Eddie Vedder and the TicketMaster Surcharge

This is going to sound ridiculous to some.

And it makes it quite apparent that I don’t buy tickets for events very often, but for some reason I thought that Pearl Jam actually “won” the battle against TicketMaster and their phantom surcharges in the 1990′s.

Apparently I’m mistaken.

On our upcoming vacation, I was hoping to catch a Blue Jays game at SkyDome (I will always call it that, regardless of the corporate sponsor) while passing through Toronto.

I’m not exactly a fan of baseball — it’s boring, but if I had to pick a team, the Jays are the one for me.

Unfortunately, my hopes of actually seeing them in action for the first time in 20 years were dashed because the Jays will be in Seattle at the time. Drat.

Enter the Toronto Argonauts.

South of the 49th parallel, I’m sure some are saying, “Who?”

The Toronto Argonauts play in the Canadian Football League.

Yeah, that might sound minor league, but they’ve been going strong in Toronto since 1873. Yeah, that’s right, a good thirty years before the New York Yankees even came around. Essentially, this isn’t some semi-pro run of the mill operation.

I’ve attended one CFL game in my life — and Argos game back in 1991. The big name for the team back then was Raghib “Rocket” Ismael. He’d just won the Heisman trophy for Notre Dame earlier in the year and was expected to be a first round pick in the NFL draft.

Instead, he chose to go play for the storied Toronto Argonauts. I’m sure the $26.2 million paycheck likely had a little to do with it — that was more than any NFL player was being paid at the time, but hey, he still chose to go to Canada.

On opening night — the game I attended — he returned a kickoff for a touchdown just as he had done so many times for Notre Dame. Mike “Pinball” Clemons was the star of the team — but Rocket Ismael was the hype.

So as it works out, we’ll be in Toronto for opening night this year. On July 3, the Argos will be hosting the rival Hamilton TigerCats. I’m looking forward to it.

The Argos can’t boast a line-up with stars like Rocket anymore. Joe Theisman and Doug Flutie are long retired at this point too. Ricky Williams, well, isn’t he in prison or something? Old Mike Clemons is still around but in a front office role.

I did read recently that former Colts and Cowboys kicker Mike Vanderjagt has signed with the team — but seriously, can anyone get excited about a kicker? Not me.

Anyway, in lieu of a Blue Jays game, the Argos seemed like a pretty good consolation prize. Being opening night almost made it a better “event” to attend than a mid-season Jays game anyway.

Off to TicketMaster I ventured.

Their clumsy anti-scalper interface makes buying tickets a real hassle. You need to enter hard-to-read verification words, then you’re under a time constraint to complete your order, and their stadium diagrams are so small that you can’t read the section numbers. If you’re not quick enough, they cancel your order.

You’d think that being as big as they are, they’d have a better website.

In the end, I settled on two tickets in the $79 ticket bracket. Premium tickets, apparently, even though they’re in the upper deck.

Yeah, I know… Overpriced.

I entered all of my info and came to the place where you get to select “how” you’d like your tickets.

I weighed the options (in under 45 seconds so that they wouldn’t “release” my tickets).

Regular mail was free but they state, “Your tickets will be delivered by regular mail and should be received no later than 5 business days prior to your event.” We’d likely already be on vacation then.

FedEx — the other mailing option — would cost $32. Can you say rip off? Mailing, obviously, just wasn’t going to work.

Will call is free, as well, but being opening night, I’m not real keen on standing in the line that ticket window will likely have. I’d probably miss all of the opening ceremonies waiting in line. No thanks.

They also offer a free TicketMaster retail location pickup option. That would work — except it has to be a retail location in Canada. I’m in smack dab in the middle of Boston and New York City. There aren’t any convenient Canadian locations in my neck of the woods…

So I opted for the last option — the one where you print your tickets at home. They call it TicketFast.

I’ve always been skeptical of this sort of thing. Kinda like e-tickets for airline flights…

I dunno, something just doesn’t seem legit about handing someone a folded up piece of paper from a printed out email (that cost you a lot of money).

It’s not official.

It’s too easy to fake.

What if there’s a problem? Dispute at the gate? Then what? All you have is a sheet of paper you printed at home working in your favor…

Back against the wall, it was the only option I had so I took it. Any you know what?

TicketMaster charged me an additional $1.75.

Huh? It costs that much to send me an email? They send a order confirmation email anyway — what’s the extra charge for? I’m the one printing the ticket…

Check that out — in addition to the $1.75 TicketFast surcharge — they nailed me with an additional $2.50 cent “Order Processing Fee”.  What’s that all about? 

Oh, and I hope you didn’t miss the $10 they’re charging me just for, in their words, “Total Convenience.” What?

In total, TicketMaster took in $14.25 from my order. That’s almost a 10% markup.

Where’s a coupon code when you need one?

