To not want to pay almost £10 in 'handling' charges for the theatre?

[MissM]

DD loves Angelina Ballerina so when I saw the English National Ballet was doing a touring production of Angelina I went to book tickets. Tenner for DD, twenty for me. It would be a treat I thought. But as I started to book them more charges kept getting wacked on - £3.50 for the adult ticket, £2.80 (or something like that) for the child ticket, and £3.50 for the privilege of either posting them or keeping them at the box office. So thirty quid turns into almost 40.

My response was outrage and to cancel the booking, but having thought about it today I'm wondering if I'm being a tight git and it's worth it to see the excitement on her little face. Still, I can't help feeling I'm being truly fleeced.

This is a bug bear of mine too. I don't understand why we should have to pay £3.50 just to collect them at the box office when we get there!

However, it does sound like a bargain compared to productions I've been to watch!

Can you not buy them at the theatre rather then have them sent out? You'd be saving the £10 charges so you can spend this on chocolate and ice cream instead.

Unfortunately not (as tempting as the chocolate and ice cream sounds). The nearest theatre that's showing it is still almost an hour away.

This drives me insane with the cinema too.

I always book tickets online and then get them out of the machine on arrival at the cinema.

Why does this cost more than if I queue up and buy them from the person sitting in the kiosk? About £2.00 per ticket more, I think...

YABU

The promoter of each show (in this case English National Ballet) sets the ticket price and chooses who they will use to sell the tickets.

The face value of the ticket goes to them, the box office obviously can not run and work for nothing so they set a booking fee.

Some theatres will use a system when the promoter pays them for their services direct (getting more rare now) and the costs then get added into the general ticket price.

Either way you end up paying the same. Its just with the booking fee is is broken down, you see which bit goes where.

Well to be honest I'd rather the ticket prices included all those extras. Why not charge £25 for adults and £12 for children and then it's all covered? I resent extra costs when it's unclear what they're for.

And presumably these costs always existed, but 'handling charges' are a relatively recent thing, especially by outside agencies. I don't mind paying the English National Ballet, I do mind paying increasingly exhorbitant costs to the seller of the tickets.

I'm with you MissM and backed out of going to see something a couple of months ago because there was over £10 worth of additional charges for our booking. Ticket price I have no qualms with, more than happy to support theatres, but over £10 to book tickets and then even more to have them posted out to us when I never even spoke to a human and no effort required from them apart from stuffing an envelope is taking the piss. Profiteering by the agencies will deter people from going to the theatre, but it's the theatres that will suffer the consequences.

I get annoyed with booking flights for the same reason. Much prefer the companies that say "price is this much including bags, booking, checkin, taxes etc". The ones that say "£10 per flight" then end up being nearer 300 drive me nuts.

The theatres have to pay their box office staff. When I worked for a venue a lot of us worked behind the scenes, admittedly that was before the internet was so prevalent but it isn't just a case of stuffing an envelope (though I have done plenty of that in my time.)

The box office has to be staffed on the night too to sort any problems, someone has to pay for that if the promoter gets all the ticket money.

Very few theatres produce their own shows, they all book them in externally and costs have to be met.

YANBU. It is not the cost - like you say, if it was £25 that would be fine - but the principle that the ticket is advertised at one price but you cannot actually buy it at that price. Makes me mad too!

Boogeek, I agree. It should be illegal to advertise a price at which it is impossible (or almost impossible) to purchase the item - whether it is an airline ticket, some clothes, or a theatre/concert ticket.

QUOTEIn my book, the 'hire of the theatre' charge should be priced so it includes the box office.UNQUOTE

Maybe it should, but it isn't. Our venue was often hired out and the box office services were not used at all, the company either sold their own tickets or used an other agency. Then you get the amateur companies who sell their own tickets to members.

Incidentally groups rarely pay booking fees in theatres or if they do it is usually vastly reduced but sometimes the normal box office staff don;t have all the groups info (that was my department) as ther are so many different discounts and offers.

Ok, so why then does the National Theatre only charge 50p for mailing out its tickets, no charge for keeping them at the box office and still manages to charge £10 for tickets as part of its Travelex season? Big public subsidy perhaps, but there's no getting away from the fact that companies like Ticketmaster are making huge profits on the back of us wanting to see a show. The £3.50 Im' paying for getting the tickets posted is not going to box office staff!

Just thought of another example - the Little Angel theatre in London. Tiny theatre, depends hugely on donations and arts council grants, doesn't charge an arm and a leg for its shows and virtually no booking/handling charge. If they can do it then so can the others, surely.