So here’s the email I sent to my season ticket holder account representative:
Hi [name redacted],
I’m very upset at what can only be seen as deceptive business practices by the Sharks partner, Ticketmaster against their best customers- season ticket holders.
My wife and I are going to be out of town for Thursday’s game so I went to sell our tickets last night on the Sharks Power Play Ticket Trader. Here’s what I finally figured out this morning:
1. Tickets I sell aren’t actually sold at the “posting price” which I enter, displayed on the confirmation page or in the confirmation email. After looking for 5 minutes, I can’t find anywhere in the process where Ticketmaster actually states the actual dollar amount the tickets will actually sell for.
2. Ticketmaster uses an intentionally convoluted and misleading algorithm for determining the actual sale price and how much profit they make:
If a ticket is sold, you will receive a credit for 90% of the ticket’s Posting Price. The “Posting Price†is an amount that you will be given the chance to designate subject to a minimum and a maximum reflected during the posting process. The tickets then will be listed for sale for 115% of the Posting Price. If the tickets are purchased, the buyer will pay that increased amount plus an authentication and ticketFast® fee.
3. Ticketmaster only explains this in a popup window under the misleading title of “How much can I sell my individual game tickets for?”.
4. Ticketmaster then intentionally hides your own tickets for sale when you search for tickets to buy so that you’re less likely to become aware of this slight of hand on their part. I literally had to use a different computer to see my own tickets listed for sale because when I looked for my own tickets they were filtered out.
The reason for this is quite clear- Ticketmaster is intentionally misleading season ticket holders to artificially raise ticket prices by %15 (the difference between the “posting price” and actual “sell price”) in order to make higher profits.
I understand that Ticketmaster should be compensated for the Sharks Power Play Ticket Trader service, but doing so in such an underhanded and deceptive way does not treat season ticket holders or the people who purchase tickets fairly. I can only hope that SVSE and the Sharks were not aware of Ticketmasters policy. I trust that SVSE and the San Jose Sharks organization do the right thing for season ticket holders and all the fans wishing to buy tickets to Sharks games and force Ticketmaster to stop their deceptive business practices by:
1. Clearly showing to people who wish to sell their tickets the actual selling dollar amount and how much Ticketmaster is actually charging.
2. Removing the filter which prevents people from seeing their own tickets for sale.
Regards,
Aaron Turner Sec 203, Row 7, Seats 5 & 6
Big props to the Sharks organization for taking the time to call me personally about this issue. As I suspected, it’s Ticketmaster doing this and there’s not much control the Sharks/SVSE have over the Sharks Power Play Ticket Trader web site.
The good news is that they’re going to contact Ticketmaster about trying to make the 15% fee more clear and will be updating the Sharks website to clearly spell out all the additional fees Ticketmaster charges.
Honestly, I don’t expect Ticketmaster to take the time to make the 15% discrepancy between the “posting price” and actual “sales price” more clear to the sellers, but hopefully other season ticket holders who use the service will become more aware so they can take that into consideration when selling their tickets.
Until then, there’s always StubHub, CraigsList and the like.
Here’s what I sent to the Sharks regarding their relationship with Ticketmaster:
>>I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but the Ticketmaster fees you have on your tickets is an outrage. I just tried to buy six tickets for a game at your website, but when I saw the nearly-$10 fee PER TICKET on top of an already hefty ticket price, I decided not to buy. Such an unconscionable and usurious (not to mention just plain ridiculous) fee not only turns customers away, it also tarnishes the Sharks brand. I now feel that the Sharks organization is not one that cares to deliver a fair value to its customers; rather, it is an organization that will rip as much money out of my wallet as they legally can, justified or not. It’s a damn shame to treat your fans this way and make them feel negatively about an team they support. And though I’m sure your party line is “It’s not us! It’s those mean guys at Ticketmaster!â€, the suggestion that the Sharks have no way of preventing the shafting of their customers like this is not credible in any way. Please fire Ticketmaster at your earliest convenience if you care about your fans.<<