$6 Processing Fee

Why does Cedar Point/Cedar Fair feel the need to charge a $5.99 processing fee for platinum passes? How is this even necessary? What justification is there for this? Does anyone else find this absurd?

Time= Money and the actual card costs money.

While there's probably a pseudo-legitimate reason for the fee (merchant fees or whatever), it (as well as the cost of the plastic card) could have easily been rolled into the cost of the pass. In other words, it's a money grab, and they do it because they can. But who cares? The extra $6 shouldn't change the value equation for most folks.

If you bought the Platinum Pass or any other ticket online, Cedar Fair has an outside company Accesso perform all of their online purchase transactions. I would think that most, if not all, of this fee goes straight to Accesso rather than CF. As to why CF uses Accesso instead of building and maintaining their own online tickets/passes purchasing site, I can't answer that.

djDaemon is almost right. It is nothing more than a hidden cost that is not revealed for marketing purposes. It is deceitful and the only reason they do it is because they can. The park uses hundreds if not thousands of outside contractors / vendors for almost every area of operations in the park. It just chooses not to add a hidden extra fee for every single thing, they are factored into the advertised price of admission. Many other companies follow the same practice but that doesn't make it any less deceitful.

As far as the $6 goes, hidden fees add up to lots of revenue for the park (for doing nothing) and lots of money out of the customers pockets that they had not planned for. $6 more tacked onto the advertised price of the platinum pass probably wouldn't change anybody's mind about buying the pass or not. Unless, you look at the price from a marketing view point; to some, 6 easy payments of $18.95 sounds better than $19.95. It may be an interesting topic to see how many other hidden fees the park hides from people, and then people can add them up and see how much more they are really spending in the park.

Dude, that's a liberal argument if I ever heard one. The big greedy corporation picks the pocket of poor struggling Joe the Consumer, right?

Come on. For a $170+ platinum pass, $6 is really not a big deal. I've long said these platinum passes are underpriced and I'd love to see the prices rise, but the bottom line is the company makes their pricing decisions likely based on a multitude of factors, few of which us consumers are privy to.

All we get to decide as consumers is, are we going to buy one or not? If the $6 really pisses you off, then don't buy one, out of principal. That just means shorter lines for me!

If you really want to talk about hidden fees, investigate all the taxes you're paying when you go to CP, especially if you stay overnight. Your big government is costing you a whole lot more than a $6 processing fee.

I think you need to read my post again. I don't have a problem paying the extra $6, the pass is a good value. My problem is the hidden fees. Yes, taxes could also be considered hidden fees. So could admission to Dino's Alive, so could parking, so could Soak City (why is Kings Island waterpark included in the price of admission?) Yes, some of these things are optional, some are not. My problem is with the fees you have to pay to receive a service that you are not told about first (or is in the fine print). There is a big difference between these hidden fees rather than some type of all-inclusive package versus a sort of al a carte system.

Yes, I have a problem with the big greedy corporation constantly chipping away at the value we pay for services. You may even be right that it is the sole purpose of the big greedy corporation. The problem is that it is a form of bait and switch. Once they have you captive (in a way) they chip away at customers pocket books to squeeze every last cent out of a customer. You are the sucker if you think that paying an extra $6 is no big deal. No, it won't break me but I would rather have it in my pocket than the big greedy corporations. All I am saying is, be honest with the consumer.

I'm pretty sure they tell you about the $6 before they charge your credit card. I don't see anything deceitful or dishonest about that.

The PointGuru said:
Unless, you look at the price from a marketing view point; to some, 6 easy payments of $18.95 sounds better than $19.95.

Seriously? If someone can't afford the 3% fee (which, for some perspective, is less than all but a few states' sales tax), maybe they shouldn't be buying the pass in the first place.

I'm pretty damned liberal in my views, but even I think it's ridiculous to label a business as "greedy". Their purpose is to make money.

The funny part is, if the fee were simply rolled into the cost of the pass itself (hell, just make it $190, and get an extra few bucks while they're at it), we wouldn't even be hearing the "oh noes the big, greedy corporation is trying to get me to spend money!"

I'm all in favor of the park or any business making money. Businesses pass cost onto consumers all the time. It's not about a 3% fee or if you can afford the additional price. It's the deceptive business practice that is the problem. If you advertise one price in giant bold print everywhere, then tack on an additional charge (even in fine print), only when you are ready to purchase the product or service, that is deceptive. Why do you think everything is priced at $???. 99 or ???.95 cents instead of just rounding it up to a even dollar amount so we don't have to walk around with pennies and nickels in our pockets all the time. Is it because if we paid 1 more cent we wouldn't by the product. No, because marketing consultants know it that subconsciously we think we are getting a much better deal if something is $.99 rather than $1.00. Additionally, marketing consultants for the big greedy corporations know that suckers like you guys don't have a problem wasting another $6.00 for absolutely no reason once they have you guys hooked on buying the pass.

