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How a $1 Ticket Becomes a $6.75 Ticket

A local Boston television program promoted an outdoor rib fest where chefs from around the country let you taste their version of barbeque ribs, chicken, etc. The price for admission to the event was $5 to $10 at the door (not including food), but discounts were offered at various locations and online.

In fact, if you bought tickets online, the price was only a dollar weekdays.

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Note the absence of any fine print. However, when you go to buy the ticket, two surprises await.

*MOUSE PRINT: [click graphic for larger format]

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Service fee of $3.00?  Shipping fee of $2.75?  A shipping fee when you print the tickets on your own printer? How could they advertise tickets for $1 when the actual price was nearly seven times that?

The CEO of the event responded to MOUSE PRINT* by saying, in part:

This is being fixed to $8 total for two online tix (everyone buys at least two). This was our arrangement per contract.

[Other places to buy tickets for less than $5 listed]

My company pays for the printing of the tickets and all costs associated with Will Call, which are significant for a 65 hour event.

My company does the best we can to give Phans as many options to get tickets as possible, especially since a lot would rather buy online for convenience and to avoid paying for gas.
 

While not particularly apologetic for charging a $2.75 shipping fee to print tickets on your own printer, the response Mouse Print* received subsequently from the actual ticketing service provider left no doubt that the home ticket printing charge was intentional:

Thank you for your e-mail. We can understand your concerns.

Ticket buyers who choose print at home tickets enjoy the convenience that this option offers and the easy and anytime-access to their tickets minimizing the potential loss of physical tickets by the carrier. The fee covers the technology and personnel required to make this option available at all. The fact that you use your own printer and paper is not factored in the $2.75 print at home fee.

Our fees reflect the percentage charges of the total amount we incur from the credit card company to charge/credit your account when you place the order. They also reflect the costs associated with providing online ticket sales. We cannot refund these fees if the show is cancelled or postponed as per the user agreement on the ticketing web page. — Musictoday, LLC

It appears that the ribs are not the only thing that could be burned at this event.

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1&1’s 50% Off Sale: But Half Off What?

1&1 is a big domain registrar and web hosting service, and they are celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2008.To attract attention, they have taken out full page ads in computer magazines offering a “50% off Everything*” sale.

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The company has been known for low priced domains, typically $5.99 a year. They just went up to $6.99, but given that they are having a 50% off sale, this would still be a quite a deal.  But the ad says that domains are $6.12 during the half price sale. Huh?

Maybe the answer is that asterisk after the word “everything.” Usually that means that not everything is really on sale. That is not the case here.

*MOUSE PRINT:

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They are only giving you 50% off the first three months of the services they sell by the year. With that kind of logic, a supermarket could advertise 50% off eggs, but in the fine print say that the discount only applies to three of the 12 eggs in the carton.

One has to wonder if this company’s real name is 1&1 = 3.

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Hotwire: Hidden Fees in their “Complete” Prices

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When it comes to shopping for travel, the price that catches your eye is not always the price you pay. And rarely is it lower than advertised.

Hotwire.com is a site that offers discounted airfares, hotel, and car reservations by not disclosing what airline, hotel or car rental agency you are contracting for until after you pay. (It is like Priceline without the price guessing games.)

On it website, Hotwire advertised car rental rates as low as “$13.95 with no hidden fees.”  Just beneath that it listed Boston with rates as low as $5.95. What a deal!  Clicking on that link brings up the typical pricing form where you enter dates of travel.

For a one day rental from March 28 to March 29, the system returned the following price:

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Yes, it is $3 higher than the lowest price, but it still a great deal. The asterisk after “$8.95 per day” goes to this:

*MOUSE PRINT: 

* Rates are shown in US dollars. Total cost for Hotwire Discount rates includes applicable tax recovery charges and fees.

Indeed, this is more good news — $8.95 is price you really pay. Or is it?

*MOUSE PRINT: On the next screen, the truth is revealed:

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Adding the taxes and fees makes the total cost of the car triple the advertised price!

Unfortunately, the problem of advertising incomplete prices is not limited to Hotwire. Most car rental companies, airlines, cell providers, and cable companies attract you with seemingly low priced packages only to relegate to the fine print or your first bill what the true total and complete price really is.

All these services have extraordinarily high fees, charges, and taxes added to the promoted price which can bring the total to 30%, 40% or more than advertised. Here’s a novel idea: companies should make the price you see be the price you pay!Â