Beware of Ticketmaster’s Order Processing Fee

First published on November 20, 2009

Canadian consumers often complain about hidden non-governmental fees such as system access fees in cell phone plans and airplane ticket surcharges. Ticketmaster takes the trick of false advertising one step further with the non-disclosure of its order processing fee.

If you’ve purchased tickets from Ticketmaster before, you might already be familiar with its facility charge and convenience charge. These are silly enough, especially after you read the explanations for those fees. And one theory states that Ticketmaster is happy to take the blame for the fees as it’s the easiest way for both Ticketmaster and the artist or event organizer to charge the actual, higher, final fee. But at least Ticketmaster discloses these charges in the first step of the order process (this example happens to be exempt of a facility charge):

Ticketmaster fees in step 1

When you get to the billing step, however, Ticketmaster tacks on the order processing fee. This fee is described as covering “the cost to fulfill your ticket request when you purchase the tickets online or by phone”.

Ticketmaster fees in step 2

Steps 1 and 2 of the Ticketmaster online order process both occur… online. This means that you are going to pay the order processing fee if you order online, no matter what other options (such as shipping method) you pick. Remember what step 1 is hiding from you.

This entry is filed under Consumerism, Vancouver / BC / Canada and written by Peter Keung. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

5 Responses to “Beware of Ticketmaster’s Order Processing Fee”

December 1st, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Melissa says:

It seems to me that if they just charged the price without these fees called out separately, people wouldn’t complain. I just find it so annoying that they tack that extra charge on the end when you don’t expect it!
December 12th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Mike says:

Ticketmaster is a total scam – I’ll never use them again EVER! Bought tickets online for House of Blues concert in New Orleans, they printed out with the wrong date. Refused to do anything about it – said I was stuck with them and would sell them myself or eat the price. Disputing the charge with my CC company, but lost the $$v on a hotel room, plans, etc.
CROOKS! BEWARE!!
February 11th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Brendan says:

They’re just scum. Half the events here "sell out" within ten minutes, only to find thousands of tickets available on the Ticketmaster owned auction site later that day. What a ridiculous excuse for a company, I wish events/venues would just start selling their own tickets again..
April 3rd, 2010 at 3:04 pm
scruss says:

We don’t call ‘em Ticketbastard for nothing.

They had the gall to ask me for a satisfaction survey, to which I gladly replied: "Just whose convenience is your 25% ‘convenience fee’ for? You guys are a scandalous monopoly. I’ve had better customer service from the Mafia – at least they’re family-run."
June 20th, 2013 at 4:19 pm
steven says:

I find it funny. I bought tickets to 2 different concerts. One had the order processing charge and the other did not. I bought them both the same way which was ordering them. so deffently the processing fee is a scam