Are Sound Cellar over charging for tickets

bryan philips · 07-01-2009 3:44pm #1

I was in Sound Cellar yesterday buying tickets for Bob Dylan and noticed the total came to 1 euro over the tickets cost, now while this is not a lot it is the second time the guy behind the counter has done this. Mistake! or has anyone esles noticed this when buying tickets there?

John · 07-01-2009 3:46pm

That's their profit. They pay the ticket price to ticketmaster and they add a euro to the price which is their mark up. There's no money in ticket sales unless you are ticketmaster or a tout.

bryan philips · 07-01-2009 3:55pm

John wrote: »

That's their profit. They pay the ticket price to ticketmaster and they add a euro to the price which is their mark up. There's no money in ticket sales unless you are ticketmaster or a tout.

I dont think thats how it works. They get a cut from the ticket sales anyway. No other shop does this IE City discs or Road Records.

lordgoat · 07-01-2009 4:14pm

bryan philips wrote: »

I dont think thats how it works. They get a cut from the ticket sales anyway. No other shop does this IE City discs or Road Records.

Unless they've stopped in the last 2 months they all charge one euro per ticket.

John · 07-01-2009 4:39pm

bryan philips wrote: »

I dont think thats how it works. They get a cut from the ticket sales anyway. No other shop does this IE City discs or Road Records.

Road do it. I never buy tickets in City Discs so can't comment. Ask them the next time you're in if you don't believe me. Why would ticketmaster charge shops less instead of just selling them on their site and getting full price (and a hefty service charge)?

herobear · 07-01-2009 4:49pm

all shops do it(including city discs and ticketmaster booths themselves)

sweetie · 07-01-2009 4:52pm

it's a while since I bought tickets in sound cellar but the last few times were cheaper than the ticketmaster price who have a percentage commision rather than just one euro.

ShawnRaven · 07-01-2009 11:18pm

bryan philips wrote: »

I dont think thats how it works. They get a cut from the ticket sales anyway. No other shop does this IE City discs or Road Records.

You're so wrong.

All of them do it, it IS their cut of each ticket.
And on top of that, sound cellar have a price list of their tickets on a billboard outside the store. Those prices DO include the extra one euro as well, so that's the price SC advertise.

Road and City do it also, i don't get tickets from them, but i know folks who do.

dantbyhid · 11-01-2009 5:52pm

I thought Ticketmaster agents always charge €2-€2.40 per ticket they sell. No?

indiewindy · 11-01-2009 6:24pm

dantbyhid wrote: »

I thought Ticketmaster agents always charge €2-€2.40 per ticket they sell. No?

Yes the charge €2.25 per ticket in my local agent. Sound cellar are not over charging as I see it

John · 11-01-2009 11:34pm

They make a euro per ticket. It's not much but it gets people into the shop and hopefully buying CDs too.

Red Sleeping Beauty · 12-01-2009 9:43am

I thought Sound Cellar charged a lesser fee than the Ticketbastard outlets , no ?

dereko1969 · 12-01-2009 2:16pm

did you read the thread at all? sound cellar charge 1 euro, ticketmaster outlets charge between €2-€2.40 per ticket. so this means that sound cellar charge less than ticketmaster. you can only use cash in sound cellar no cards.

Red Sleeping Beauty · 12-01-2009 2:24pm

Yeah, cheers Derek, I did read the thread. No need to be so caustic

Motley Crue · 13-01-2009 11:25am

bryan philips wrote: »

I was in Sound Cellar yesterday buying tickets for Bob Dylan and noticed the total came to 1 euro over the tickets cost, now while this is not a lot it is the second time the guy behind the counter has done this. Mistake! or has anyone esles noticed this when buying tickets there?

They have been doing this for years, as long as I have been going there, and I for one support them totally. Its not a lot, as you say, and its their entitlement. It gives the real fans, or at least it did before loads of people knew about Soundcellar and start claiming it was their little secret, the chance to find sold out tickets for face value.

There are very little choices for music fans these days, especially when you have to be at the computer at 9am or 10am sharp and be hitting that refresh button a million times, only to find out someone has just purchased 8 tickets...and the same guy has 5 credit cards...and he is going to sell every ticket at least twice the price. The Killers is just a classic example. The band is popular, but I wouldn't believe that in 30sec their fans were the only ones to snap up those tickets.

