but I do understand the need for them to exist.

Updated On: 12/21/22 at 11:23 PM

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 12/22/22 at 12:06am

veronicamae said: "The real question is: how much should they be allowed to profit as a for-profit business before it becomes unfair to the consumer? It's a question that is rarely answered and if it is, it's answered via legal action or consumers deciding to end their patronage and allowing it to collapse."

It's a monopoly issue, if Live Nation/ Ticketmaster didn't have a stranglehold on live events, including exclusive contracts with venues, competitive ticketing solutions would drive the price down on surcharges.  

 

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/22/22 at 12:20am

The ticket companies know that price sensitivity doesn't really exist when it comes to service fees, in the grand scheme of things. When you're spending $500 for a pair of concert tickets, what's another $25 or $50 or $100? It's slimy, but it's legal.

The new New York law requiring disclosure of price including fees is helpful. The Biden Administration's attempt to crack down on what they're calling "junk fees" might result in a similar disclosure requirement nationwide. The fees are never going away –– a private business can charge what they'd like –– but the fees will just need to be disclosed differently or baked into the overall price.

Updated On: 12/22/22 at 12:20 AM