artlover

On a recent trip to Italy, I booked 3 tickets to Tosca with Liasons Abroad. Since they were in Great Britian and charged in British Pounds, I didn't think anything was strange about the charge of 75 pounds per ticket until we picket the tickets up and discovered the price was 65 EUROS. I wouldn't begrudge them the extra 10 euros for a booking fee, but this charge was over $100 was it should have been.

I reported this to AMEX, but they have denied our claim because they said that because Liasons Abroad are a British Company, they had the right to charge in pounds. Hopefully, I can get them to understand that is not the issue here--the gross overcharge is. So, I figured, the least I could do was to warn fellow Fodorites NOT to use this company.

Christina

I dont' understand your complaint -- you bought tickets as a specified price you knew in advance, and now you are complaining because it was an agency that had a big markup. Your translation of numbers into dollars implies you are American and thus making some numerical equation that they aren't allowed to do this. If you were British, it wouldn't be costing you over $100.

There is no amount that a charge "should be" for a ticket agency. They mark up tickets a lot, and those ticket prices for opera are not that unusual. If you had found a better place to buy them online or by phone, why didn't you do that instead? You can't complain to credit card companies because you think some company is charging too much for an item when you were told the price openly.

I wonder if they spell their name that way, that would be a tip off they are not very good.

elaine

When I saw your heading, I was sure this was going to be a report of a scam or an unresolved error. If you'd priced the tickets in advance, you'd have known what the box office rate was, and then could have decided how much of a mark-up or service fee is too much for you. I agree it's a very large mark-up, but I think this is a failure of comparison shopping. Caveat emptor, and better luck next time.

elaine

I just went to the Liaisons Abroad website, which says:

"WHEN DO-IT-YOURSELF JUST WON'T DO, WELCOME TO LIAISONS ABROAD, where your special interests are catered for with knowledge and expertise, fine-tuning your a la carte requirements in the world of events and travel.

If you are looking for tickets for specific cultural or sport events,
Liaisons Abroad can help with privileged access on quantity and quality.
Hard to get?
Those premium tickets you thought you could no longer find, we can achieve through our buying power and personal contacts as well as international networking."

The company doesn't strike me as one providing best prices, but hard-to-get
access.

RufusTFirefly

But still, 108 euro for 65 euro tickets is quite a profit--over 60% if my brain is functioning properly. But if the tickets were very hard to get and very high in demand, well...

It does pay to check out regular prices before buying through any outside agency. Then you can decide if the premium charged is worth it--if that's the only place you can get tickets to Tosca when you want them, and you want them that bad, then you pay the premium.

Supply and demand. Free enterprise. Caveat emptor.

artlover

Actually, there were empty seats at this event. And we couldn't pick up the tickets until the day of the opera in Florence, so we had no idea that the price of the ticket was actually 65 Euros. Had we known there was a 60% commission before purchasing the tickets, (the had NOT been revealed--talk about being an unethical agency, we would have reconsidered. While I have no problem paying an added ticket service fee (certainly I do this all the time with Ticketmaster), 60% is, as the previous posted mentioned, rather outrageous. If others here don't mind being ripped off, fine, but I'd like those who do mind, to be warned.

Hopefully, AMEX will be able to resolve this for us as they have other matters in the past.

And yes, I'm aware that opera can be very expensive--we've paid over $200 a ticket here for the Seattle Opera, but that was the price of the ticket--not a commission that was not revealed and charged without our knowledge.

Well, for those of you that don't like being taken advantage of, I hope this information is of value.

nytraveler

Ticket brokers never reveal the face value of the tickets you're buying. That's your job as a consumer to find out. Anytime you use a broker of any variety you need to comparison shop.

And the info quoted above makes it apparent that this is not a standard broker but one to use for hard to get events and best tickets that might not be available otherwise.

I don;t think you were scammed. You just didn;t pay any attention to what you were doing. (And why go to a broker in England for tickets to an event in Italy? Why not go first to the box office? Then try the concierge of your hotel - or an Italian broker?)

Caveat emptor is right!

elaine

Rip-off expensive, yes, but I don't see the company as being at all unethical. Unethical, imo, implies deception or theft. They quoted you a price for something you wanted to buy, and you agreed to pay that price. You say the commission wasn't revealed, and that it was charged without your knowledge, but I just don't see it that way. An agency always charges a commission, that's why they are in business. No, that doesn't mean that anyone who disagrees with you enjoys being ripped off. The alternate viewpinquiries before making the purchase.

I've learned for example, to make inquiries when a restaurant tells me what their nightly specials are, but doesn't mention the price. I was once hugely charged for an off-the-menu main course; the restaurant didn't offer the price, but I didn't ask. Since it's my money, I see the ultimate responsibility as mine.

elaine

sorry, poor editing


...the alternative viewpoint is that we should make inquiries before...

rockhopper7

artlover, A closer look at the website under the heading "booking conditions" reveals Liaison Abroad's fee schedule:

"All prices include our agency's booking fees (from £ 20 per ticket) and, in some cases, fees of the venue or a local supplier. Face value of tickets available on request."

Usurious? You betcha. Have to go looking for the info? Definitely. Scam? Don't think so. Sorry. I'd have been POed too.

And contrary to nytraveler's yammering, this isn't a broker offering hard to get tickets.