I got to see my very first concert, Our Lady Peace, through SoundCellar (it sold out because Avril Lavinge was headlining and they changed the venue twice due to size issues or something and it kept selling out). I also got tickets for David Lee Roth, Chimaira, Killswitch Engage and Velvet Revolver when I was told they were completely sold out.

In fact, I was told by SoundCellar they were sold out for VR back in March, and when I produced the cash on the counter, he told me they still had one:D

Long may they continue!

Red Sleeping Beauty · 13-01-2009 11:27am

Yeah, I've bought a few tickets off of SoundCellar and the fact that they've the tickets there in person is comforting. It's always worth checking their even for gigs that are "sold out"

The "sold out" moniker has become a marketing ploy in my opinion....

red_ice · 14-01-2009 4:06pm

bryan philips wrote: »

I dont think thats how it works. They get a cut from the ticket sales anyway. No other shop does this IE City discs or Road Records.

The way other people get tickets might be different to sound cellar. I think they just get a spool of tickets and then stamp them. Where as other people would just print them and put their markup on the printed ticket.

What does it matter if they over charge - your willing to pay it if you bought the ticket. They can ask what ever they want. if the tickets sell or not is another question, but they always do.

concertgoer · 20-02-2009 9:17pm

Every ticketmaster agent in this country is entitled to charge 2.25euro PER ticket as an agents fee.Soundcellar charge a single solitary euro per ticket as an agents fee.They only charge a euro in an effort to get people into their small store.Theyre perfectly entitled to do this.I cant believe somebody would accuse that small family run business of any sort of wrongdoing.GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT BEFORE YOU MAKE SUCH STUPID COMMENTS.

Dick Turnip · 21-02-2009 9:37pm

right well sorry if i'm being a bit slow here but i dont think its 100% clear from all of the above. but people are saying that sound cellar charge €1 agent fee which i feel they are entitled to do, id much prefer to see them do that than go out of business and Dublin city just left with a couple of franchise record stores. (i know a euro a pop per ticket isnt going to keep a shop in business but you get my point).

anyway so say a ticket is €20, ticketmaster charge €2.25 and sc charge €1.

does this mean soundcellar charge€21 to the customer?
or do they not charge €23.25 as i thought they just printed tickets off ticketmaster site.
open to correction on this.

Dermo · 22-02-2009 1:00am

eg.
Ticket for gig is €20
Sound Cellar add €1 agent fee. Full price the customer pays is €21
Ticketmaster add €2.50 agent fee, €2.50 credit card purchase fee, €2.50 delivery fee and a €10 supplemental rape charge. Full price the customer pays is €37.50

honru · 22-02-2009 1:17pm

Ticketmaster here are thankfully not as bad as their US counterpart when it comes to service charges. I know online their booking fee depends on the face value of the concert ticket, but it tends to be around €3.50 for events at the €30 mark. The maximum they charge is €6.35 and this applies for events of approximately €55 and up. Postage is included in the price.

Still, I always use the independent CD shops for buying advance tickets. They're also a great backup as they sometimes have tickets, if you act quickly, remaining for events that are sold out on the Ticketmaster system.

My one exception is, when I know the event will be in very high demand, I tend to go with the online route. Other than those scenarios, I save where I can.

Kudos to Sound Cellar, City Discs, Road, et al.

Red Sleeping Beauty · 22-02-2009 3:15pm

concertgoer wrote: »

Every ticketmaster agent in this country is entitled to charge 2.25euro PER ticket as an agents fee.Soundcellar charge a single solitary euro per ticket as an agents fee.They only charge a euro in an effort to get people into their small store.Theyre perfectly entitled to do this.I cant believe somebody would accuse that small family run business of any sort of wrongdoing.GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT BEFORE YOU MAKE SUCH STUPID COMMENTS.

For what it's worth I really like Sound Cellar and I try to get any tickets there. Ordering tickets online from Ticketbastard is a really a cop out - you get charged I think €7 for ordering online and you have to bash the shit out of your F5 button!

Oral Slang · 25-02-2009 9:07pm

Yeah, I've been buying pretty much all of my tickets there for about 15 years now and will continue to do so.

A while back though, I was afraid a gig would sell out & bought 3 tickets from ticketmaster instead of Sound Cellar. Got charged a service charge of €6.35 per ticket, so paid €19.05 in charges to them, compared to the €3 I would have paid Tommy. Wouldn't mind, the feckin gig didn't sell out at all.

Are Sound Cellar over charging for tickets

Comments