Online transaction fee for tickets

Cedar Point is running a deal now for people who live in Michigan. You can save $15 a ticket up to Sept 2nd. If you buy the tickets online and print them yourself there is a $5 transaction fee for the entire order. Why is there a fee when they dont have to mail the tickets and you print them on your own printer? Total ripoff. I also think the fee was $4 earlier this year and they have raised it. I emailed the park asking about the fee and of course they never responded. I guess if you are buying 5 tickets the fee isnt that big a deal but I only need 2 tickets and either way I see no reason for the fee.

Steve1984 said:
Why is there a fee when they dont have to mail the tickets and you print them on your own printer?

Because people pay it. :)

People pay it, presumably, because they find value in not having to deal with the ticket booths at the park.

djDaemon said:

Steve1984 said:
Why is there a fee when they dont have to mail the tickets and you print them on your own printer?

Because people pay it. :)

People pay it, presumably, because they find value in not having to deal with the ticket booths at the park.

People pay it because they have no choice if they want to get the discount. It just angers me that they advertise these deals as $12 or $15 off the regular price and then when you go to buy them you find out there is a $5 transaction fee. Of course I will still buy it because $12 off is better then regular price but the $5 fee is really sticking it to the consumer

I can't remember the last time I purchased a ticket that didn't include a "transaction fee" or some such nonsense. And it's been happening since before the internet: Ticketmaster.

Now there is an evil empire for you. We recently bought tickets to a show through Ticketmaster. By the time we paid the various transaction fees that cropped up every other page in the process the tickets wound up costing 50% more than the listed price. That's a fairly steep price for convienience, especially considering that the theater box office is a fifteen minute walk from my wife's office. Guess what we are going to do next time we decide to see a show..........

djDaemon said:
I can't remember the last time I purchased a ticket that didn't include a "transaction fee" or some such nonsense. And it's been happening since before the internet: Ticketmaster.

I hate ticketmaster as much as the next guy but at least when you buy through them they are paying somebody to work the counter or mail the tickets to you. How does Cedar Point justify the charge? An 11 year old could run the website

Steve1984 said:
How does Cedar Point justify the charge?

djDaemon said:
Because people pay it. :)

:)

Steve1984 said:
An 11 year old could run the website

Well, not legaly. But, I get your point anyway.

dj, why did you quote yourself just to add another smiley?

No, you still pay the TM "convenience" fee to print them off at home. In fact, for TM, it is no additional charge to have them print them off and mail them to me.

I know the country has bigger prtoblems right now but somebody needs to step in and stop the madness. las Vegas hotels hit you with a $20 resort fee every day now on top of your daily charge. Airplanes charge you for luggage and other things. No wonder we have such an angry society

Jason Hammond said:
dj, why did you quote yourself just to add another smiley?

Because I had already answered his question, and he asked it again.

Steve, businesses will stop charging these fees when people stop paying them. So long as people are willing to fork over money for something, things will cost money.

airplanes charge you for luggage because if they don't milk everybody they continue to lose money and go bankrupt, granted its not as bad as it was a few years back they have all recovered some since then, and yes the charge for bags sucks but so does a lot of stuff when you are flying.

as far as resorts and these convenience fees dj is completely right. most people just pay them and don't complain so they stick. look at it this way, if it's $15 off normal price and you get hit with a $5 fee.... you aren't having to wait in line to get tickets at the gate, you don't have to wait for them to show up, AND you're still getting the tickets at a $10 discount after the fee.

I bought tickets from CP's website this past Saturday night, and the "Service/Handling Fee" was only $4. I just tried every option on their "Online Deals" ticket page, and they all say:

For your convenience, all online tickets are e-tickets (print at home) and are available immediately for download and printing. All online orders are subject to a $4 processing fee (charged per transaction, NOT per ticket).

Maybe it's different for this Michigan deal?

I have NFL season tickets, and for a couple of years you could print your tickets free, or email them to someone at no charge. Now they have started the same deal, a processing fee to print your tickets or email them to someone.

I am the one doing the processing, using my printer and the ink I paid for. So why the processing fee?

XGatorHead 8904 said:
I bought tickets from CP's website this past Saturday night, and the "Service/Handling Fee" was only $4. I just tried every option on their "Online Deals" ticket page, and they all say:

For your convenience, all online tickets are e-tickets (print at home) and are available immediately for download and printing. All online orders are subject to a $4 processing fee (charged per transaction, NOT per ticket).

Maybe it's different for this Michigan deal?

This special offer is only available online and cannot be purchased at the park.

For your convenience, all online tickets are e-tickets (print at home) and are available immediately for download and printing. All online orders are subject to a $5 processing fee (charged per transaction, NOT per ticket).

FYI, I just tried to order some tickets as part of the Michigan deal and Fee has raised to $5.99!

Damaddog said:
FYI, I just tried to order some tickets as part of the Michigan deal and Fee has raised to $5.99!

The fee should be DOUBLE that for Michigan residents. They take up too much space at the park.

Sigh. When will for profit companies stop trying to make money?

Dj is correct. Airlines charge customers luggage fees, Ticketmaster charges fees for print at home tickets, and so on and so forth, because customers pay the fees. It's that simple. Don't like the fee? Don't buy.

Didn't this topic get beaten to death once this season? It was in the topic of rain checks. Let's not go down this path again!

Someone's gotta pay for the bandwidth, the payment processing software/development/updates, as well as the credit card processing charges to Visa/MasterCard etc..

Would you rather them integrate that $5 fee into each ticket, and bury it? Or charge one $5 fee per transaction to cover it that way?