Mid-September I received an email with an opportunity to pre-purchase Divisional Series tickets to any of the possible 3 home games the Cleveland Indians might play. The email contained a link to Ticketmaster.com, as this was an online-only offer. Being an Indians fan, I purchased my limit of 8 tickets and waited. As we all know, the Indians choked, and therefore there would be no October for Cleveland. However, when Ticketmaster credited my card, $2.75 was missing from each transaction.
Now I understand that there are costs involved with selling tickets online, you have to have servers, an ordering system, etc., but what angers me is that friends of mine who stood in line to buy tickets, received a 100% refund of their money. You still need servers and an ordering system for in-person tickets, but the frustrating part is my friends actually received a physical printed ticket, sold to them by a physical person. Two pieces missing from an internet transaction that must cost additional dollars to have. All I got was a email with a confirmation number. So why is it that physical tickets holders received 100% back, and I still had to pay $2.75?
Furthering my anger is an observation I have for their online ticketing service. Ticketmaster has a service called TicketFast. This allows you to print out your tickets immediately(on your own paper, with your own ink), rather than wait to have them mailed to you. Again, a completely electronic process, that Ticketmaster charges you $2.50 to take “advantage” of. However, printing physical tickets, stuffing them into an envelope, and applying postage can’t be a cheap alternative. Why doesn’t Ticketmaster offer TicketFast for free since it would alleviate the costs of mailing physical tickets?
The answer to both my questions, and one I will no longer be a part of, is that if you buy your tickets online and worse, use TicketFast, you are a Ticketmaster SUCKER. Therefore, I implore you to no longer use Ticketmaster.com at all, and if you absolutely have to, make them pay for printing and stuffing and postage!