Inconvenience Fees
Not so much a Friday What-If? this Friday as just a general rant. I was on-line purchasing two tickets to the movies tonight, using Fandango, and during checkout I noticed a “convenience fee” of $1 per ticket on the invoice (image from webpage at left).
Convenient for whom? Using a website to pre-purchase your ticket is convenient? Or is the convenience not having to stand in line to purchase the ticket in the first place?
Fees such as this one I generally call “dick you fees,” as near as I can tell they only exist to screw you out of more money than the advertised price. Most type of fees I think fall into this category: reconnection fees, service fees, processing fees, etc.. Some types are valid, sure. If my power gets shut off and they have to roll a truck to my house to turn it off/on, then yeah, there’s an expense. But for the telephone company, for example, it’s just clicking a check-box on a computer screen to turn my service on/off. My personal favorite is the “processing fee” for stuff like loan applications and such. We’re going to do this paperwork that we’re required to in order to conduct this transaction, but we’re going to charge you for doing it.
This one, however, confused me. I searched everything I could find on the Fandango site and the only thing I found related to fees was a small blurb on their purchase policy web page:
Fandango sells tickets on behalf of our theatre partners. Fandango does not set ticket prices, determine show times, or control ticket availability and inventory.
Digging deeper, into their FAQ page I finally found an explanation for the fee, and here’s the excerpt from the FAQ explaining the fee:
As a free service to all of our users, Fandango provides show times, movie listings, and theater information for most theaters in the United States. We provide this service free of charge so that our customers always have access to the information they need to plan a trip to the movies.
However, Fandango is an independent company and does not receive any portion of the theater ticket revenue. The nominal per ticket convenience charge, currently ranging between $0.75 and $1.50 depending on geographic location, is charged by Fandango so that we may continue providing our customers with a convenient ticketing service. The exact per ticket convenience charge is listed on the Review Order page (the page just before you complete your purchase).
I’m paying a fee so everyone can continue to get free movie show times and listings. Seriously? You mean to tell me, the Fandango service is not collecting any money from the theaters? They don’t get a cut of the credit cards ran through their website? They have to pay for the 20 minutes of Fandango advertising I have to sit through waiting for the movie to start? They get no revenue from the on-line ads they have all over their site? Man, how badly mismanaged is this company that they are losing out on all of those other revenue sources and have to resort to charging me a buck a ticket to use their site?
I don’t mind paying a fee if there’s a value I’m receiving in return, I only get ticked off when someone tries to hide or lump them in to “general” fees that don’t pertain to anything. Call a spade a spade and label the fee what it’s for, don’t try to hide it in euphemisms.
July 27th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Heh “dick you fees”. That’s exactly what this is.
The most annoying part is that Fandango throw this in right at the last minute, after you’ve created an account (if you don’t have one already) and entered your credit card number, by which point many people might just succumb and complete the order.
If Fandango want to charge fees, call it what it is. Adding it at the last second seems like a sneaky way to rip-off consumers at the last minute, which implies that they know what they’re doing is wrong.
I’m certainly going to avoid Fandango at all cost in future until they get rid off their stupid convenience fee, or at least make it obvious from the outset rather than hide it.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Say it brother! It’s so aggravating. The ad model isn’t enough for them? I certainly don’t believe that! No Fandango for me. I rather face the inconvenience fee. (it’s 2 goddamn dollars per PERSON. Why the per person? What extra convenience is there to typing a number other than 1, leave alone that *I* do the typing, it’s all automated on their end. I’d understand maybe $1 for any number of tickets, but PER ticket? Fuckdango YOU!)
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
I definately agree with u on this. I really appreciate that i’m not alone on this stupid fee’s. I hate that I have to see this crap. Plus like you said, they advertise this crap at the movie theaters over and over and over again. Like WTF, that’s why i didnt finish my stupid. I myself are now extremely frustrated thinking about all those stupid fee. Specially those stupid processing fees too.
May 7th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Hopefully with enough complaints/customers refusing to use their service they’ll think twice. Convenience my ass..
Here is a forward of the complaint I sent about the charge:
“I just wanted to let you know that instead of purchasing 3 tickets at $37.50 through your site, I will be spending $0 with you today due to your Convenience Charge.. which would be a huge inconvenience to ME.
You’re trying to tell me that 6 dollars for 3 clicks of a mouse button and maybe 30 seconds of work processing is going to cost over half of the hourly minimum wage in Illinois?
Laughable.
I will not be using your site and will be sure to encourage others to avoid it as well. Good day!
“Adult: 3 x $12.50 = $37.50
Convenience Charge: 3 x $2.00 = $6.00″
May 14th, 2009 at 1:39 am
Obviously you must think buying tickets online is convenient or you wouldn’t do it! No one is forcing you to use Fandango or even to go to a movie. I don’t like paying online fees and so I don’t. I go to the box office and buy tickets there. I do object to paying Ticketmaster fees at the venue box office, but in this case Fandango has a business to run that is totally optional.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:57 am
You’ve missed the point of my post. Clearly I don’t mind the fee as I paid it in order to purchase the ticket. What I object to is the concealment of the fee, wrapping it in “convenience” and not labeling it as a “we can jab you for an extra buck so we’re going to.”
