OFF: TicketMaster bidding

[Paul Mather]

On Thu, Sep 18, 2003 at 06:47:00PM +0100, IAN ABRAHAMS wrote:

=> I dunno, it was just real nice to ring the Phoenix in Exeter, talk to a
=> human being, be charged 50p for booking Hawkwind tickets and 30p for posting
=> them. A far cry from the way these things usual work!

Or to walk into your local theatre's office (The Lyric in Blacksburg)
and buy front-row tickets to the upcoming Derek Trucks Band show and
be charged just face value for the ticket with no additional charges
whatsoever.

Oddly enough, the last time I tried to buy tickets in person via
TicketMaster (at our local Kroger supermarket, who once had a
franchise), they wouldn't sell me any.  It was for an Allman Brothers
Band show at the Nissan Pavilion up in Northern Virginia.  They
claimed that was in "a different [geographical] market" and they
weren't allowed to sell tickets for shows in that market.  What is
strange is that you can buy tickets for shows in the Virginia Beach
area, as well as North Carolina---all of which are as far as or
further away than the Nissan Pavilion. :-\

So, in the end, I had to buy the tickets via the WWW, with an extra
Internet "convenience" charge being levied, in addition to having to
pay their not-exactly-cheap postage fees. :-(

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa