Ticketmaster or Ticket-scheister?

I was so excited yesterday to get an email notice that one of my favorite bands would be playing in LA this summer. This email was an invite for a presale event because I hold a Citi-group credit card (lucky me and my 29% nominal APR). Finally! I catch a break. I can maybe get a decent seat on a presale for once! Click through to the website. Click on “More Info.” Hmmm, don’t see any prices. What does “More Info” mean if not that? The notice had already shown me the date, time, venue, band, opening band. Maybe, ticket prices? …Nope. Oh well. Wait a day for the presale to start and then surely they’ll tell me. I do want to see this band AND the opening band too!

Okay. Next day – actual day of presale – back to the website to order. Enter 2 tickets, any price, best available. Wait for the wheels to stop turning (it is a lot like playing slots – you wait to see if it stops on good seats). Yay! Nice seats! First section behind the pit. $65.50 each. Okay. Worth it. Wait. What’s this?? $15.70 convenience fee x 2!?! WTF? What’s that about? Suddenly my $65 tickets are over $80 each. For the math whizzes, that’s a 24% increase above face value. A fun night out at a concert is now a $160+ proposition, not including parking and refreshments.

Am I the only one who finds this outrageous, even offensive? Now, I’m not upset at the bands, they have expenses and deserve their cut of the $65 ticket. But who gets this “convenience fee?” Since I can only get the presale on Ticketmaster’s website, I’m assuming they get it for what…   “allowing” me to buy tickets from them? Certainly it doesn’t cost Ticketmaster 30 bucks for a worker to process my order, print tickets and mail them to me (if a worker is getting paid anywhere close to $30 for one 5-minute transaction, where do I sign up for his job??). I can see a $2 fee for a ticket, even $4-5 , but $30!!! Is this the norm now? Is TM getting this high a convenience fee for every concert? Damn! Why aren’t concert-goers revolting? Why isn’t Congress looking into this scheister monopoly move? TM is pricing good hard-working people out of the concert-going experience. In this economy. I can’t afford to pay that. How do other people do it? Guess I’ll just have to imagine the live concert-going experience as I listen to my CD of the band. Ticket-scheister has priced me out.