It’s too bad Pearl Jam didn’t win the fight — only a monopoly could get away with this sort of thing…

porn

Manufacturers Shop

Posted on June 11th, 2008 at 7:13 am by Brainy Smurf
Vacation | 2 Comments »

Summer Vacation: Coming in Under Budget

So last month I mentioned that we’d be going on a summer vacation this year.

I called it a “10 day/9 night marathon of museums, festivals, concerts, baseball games, football games, zoos, aquariums, amusement parks, and various roadside attractions.”

We researched hundreds of hotels on the route, yes, hundreds, and started making reservations for the first few nights, you know, just to make it feel, I dunno, real?

Yes, we were going on vacation this year and we have the reservations to prove it.

Since then, we’ve all but finalized our route and where we’re staying for 8 of the 9 nights. The last night is still a little wishy-washy but we’ll get that squared away in the next few days.

One thing we’re doing differently this year than in past vacations is, well, making reservations. We’ve never done that — our Vegas wedding being an exception.

Usually we just pull up to the hotel that looks the nicest and book a room right on the spot. As a result, we’ve stayed in some pretty posh locations like the one pictured. At the same time, we’ve also spent a fortune to do so — obviously I’m purposely “forgetting” our stay at South of the Border.

On this year’s vacation, we’re going to be hitting one big city after another — Cleveland (no longer the mistake on the lake), Detroit, Chicago, and Toronto are the big ones. Big city downtown hotels (again, like the one pictured above) run a minimum of $250 per night and that’s just not in our budget anymore.

So instead, we’re staying in, well, still Cleveland (the city’s former notoriety as a mistake keeps prices down apparently) but for the other cities, we’ll be staying in Dearborn, Skokie, and Markham for a fraction of the cost — like half price with free admission to area attractions included. Yeah, it’s that good.

Using Google Maps as our primary tool, we’ve compared the various “suburban” hotels using satellite images. Yes, I can tell the feel of a neighborhood from a satellite photo. Call it a gift. I, myself, call it “Ghetto-Vision”.

Anyway, what I’ve been looking for mostly is the parking situation. I hate paying for parking. I despise it. I’ll walk over a mile so as not to pay for parking. I hate valet parking even more. I have to pay you to take my car away? Um, yeah, I don’t think so.

Those are two things that are almost inevitable at a downtown hotel.

From the satellite photos, I’m looking for a spacious parking lot all around the hotel — with some cars in it to prove that people actually stay there. Some grass, a chintzy chain restaurant like Chili’s or TGIF’s across the street or something, you know, that type of thing. Not that we’d eat at a place like that (I’m not fond of either of them), but they’re often a good indicator of the type of area it is.

If a hotel passes this satellite test, we start looking at the rates and, so far, everything has been very accommodating to our budget.

It’s funny how I keep mentioning a budget — we don’t actually have one. We just don’t want to be paying for this vacation for the rest of the year. I’m prepared to spend around $4500 total, but I’m really hoping it doesn’t come anywhere close to that.

And so far, by staying just outside the city (and often times, that puts us closer to the attractions anyway), we’re saving a bundle.

Posted on June 6th, 2008 at 8:36 am by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Vacation | 3 Comments »

Planning for Summer Vacation

Well, I’m quickly realizing why we didn’t go on vacation last year… Vacation is expensive!

As with past vacations, we’re going to be doing a lot of driving…

Not like in the past — I’m allowing for a maximum of 9 hours per day in the car.

Yeah, that might sound crazy to some, but our 2006 vacation included a 22-hour drive session on the first day. The vacation before that boasted a 17-hour drive session, again, on the first day.

Obviously, for us, it’s about “getting there.”

Anyway, for 2008, it’s shaping up to be a 10 day/9 night marathon of museums, festivals, concerts, baseball games, football games, zoos, aquariums, amusement parks, and various roadside attractions along the way — just the way we like it.

Nine states, one province. I’ve got something in mind each day.

So far, our first 4 days and nights are set in stone — reservations have been made and paid for to the tune of $679.89. That’s just for accommodations.

We’ve also spent $111 for concert tickets along the way but for nearly all of the admission charges at the various stops along the way, we’re planning to buy tickets at the gate.

If you add in the Garmin Nuvi 260 (and accessories) to the total from last weekend, we’ve spent $1039.67 so far. For 4 days.

That’s not including gas, food, tolls, or any of the fees (parking & admission) associated with the “points of interest” along the way.

We’re not exactly going frugal here — I won’t stay in a hotel that has a number or color in the name, but we’re not going “Showcase Showdown” style either. I’m just a little surprised at how quickly things are adding up.

In the end, I’d venture to guess that each day, including accommodations, food, gas, admission, will set us back around $425/day. Not exactly in the budget, but we’ll make it work.

I’m thinking, with us paying for much of the trip well in advance, it won’t hit (or hurt) the wallet in one fell swoop — and that will make a huge difference.

At any rate, with a daily expenditure of over $400, every single day better be pretty freaking awesome.

As we nail everything down, I’ll post the full itinerary…

Posted on May 22nd, 2008 at 8:03 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Vacation | 2 Comments »