ticketmaster

muse is coming to town. i got online the other day and bought some tickets. i havnt been a muse fan for that long, but i enjoy what i have heard thus far. i got my 'kroq street team' email that said when the presale tickets were going on sale and that the cheapest tickets were $27.50. i thought that was a great deal, so i rallied up some troops and got online to buy. once online however, i clicked on the 'buy tickets' link only to then have my day completely ruined. sold out? no. not 27.50? no. the link sent me to ticketmaster.com. i hate ticketmaster. i hate them. suppose i have to respect the site because they are making a KILLING. every ticket ever sold to anyone for any event that is occuring anywhere in our solar system is being sold on ticketmaster. if its a ticket, you will have to buy it online. im not even sure if venues sell tickets at a ticket booth anymore. i dont even know what a ticket booth really is. i know what a will call booth is, that is where you pick up your ticketmaster tickets that you had to buy online. they have a complete monopoly. why hasnt george w. stepped in to stop this. forget microsoft and their potential monopoly. deal with ticketmaster.

so lets walk through the enjoyable experience.

first you pick the event you are going to and how many tickets you want. the event will probably be sold out because everyone has to go through this site to get tickets. but this part is relatively easy.


the next part is fun. ticketmaster tests your computer screen eyesight. they give you an image similar to the one above. its some word that is drawn in chalk or something, then they put lines through it and ask you what it says. only its not a word. its some random group of letters, numbers and symbols. you are asked to type in the word. but its impossible to see. why do they do this? everytime i get it wrong i think that they are going to kick me off the system and tell me i am trying to access their system from some illegal computer or internet source. but when youre wrong they just give you another puzzle to try and solve. i mean, what is this? the first one is easy. d. then probably an a. followed by a k, though perhaps an h. then a c. now it gets fun. is that a 7? or a lower case t? if you combine it with the symbol next to it, it might be the symbol for pie. i have no idea what is next to the seven. perhaps a lower case i? an r? probably an r. then an o. maybe a d? probably an o. im going with d,a,k,h,c,7,r,d. submit (i really did by the way).....and wrong. stupid system. im angry and i havnt even started buying.

so once you break their code barrier you get a breakdown of the cost. it tells you how much the ticket alone will cost - $27.50. then right below it there is this $8.50 'convenience charge.' sure buying tickets while eating some snacks and sitting on my couch and watching laguna beach might be considered more convenient than driving all the way to downtown l.a. to buy the tickets at the actual venue, but $8.50 convenient? im not so sure. and why 8.50? is this some economists guess at how much ill pay before i decide to skip out on the next episode of 'my super sweet sixteen' and actually go buy the tickets myself? i suppose because im still on the couch.

next you are asked how to receive the tickets. there are many shipping options and the 'recommended' $2.50 option of ticketmaster emailing you your tickets. this of course is the easiest way to get them and if you need the tickets fast, its really your only option. i dont know why it costs ticketmaster $2.50 to send an email, but they are getting ripped off. i should sent them a gmail invite so they can email for free.

you then go through the whole sign in process and once you think you are done, it gives you a break down of all of your costs and your grand total and you notice there is now an 'order processing charge' for $2.55. now $2.55 isnt too much. but what is this for? and how does it different from the 'convenience charge?' is this the commission the ticketmaster employees make on each ticket?

so now my $27.50 tickets are $41.05 each. do i pay it? of course. i want to see muse. i dont have any other option. challenge it? no way. thats not very american. instead ill just whine and gripe about it to a few friends and sit at home and continue to let it dictate my life. im going out for snacks.