I think you've done the forum a favor by posting your warning about this company. I wouldn't consider doing business with them.

cruiseluv

Hi artlover,

Sorry about your experience. Thanks for sharing. Hopefully other travelers will benefit from this info.

nytraveler

Rockhopper -

You are really going to have to come up with a better word than yammering. If you don;t like my opinions - don't read them. And the info fromthe web site:

WHEN DO-IT-YOURSELF JUST WON'T DO, WELCOME TO LIAISONS ABROAD, where your special interests are catered for with knowledge and expertise, fine-tuning your a la carte requirements in the world of events and travel.

If you are looking for tickets for specific cultural or sport events,
Liaisons Abroad can help with privileged access on quantity and quality.
Hard to get?
Those premium tickets you thought you could no longer find, we can achieve through our buying power and personal contacts as well as international networking."

clearly indicates that they specialize in premium and hard to get tickets - which would lead anyone to at least consider the possibility that they would be charging premium - rather than bargain prices.

To go ahead and purchase without doing any checking - IS just not paying attention.

111op

It seems like people are coming down a bit hard on artlover.

He/she wrote: "So, I figured, the least I could do was to warn fellow Fodorites NOT to use this company."

I certainly wouldn't mind reading someone's warning like that.

What's the point of adding insult to injury and insisting that "ok, you didn't do your homework, so you should pay, ha ha?"

Ok, maybe he/she shouldn't have disputed the overcharge, but the company doesn't seem to me to be especially reputable. Ok, caveat emptor, etc., but still 75 pounds for a 65 euro ticket? That sounds a little insane.

But then, I guess there can be such markups for baseball tickets in the US.

mztery

I think people are coming down hard on the OP because the warning is worded such that it seems like a scam - whereas there are MANY US ticket brokers who operate in much the same fashion. My only experience is w/ baseball tickets (I am a diehard Giants fan) so for playoff tickets that was our only way to get them.

Still I'm sure the opera's web site had the face value prices of the tickets - easy to check before you go to ANY other source. It also seems it would have been easy to check on the opera site what the "official" ticket agencies (like the US ' Telecharge) are - if it's not one of those, then you WILL be guaranteed to pay a huge markup.

I would actually be disappointed if AMEX upholds the contested charge - this is NOT a case of pure ripoff, it is a case of not doing due diligence. -

111op

Well, maybe I'm a little more sympathetic towards the original poster. I don't know. We've all had situations in which we feel cheated. Granted, it's not exactly the other person's fault, but we feel that it is. It's natural to want to vent. All I'm saying is that no one is perfect, and the original poster didn't strike me as someone who was being especially unreasonable. Ok, maybe disputing the charge is, but there're a lot of people who've tried more desperate measures because they think something is worth trying (even if it's actually hopeless).

elaine

The OP said, "I didn't think anything was strange about the charge of 75 pounds per ticket..."
So, there was an undisputed willingness to pay the full charge, the resentment seems to be about the markup/commission, which was figured out
in hindsight. Again, it's a very high surcharge, but "DO NOT BOOK WITH LIAISONS ABROAD" seems to be advice that doesn't go with what happened. Tickets were ordered, charged, paid for.
Could they have been obtained for less money by using another means? Very probably, but I don't see that Liaisons
did anything wrong other than charge what the traffic will bear.

From time to time any of us will pay high extra charges for anything from tickets to toothpaste to a quart of milk to atm fees, just to have the transaction satisfactorily and conveniently completed. I don't see that the sellers are at fault.

111op

The OP said, "I didn't think anything was strange about the charge of 75 pounds per ticket..."

Well, I guess the point is that it's not an unreasonable price to pay for an opera ticket.

Yes, he/she didn't do his/her homework, I concede that.

But I still think that people are being a little too harsh.

Technically the seller isn't at fault for charging such a high markup, but I still think that it's a little disreputable, and I think that we should appreciate the warning.

Who knows? Maybe some other unlucky soul will forget to check and pay the huge markup. At least this will remind people of the need to do their homework.

nytraveler

If this were done as a story - of look what I did wrong by not researching - and this company is very expensive so don;t use them - look further - it would have been fine.

But to imply that the seller was somehow cheating them - and to report to AMEX and try to get one's money back - is simply refusal to accept responsability for ones' actions - which only leads to futher mistakes - raher than learning one's lesson.

kswl

Good grief---this isn't a morality play. Arlover was charged an exhorbitant price for tickets and wanted to warn everyone else. Instead of thanking him for the warning and a bit of commiseration, some of you are jumping down his or her throat with warnings, "I told you so's," "I would have done better's," etc.

Not every single post on this board is an occasion for people to preen about their own superior travel-planning ability. Some things just don't need second-guessing!

elaine

I don't see why people can't disagree without resorting to name-calling. artlover was clearly upset about the transaction and told us
about his/her reporting this to AmEx, as presumably, a transaction that was in some way fraudulent or in error.
Some of us may sympathize with the high charge, but do not agree that Liaisons is at fault, merely that their charges, at least in this case, were very high.
This is mere disagreement or debate, no need to resort to the paltry art of name-calling. A discussion started in public is of course going to be subject to second-guessing. If no feedback was desired, or if sympathy only, was wanted, I don't think a message board is the most effective place to achieve those goals.