Mandatory Booking Fees: The ASA Responds

[Barrel of Fun]

The ticketing agents get £1+ for every ticket sold? Or have they already been paid and the club just add on any sort of figure to cover the expense and perhaps profit from it?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The ticketing agents get £1+ for every ticket sold? Or have they already been paid and the club just add on any sort of figure to cover the expense and perhaps profit from it?

Not sure but it's a simple way of jacking up ticket prices by stealth. The club's primary roll is to sell tickets to supporters. Whatever way they choose to do this, either through their own staff or a third party, it will cost them. There is no reason to spilt out this cost, otherwise they'd be doing it for every single other sale they make e.g. Azure pouring fee for a pint etc etc. It's a rip off, it's nothing else.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

You're highlighting a very good point. The way it stands it's possible that in a lot of cases (i.e. clubs that don't charge booking fees) away fans will be paying £1 to £1.50 less than home fans this season for like for like seats. Is this better then!?[/QUOTE]

I'm not advocating a change just pointing out that either you are incorrect (ie ticket prices will increase for away fans) or the published ticket prices for home fans will be more than for those supporting the away team. Personally, I wouldn't want to have to justify either scenario.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

The ticketing agents get £1+ for every ticket sold? Or have they already been paid and the club just add on any sort of figure to cover the expense and perhaps profit from it?

what ticketing agents....If you buy direct from the club, phoning the ticket office, there are no ticketing agents involved..just albion staff, therefore the extra booking fee is just another money making scheme to reduce the losses.

I just think if we are in this much of dire straits that we are being told, just whack up the prices by 50% ....it will clear the losses and we already have a captive audience of 20 odd thousand STH's anyway...people want to come to the games, therefore why worry about some whingers on here? ( I am being sarcastic BTW)

But seriously, if things are this bad, that we have to charge a booking fee then shirley explain to people that we need the money and hit people now when we have lots of people wanting to watch us!!!

...and that includes 1901 people too...renegotiate their contract and whack it up!

 

[Bold Seagull]

I'm not advocating a change just pointing out that either you are incorrect (ie ticket prices will increase for away fans) or the published ticket prices for home fans will be more than for those supporting the away team. Personally, I wouldn't want to have to justify either scenario.

Which is why I think that a fair few people see this fee for what it is.

 

[Brovion]

I was quoting Bold Seagull from a previous post: "You're actually describing the deceit if people don't realise how much their tickets actually cost"

I don't for a second think they should be accused of deceit.

Ok, fair comment. I perhaps wouldn't feel so strongly if there was a way of avoiding the fees (such as my experiences with the London Palladium or indeed the club last season), but the fact that every single method, including buying in person, now involves a booking fee I think is 'deceitful'. They're advertising tickets as 'only £25' and most people (which is what the ASA base it on) can't buy tickets that cheaply. I'm most definitely not anti-club, but that doesn't mean I can't get irritated at some of their practices. Who gets the fee when I buy in person?

 

[Bold Seagull]

Ok, fair comment. I perhaps wouldn't feel so strongly if there was a way of avoiding the fees (such as my experiences with the London Palladium or indeed the club last season), but the fact that every single method, including buying in person, now involves a booking fee I think is 'deceitful'. They're advertising tickets as 'only £25' and most people (which is what the ASA base it on) can't buy tickets that cheaply. I'm not most definitely not anti-club, but that doesn't mean I can't get irritated at some of their practices.

I'll echo this. I'm certainly not demonstrating any vitriol toward the club, merely annoyance. I am mostly shocked that you cannot walk into the club shop and buy a ticket at face value. I would have thought this is the most basic of rights to be honest, buying a ticket in person direct from the seller. I'm sure I didn't get charged for doing this last season...

 

[Perry's Tracksuit Bottoms]

I'll echo this. I'm certainly not demonstrating any vitriol toward the club, merely annoyance. I am mostly shocked that you cannot walk into the club shop and buy a ticket at face value. I would have thought this is the most basic of rights to be honest, buying a ticket in person direct from the seller. I'm sure I didn't get charged for doing this last season...

Absolutely spot on. These very discussions must have happened at the club, and when they were deciding whether to be completely transparent about ticket costs or to squirrel an extra pound per ticket onto the headline figure, they went for the latter. It's very disappointing that our brilliant club would think that it's a reasonable way to treat its brilliant fans.

 

[Superphil]

what ticketing agents....If you buy direct from the club, phoning the ticket office, there are no ticketing agents involved..just albion staff, therefore the extra booking fee is just another money making scheme to reduce the losses.

The software used to sell the tickets is run by an outside compnay, just like all clubs do, it is they who are the "agents" who charge a fee per booking. Take a look on other sites, Leeds for example, their ticket site is the exact same as ours, with the exact same booking fees.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

The software used to sell the tickets is run by an outside compnay, just like all clubs do, it is they who are the "agents" who charge a fee per booking. Take a look on other sites, Leeds for example, their ticket site is the exact same as ours, with the exact same booking fees.

well that is a waste of money...why don't we just get the staff who work in the TICKET OFFICE to sell tickets?

We are one of the largest suppliers of software in the world and we charge a license to whoever buys it to use it.

We dont charge people everytime they open or use it

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

well that is a waste of money...why don't we just get the staff who work in the TICKET OFFICE to sell tickets?

We are one of the largest suppliers of software in the world and we charge a license to whoever buys it to use it.

We dont charge people everytime they open or use it

I'm in the wrong business. I really need to get into ticketing software. It seems like money for old rope and with pretty much 100% public acceptance to being stitched up. The public even make up the excuses for you.

 

[Acker79]

I'll echo this. I'm certainly not demonstrating any vitriol toward the club, merely annoyance. I am mostly shocked that you cannot walk into the club shop and buy a ticket at face value. I would have thought this is the most basic of rights to be honest, buying a ticket in person direct from the seller. I'm sure I didn't get charged for doing this last season...

I don't believe you did. You certainly didn't the season before. As I think I mentioned earlier in the thread (I can never keep track) up to at least two seasons ago (and I think last season as well) the club were trying to encourage fans to buy tickets online. At the time it was weird, because people were complaining about the booking fee back then (including that it was per ticket, not per transaction) it was noted that buying in person didn't incur a booking fee, but that the online booking fee was subsidising the in-person ticket sales. This seemed at the time to be counter productive - if they wanted people to buy online, they should have not had the booking fee there, and charged in-person ticket buyers extra, which would drive them online. Now it seems they are just charging everyone.

Has the booking fee gone down? I remember it being £2 on line - am I misremembering that?

 

[Jim D]

Absolutely spot on. These very discussions must have happened at the club, and when they were deciding whether to be completely transparent about ticket costs or to squirrel an extra pound per ticket onto the headline figure, they went for the latter. It's very disappointing that our brilliant club would think that it's a reasonable way to treat its brilliant fans.

The thing I find disappointing is the number of people who are prepared to believe that the club is trying to 'screw us over'. They didn't write the ticketing software themselves so they would be paying a royalty to those that did - and £1 per ticket seems about right. I would also assume that they want to show it separately so that it won't be thought of as an unwarranted price hike. But of course those are just my thoughts and I could be wrong - just as many others on here could be.

 

[Bold Seagull]

The software used to sell the tickets is run by an outside compnay, just like all clubs do, it is they who are the "agents" who charge a fee per booking. Take a look on other sites, Leeds for example, their ticket site is the exact same as ours, with the exact same booking fees.

This is a cost for running the business the club decides to pay - hence it can decide Premium members don't need to pay it. I cannot believe the lengths people will go to not to see this booking fee for what it is. Quoting Leeds as an example to me is like confirming how wrong it is!

 

[jgmcdee]

well that is a waste of money...why don't we just get the staff who work in the TICKET OFFICE to sell tickets?

We are one of the largest suppliers of software in the world and we charge a license to whoever buys it to use it.

We dont charge people everytime they open or use it

Two things. First, you can't just "sell tickets" any more, it needs to be integrated so that you have an accurate account of your inventory, other outlets can sell tickets from the same pool, etc. It's no longer a case of picking up a bit of paper from the pile and putting it in an envelope.

Second, if you haven't even heard of transaction-based licensing then you are unlikely to remain one of the largest suppliers of software for much longer.

 

[Superphil]

well that is a waste of money...why don't we just get the staff who work in the TICKET OFFICE to sell tickets?

We are one of the largest suppliers of software in the world and we charge a license to whoever buys it to use it.

We dont charge people everytime they open or use it

I guess systems differ. Take the airline industry where when you go to cheapflights or lastminute.com and book your flight, the sale is logged and the company that provided their software (Amadeus, Galileo etc) get paid per booking. As for buying from the staff in person, they still use the software to allocate your seat (or let you choose it), print your ticket (or upload it to your smartcard) and also to make sure the ticket website is updated when the sale goes through, so that someone online doesn't try to buy it.

The fact that so many other organisations do the same thing might not make it right, but I imagine they do it because that is how the software works. For the Albion to develop its own ticketing software, sophisticated and robust enough to handle so many transactions and functions, would cost the club a significant amount of money. Again, the fact that very few, if any, other club has their own system, suggests that this is the most economical way to do it.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I would also assume that they want to show it separately so that it won't be thought of as an unwarranted price hike.

Indeed.

 

[Jim D]

well that is a waste of money...why don't we just get the staff who work in the TICKET OFFICE to sell tickets?
We are one of the largest suppliers of software in the world and we charge a license to whoever buys it to use it.

We dont charge people everytime they open or use it

But if they can encourage everyone to buy online then they won't need so many staff in the ticket office (if any)? With the universal £1 fee there is no longer any incentive for people to visit the ticket office if they can avoid it.

 

[Bold Seagull]

The software licensing is a business cost, no doubt a monthly bill to the club. That the club decide to separate this to an individual charge is entirely their decision and nothing to do with the requirements of licensing the software - hence Premium members do not pay booking fee's.

The license is an overhead like any other. It is separated because it can be and you can make your ticket prices look cheaper. It is that simple.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Two things. First, you can't just "sell tickets" any more, it needs to be integrated so that you have an accurate account of your inventory, other outlets can sell tickets from the same pool, etc. It's no longer a case of picking up a bit of paper from the pile and putting it in an envelope.

In essence, what you have just explained is that you're selling numbered tickets. No big deal and its been going on for decades.