3 ms·

I don't have an issue with high prices, in the general sense, I have an issue with artificially inflated prices via dark patterns and other unethical means, whi

I don't have an issue with high prices, in the general sense, I have an issue with artificially inflated prices via dark patterns and other unethical means, which Ticketmaster has built their entire business around. As a customer who earns a tech salary, mostly I want to be able to go on the site, find the "best available" seats, and buy them. Done. What Ticketmaster instead forces you to do is go through an artificial queuing system, lies to you about what's best available, has widely ranging dynamic pricing, doesn't allow you to purchase all seat classes available at any given moment and releases them randomly, and does all sorts of other horrid fuckery and at the end as an extra middle finger charges you a "convenience fee" for having you print your tickets yourself or scanning them from your phone after you went through the least convenient, pleasant, and reasonable process every to get overcharged for the tickets. And let's be clear, we're talking about overcharging. The face value of a ticket can be high for a world-famous act. So let's say the face value of a typical seat is $250 for a concert. Ticketmaster will absolutely charge you $700 for that same ticket.

sbierwagen 2y ago
You're contradicting yourself here. You want tickets to be both cheaper and easier to buy. They can't be both. The value of the ticket is just high. Either you pay in time, or money. Your enemy isn't ticketmaster, it's the 100,000 people who want to go to a 1,000 person venue.
- tristor 2y ago
  I don't mind paying $700 if $700 is the face value of the ticket. You're acting like I'm against first-come, first-serve. I am not. I am fine with it. I'm fine waking up at 3AM to buy a ticket. What I'm not okay with are bots and bullshit.
  - bongodongobob 2y ago
    Face value is arbitrary and has nothing to do with the real value of the ticket.
    - pcthrowaway 2y ago
      Yes, but it has everything to do with the value not being extracted by middle-men who provide questionable value in the whole process.
bongodongobob 2y ago
It's not artificially inflated if people are willing to buy them. If people are scalping them, Ticketmaster isn't charging enough.
- tristor 2y ago
  Scalping is an after-the-fact action, which by the way Ticketmaster directly enables (they own Stubhub and have built-in scalping tools in their app). While I find scalping distasteful, that is not the reason why Ticketmaster's pricing and practices suck.

sbierwagen 2y ago

You're contradicting yourself here. You want tickets to be both cheaper and easier to buy. They can't be both. The value of the ticket is just high. Either you pay in time, or money. Your enemy isn't ticketmaster, it's the 100,000 people who want to go to a 1,000 person venue.

tristor 2y ago
I don't mind paying $700 if $700 is the face value of the ticket. You're acting like I'm against first-come, first-serve. I am not. I am fine with it. I'm fine waking up at 3AM to buy a ticket. What I'm not okay with are bots and bullshit.
- bongodongobob 2y ago
  Face value is arbitrary and has nothing to do with the real value of the ticket.
  - pcthrowaway 2y ago
    Yes, but it has everything to do with the value not being extracted by middle-men who provide questionable value in the whole process.

bongodongobob 2y ago

It's not artificially inflated if people are willing to buy them. If people are scalping them, Ticketmaster isn't charging enough.

tristor 2y ago
Scalping is an after-the-fact action, which by the way Ticketmaster directly enables (they own Stubhub and have built-in scalping tools in their app). While I find scalping distasteful, that is not the reason why Ticketmaster's pricing and practices suck.