Ever purchased movie or event tickets online and paid an added “convenience fee”? “Convenience fee” my foot. I doubt the cost of maintaining a ticket-selling website is greater than that of maintaining a box office full of people in red blazers who sit around doing homework between live transactions.* If I’m right,** I can think of three reasons the fee is there: |
(2) Perhaps a third party provides the online service and the venue operator could take their cut out of ticket prices but would rather keep that money, even if online sales in fact cost less than live box office transactions.
(3) Perhaps the venue operator looked at the online sales thing and said, “Aha! A chance to slip in an extra fee!”
Regardless of how the fee originated, must they insult my intelligence by calling it a convenience fee? It is nothing of the sort. I could more easily stomach something a bit more straightforward. If the venue operator finds “Opportunistic Exploitation Fee” too vulgar, perhaps, simply, “Internet transaction fee” would do the trick.
—Steve Cuno
* Sometimes the blazers are navy.
** For all I know, I’m wrong. If you happen to know something about this, set me straight. Use the COMMENTS button (above, right).