Responding to PaulRabe: In a perfect world, yes, we would boycott Ticketmaster and Telecharge and we'd no longer have to pay the service charges. But, this isn't a perfect world!
Rather, in this imperfect world, it's often the only option available. And, as a lover of the theater and other performing arts, abstinance is too high a price to pay!

Paul Rabe, your point is well taken. So for me the option is "go to New York, but sit in my room instead of seeing the big Broadway hits I've waited all year to see, because I'm boycotting Ticketmaster".
And although I love going to the Hollywood Bowl, my option is to just not go because I don't want to contribute to the exhorbitant profits of Ticketmaster. Yea, that'll work. NOT!

In other words, yes,I hate their fees, but not enough to give up live theatre to make a point. And I'll admit it is cheaper to use them for tickets to Broadway or the Hollywood Bowl, then getting a plane and flying there in advance for an hour or two for the sole purpose of buying tickets in person. Is there any other option?

To Howard & Neopolitan: as long as you want your tickets so much that you'll pay the TicketMaster fees in order to get them (not to mention the fees the venue itself charges), both such charges will remain. When nobody wants them that much, they will disappear. Since people are willing to pay the price Ticketmaster is charging for their service, that price is, by definition, a fair price.

As long as you are willing to pay Ticketmaster's fees in order to get something (or avoid something, like abstinence), they have absolutely no incentive to stop charging them.

BTW, I too am a lover of Broadway shows. I *COULD* pay $300 per person to get a front row seat for a first-run show in New York. But I do not want to pay such a fee, so I watch a second-run show in Philly from the second balcony. The fact that I have choices is a perfect enough world for me.

True, but the idea that you would use the example of paying $300 for a "front row seat", (usually the worst seats in the house), and the idea that you are content with a second run show in Philly from the second balcony shows that your perfect world and mine are in two different galaxies.

Meanwhile it's not so much that I think Ticketmaster will stop charging those fees. We all know they won't. I would just like to see an end to their being the only game in town. Rembember days of fair competition? If they sell 5,000 seats to one performance of the Hollywood Bowl making $10 each on them, I think it's time for the Hollywood Bowl itself to reconsider handing their own tickets -- that's $50,000 extra income per night!!!!

This thread reflects what I have thought for quite awhile. I, myself, have thought long and hard on ways to circumvent the Ticketmaster money pit.

There are some very low priced venues, and not theatre, included in my common practice, and I just don't see how you can boycott them. I can NOT go down to the box office or stadium just to buy a ticket. I do buy when attending for the next occasion, when I can- but life, my life anyway, isn't set to plan exactly that far away in SO many cases.

It really irks me no end too.

But I must say, that with email anyway, I have gotten some good service response lately on an exchange that they first said was not possible. But then again, no answers are really "straight" answers.

Ticketmaster gouges, and I have to use them OFTEN.

I with you all on Ticketbastards. Whenever I can I try to go to the box office, but it is just not possible on many occasions. Not to mention the 'big' events won't even sell at the box office until the day after tickets go on sale, by which time they are gone. My Who tickets for Jones Beach cost an additional 54$ in fees, but what was I going to do. Would I boycott Ticketmaster, sure, but I enjoy live performances too much. So, until someone comes up with an alternative, we are all stuck. Is it a monopoly - just ask Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam.

If nothing else but to set the record straight, living in New York, I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to usually avoid paying the service fee by going directly to the box office. We are not that far off in our thinking, PaulRabe. I, too, strongly resent having to pay that service charge. While I will often take the change of not getting as good a seat because I'll wait until my next visit to the theater area rather than pay the service charge on line or the phone, I will not go to the extreme of sacrificing the potential joy of a performing arts experience simply to avoid paying a $7.25 service charge.

For them to call the fees "convenience" really rankles; I've saved them personal, time, paper, etc., and they've charged me for the privilege. Then the "processing" fee for not mailing you anything without more charges. However, the worst is when they make you check "best available" at a certain price--I've suspected that the opposite is the case many times. The last time we actually drove into town to buy at the box office, we ended up buying tickets for 3 other events that were coming up, and were thrilled to do it. Saved big $$ and went to 3 other shows we hadn't intended to.

oops, "personnel."

Neo: I don't know about NY theater, but as for the Hollywood bowl, every time I've been there, there are MANY people trying to sell tickets. At face value. One time, I arrived just after the concert started and was GIVEN two tickets! Of course you can't pick and choose the seats this way. And if you insist on the box seats, you could be in for a letdown. But if it's music you're after, you can find tickets just by showing up.

Neopolitan, Did they charge you for the paper you put in your printer to print your tickets?

What a rip-off.

Legalized Scalping.

The individual could get arrested if he stood on a corner trying to make the same profit.

I have no idea why it is legal for ticket dealers to inflate the prices the way they do - way beyond "service charges." And they buy such huge quantities, everything is sold out at face value.