As I pointed out in my post they have the possiblity of making money from many other avenues rather than nicking a buck from me. And if they’re doing both then it’s just plain greed, label it as such.
August 16th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
@Hate stupid consumers,
You really feel that way, so perhaps you are totally and stupidly unaware of the fact that a market is only such with constituents, quit calling others stupid and face your own stupidity, you spent NO time reading the post, and decided to just make an invalid judgment. Go back to kicking puppies or whatever it is you do with your STUPID time.
Telling idiots off since 1986…
Reality
November 15th, 2009 at 11:54 am
if you don’t want to pay then go stand in the long line and wait. stop griping cause a company wants to make a little money. no one is forcing you to buy from them. you guys are the real idiots. get a life.
November 17th, 2009 at 9:29 am
wel, if you have a some promotional codes, then you have to buy the ticktes online and incurre in those unpretty fees.
November 18th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Majority of the time, at least everytime I’ve purchased tickets off Fandango, I’ve had to go and wait in line anyways and usually show them my cc or my ticket confirmation in order to get their hard printed tickets. Even with the kiosks there is usually a line. So it totally makes no sense whatsoever to buy them off Fandango when I have to wait in line anyways.
Won’t be buying from them anymore, though! Stupid me. I always used to just assume it was the same price as buying from the box office, even with the conv. fee. because I hardly ever bother looking at my receipt when I purchase things.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
I won’t be fandangoed. I did some research on their “convenience fees” before ordring tickets (that’s how i got to this page, thank you) but it upsets me that Fandango snares a many people as they do. Charging a fee, per person, for tickets is bad enough. Not indicating the fees anywhere on their site until after you enter credit card numbers – not knowing what you’ll be paying until your card is charged – that should be against the law. Thanks but but no fandango.
December 24th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Most people have the choice of going to the Fandango site and purchasing tickets (with the convenience fee) or just buying them at the box office, however, I recently got a Fandango Bucks Gift Card so I have no choice. It states on the card that I cannot redeem it for cash, and I cannot use it at the box office to purchase tickets, I can only use it online at Fandango, where I will incur the dreaded convenience fee whether I like it or not. I went to the section where gift cards are sold, and no where does it state that a fee will be added to the purchase price of each ticket bought with the card. That fact is well hidden. I have complained to Fandango, and filed a complaint with my State Attorney Generals office to see if this type of deception is against the law. I also let the person that gave me the gift know about the fee. She had no idea! … So if you’re planning to give the gift of movies, give a visa gift card and let them use it at the box office, that way they can use the “convenience fee” for some popcorn!
December 28th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Exactly–Fandango is a total rip off, and especially these gift cards. First you pay a service fee to buy the gift card, then you pay a dollar per ticket “convenience fee”, and when you get to the theater you can’t go to a kiosk to pick up your tickets, you have to wait forever in the ticket line. They have made movie tickets more expensive and less convenient.
June 13th, 2010 at 6:21 am
Thank you for the article. I really enjoyed reading it.
June 15th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Funny, when I purchase tickets online I’m able to print a page that I give on my way in. No waiting for the box office.
June 15th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
And why would they need to inform you specifically that their normal fees incurred on all transactions also apply to transactions processed on a gift card? Common sense dictates that would be the case.
June 25th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Fandango is misleading people. I thought I would buy a promotion “$25 for $20″. There was no obvious disclosure of a $1.50 fee per ticket. I will end up buying 3 tickets and get charged $4.50 by them, there goes what I thought would be my $5 bonus. Also, I will have $2.50 locked up on some stupid “certificate” that I won’t be able to access anymore unless I buy more fandango dollars “YIPPEE”. So I essentially lost $2 with my “promotion”. I learned my lesson. Also, it really wasn’t convenient booking through this site either, they don’t even keep your certificate numbers on file, so I had to dig through my email from two months ago to find the cert number. thanks, for the comraderie in the “i got coffee dumped in my lap by fandango club”
July 24th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Hot Saturday, thought I’d take my wife for a matinee. After checking my local theaters site and clicking purchase I get redirected…oh yeah I’ve heard of Fandango.
First they show you the price of the tickets, then after you click to purchase the tickets, it shows you the same price again. There is no mention of any other fees, just a box showing “total”. After entering your cc info, you are taken to the confirmation page that looks identical to the previous page, just with the actual price changed, but with the focus on confirming your info.
If you trust, for a second, a supposedly “legitimate” site like Fandango, then that’s where you’ll get “Dangoed”.
Well, they got me this time, but it will definitely definitely be the last.
August 8th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Completely agree. Use another site.
August 8th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
I really think they should at least tell you that they are going to charge you something to purchase the tickets before you enter your credit card info and everything. I understand why they charge you something because it does take a lot of money to maintain a website, I’ve own and managed some. You have to think about what goes into them. You have to pay programmers and/or designers, you have to pay for your domain and your web space along with ads etc. It can get expensive and there is no way you can keep up a website especially one like Fandango, without charging some kind of fee.