1) They will arbitrarily charge extra “convenience fees” no matter the convenience. I’ve seen charges range from $6-$10 on shows at the exact same venue on the exact same time just due to the popularity of who is playing. How does the popularity of a band change how convenient it is to pay extra to receive my tickets?

2) They charge for ticket printing. After charging you a ridiculous convenience fee, they have the audacity to make the cheapest option for getting your tickets (printing them out) cost $2 - that is, they charge you $2 to freaking use your own ink and your own printer to create the tickets that you’ve already paid a ridiculous amount extra for.

3) Convenience charges are not exclusive to online or offsite purchases. I had a friend who lives in Chicago (Cristin, I wub you) pick up tickets for me because I figured the charge would be waived since Ticketmaster didn’t have to do anything - I was wrong. She got there and had to pay something like $7 extra per ticket still. So….apparently she’s paying for the convenience of driving to the box office, shelling out her money, and picking them up.

4) Their tactics are incredibly monopolistic. They lure venues into exclusivity contracts with juicy kickbacks and sue the hell out of them if they ever even think of selling outside of TM. Something around 60% of all venues in the US have contracts with Ticketmaster, and performers have no control over what fees are tacked on to their original ticket price.

5) They spam you. That’s right. After charging you a crapload of service fees for various things, they sign you up for their own mailing list (and give all of your information to the venue and others involved in the transaction) and there is no easy way to get out. You can’t click on a link in the email or unsubscribe with a reply, you actually have to log in to your ticketmaster account and screw around with privacy settings. Some members have even complained about getting email from their sister company entertainment.com after buying tickets.