The same goes for parking but I won't really get going on that rant. All I will say is that the raises in the cost of daily parking in the last year or two can never be justified. They know that the majority of the visitors at the park must drive to the park and don't have the platinum passes. If those guests want to go to the park they must pay whatever increase the park feels like adding that year. Either pay a few bucks more or don't go. Greedy corporations know that's not really a choice for the customers.

I think the $6 processing fee only applies if you purchase the pass online, correct? If you don't want to pay the fee, just go to the season pass center in person and purchase or renew your pass. There is nothing deceptive about this, they tell you upfront about the fee during the online purchase process and this "convenience fee" has been around for years for other venues like concerts and sports events.

Pete beat me to it. CP is, by far, not the first to add a service fee when purchasing tickets online.

For goodness sakes, for someone with the name "PointGuru" you are really not getting the big picture here. If the "big greedy corporation" of CF cannot make a profit, then there won't be a CP and there certainly wouldn't be continuous investment and improvement in the property. Further, you are absolutely unqualified to make the statement that the parking price increase is "unjustified". Do you have access to all the CF books, so that you can make that determination and what is or isn't an "acceptable" amount of profit (since apparently you get to make the determination of how much profit is "enough" vs "too much").

Corporations' primary objective (and responsibility) is to maximize share or unit-holder value. Neither you nor I get to decide how much is "enough". If they do their job right, they will maximize profit. Nobody is saying they should do this in an unethical or illegal manner, and I don't believe that's the case in your example. So what's the problem?

Pete said:
I think the $6 processing fee only applies if you purchase the pass online, correct?

And if that's the case, is this a fee being collected by Cedar Point, or by the company they've contracted to handle the online ordering of passes?

The PointGuru said:
All I will say is that the raises in the cost of daily parking in the last year or two can never be justified.

Sure they can: people still find value in the total cost of a park visit.

I wish people would read the entire context of my post before they jump to conclusions about what I am saying. People have to stop kidding themselves that this "convenience fee" is convenient for anyone accept the park. I have said all along I want the park to make a profit and that CP didn't invent the fee and they are not the only ones using it. There are many more companies that do not charge a fee when purchasing online. Is it illegal, probably not, but there have been similar fees in other businesses that have been found to be illegal. Is it unethical, unquestionably yes.

You don't have to be an accountant or see the parks books to figure out the park is gouging people for the price of parking. I don't know of any parking lot expansion or other resurfacing of the lot other than the same routine maintenance they have been doing since the invention of cars. Any business is free to charge whatever the market will bear. What is harder to figure out is what that price point is before you show diminishing returns. Obviously, the park hasn't reached that point yet. The point is whether it is an outside contractor that collects the fees or not, it is still is an operational cost that is hidden from the consumer.

I also thought I read something on this site about some new 30 million dollar investment the park made. I haven't seen anything about a convenience fee to ride the new coaster. Likewise, I didn't notice any rebates or price reductions for customers since they removed two attractions that were previously included in the price of admissions.

The PointGuru said:
I wish people would read the entire context of my post before they jump to conclusions about what I am saying.

I wish you'd stop assuming people don't understand you when they simply disagree with you. ;)

Is it unethical, unquestionably yes.

Unethical? C'mon now. Both parties are aware of the goods and money being exchanged. How is that unethical?

Any business is free to charge whatever the market will bear. What is harder to figure out is what that price point is before you show diminishing returns. Obviously, the park hasn't reached that point yet.

Please repeat the above paragraph over and over until it sinks in, because that's the long and short of the situation, whether we're talking about parking fees, online transactions fees or any cost of any good or service. It's not "gouging" or "unethical" if both parties are willingly in agreement about the transaction.

Does this $6 fee apply to online purchases of regular season passes too? Not just Platinum?

I hate to keep agreeing with DJ, because I almost never do. You made the following statement:

"What is harder to figure out is what that price point is before you show diminishing returns."

It is not hard to figure out, really. It's basic economics, and is referred to as profit maximization, or alternatively, reaching the peak of the profit curve where marginal profit (the extra profit earned from an extra dollar of revenue) equals zero. Obviously, if they started charging too much for things, they would end up making LESS money. My earlier point is, it is not for you or I to decide what the correct, optimal, or "fair" prices are because 1) we are not running the company and 2) we do not have sufficient information to draw such a conclusion. Now, as for parking and various fees, do you think that some of that money went towards a recent big capital expenditure, or other park improvements? Of course it did! To suggest, as you are, that the company runs the parking lot on it's own P&L is ridiculous and demonstrates a lack of understanding in corporate finance or basic economics, for that matter.

I only take issue with you so severely because of your statements regarding unethical (and now possibly "illegal") fees.

You can disagree all you want, misrepresenting facts or what other people say is not disagreeing. It is unethical because both parties DO NOT agree to the exchange of goods and merchandise. Hidden fees or extra surcharges are by definition not consensual. Does the park put a gun customer's heads and make them pay? No. Do they depend on uninformed customers shelling out money they shouldn't have to pay? Yes. That is unethical.

Don't you have to click "Agree" or "Buy Now" or some other such button before your credit card is charged? And isn't the total price listed directly above on the same page? Sure seems like both parties are agreeing, from my perspective.