Yes, booking fees.
I have just received an email from a rugby club inviting me to purchase tickets for a forthcoming game at HQ.
Tickets are priced from £10 to £45, booking fees apply!
Why? Why? If you can't buy the ticket without paying a booking fee, then why isn't it included in the price?
If it is illegal to quote a price for goods to a retail customer without including VAT, then why doesn't the same apply to booking fees? This must be in contravention of the Sale of Goods and Services Act.
Is it worth taking a complaint to my local Trading Standards Office?
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>> If it is illegal to quote a price for goods to a retail customer without
>> including VAT, then why doesn't the same apply to booking fees? This must be in
>> contravention of the Sale of Goods and Services Act.
>>
>> Is it worth taking a complaint to my local Trading Standards Office?
No because they told you about the fee. You could always drive up there, park, and drive back to get the ticket.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 11 Nov 13 at 07:30
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It is not illegal to quote a price without VAT as long as the advert(or whatever) clearly states that VAT must be added.
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>> You could always drive up there, park, and drive back to get the ticket.
>>
No, you can't do that.
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The ASA started to hop up and down about this practice earlier this year, and of course some high profile targets (e.g. Ryanair) have been in the news. But in general it's because at the moment, they can.
It makes no odds really - if they were forced not to have a separate £2.50 per ticket booking fee, hands up all those who think the price of the ticket wouldn't go up by oh, let's say £2.75 at the next price increase cycle.
I agree it annoys, but only really because you can see it. They'd do better to just put it in the ticket price and be done with it really, as I guess lots of places do.
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In a similar vein I recently ordered, online, a Hockney poster from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston @ $22. There was also a 'shipping surcharge' of $3.95. Very reasonable I thought, must be coming by sea!
One week later...from placing the order to processing it, how pathetically slow is that, they emailed to say that 'shipping' to the UK was $45! The original $3.95 was for the cardboard tube. Needless to say I told them to stick the tube where the sun don't shine, and a few other things about their order processing system.
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I just dislike ALL "shipping/handling/postage" charges tacked on when purchasing items, whether by 'phone, internet or personal visit.
Sellers of commercial stock items, sold retail in the UK and for the UK customer, should know exactly how much delivery costs and include it in the price.
When we bought our three piece suite a year or so ago, the standard delivery charge was about sixty quid. I do not see why I should pay extra for something I have bought being transferred to my physical possession.
[I haggled not only a discount on the suite for no "free credit", but also delivery at no extra cost :-) ]
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Agree with Roger, at least up to a point. Web prices should include basic delivery with an option for the customer to upgrade to a faster service or for other premium features such as timed drops etc.
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>>I haggled .......................... for no "free credit"
Cor, where did you do that? I've tried on several occasions with no luck. Usually ended up buying elsewhere.
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SCS - a GPlan suite - offer was 4 years no interest credit.
Logic says that SCS were paying the interest, so I found a 0% credit card for, IIRC 12 months, and paid with that.
Paid off the CC well within the free period. Now don't use it, much to their chagrin as they bombard me with 0% balance transfer offers!
Doing much the same with the car bought at the end of August this year - £2k difference to change - a 0% card for 18 months - already paid off £400.
I HATE paying interest!
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>> SCS - a GPlan suite - offer was 4 years no interest credit.
>> Logic says that SCS were paying the interest, so I found a 0% credit card
>> for, IIRC 12 months, and paid with that.................................
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>> I HATE paying interest!
>>
No, you lost me somewhere.
They weren't going to charge you interest, so why is it clever, or sensible, to pay with another form of interest free credit?
Perplexed of Penge.
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>> No, you lost me somewhere.
>>
>> They weren't going to charge you interest, so why is it clever, or sensible, to
>> pay with another form of interest free credit?
>>
>> Perplexed of Penge.
Because Roger got a discount by arguing that he was saving them the cost of the IFC.
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'Cos I got a decent discount + free delivery, for NOT taking their "free" credit!
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>> 'Cos I got a decent discount + free delivery, for NOT taking their "free" credit!
>>
You didn't say that in your original post.
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Oh yes I did. :-)
"[I haggled not only a discount on the suite for no "free credit", but also delivery at no extra cost :-) ] "
Yah boo!!!
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The law around discounts vs. free credit means that they can't legally offer you one or the other. If they do, then the discount alternative is deemed to be the charge for credit so the APR quote of 0% in the advert and on the agreements becomes illegal. Doesn't stop it happening under the counter.
Funnily enough, the opposite applies in France IIRC. There the rule is that they have to offer a discount as an alternative if you don't want free credit. One result of that is that there is very little use of free credit as a promotion.
Of course it isn't free. The cost is deducted from the payment from the lender to the retailer, as Roger knew.
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Too many years in the HP/Leasing industry for me not to have a good idea of the cost to them!
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>> The law around discounts vs. free credit means that they can't legally offer you one
>> or the other. If they do, then the discount alternative is deemed to be the
>> charge for credit so the APR quote of 0% in the advert and on the
>> agreements becomes illegal. Doesn't stop it happening under the counter.
Yep, that may be the law but try buying a Vauxhall and ask for with 0% or your best price for £££££ and they are 2 very different figures!
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>> I just dislike ALL "shipping/handling/postage" charges tacked on when purchasing items, whether by 'phone, internet
>> or personal visit.
>> Sellers of commercial stock items, sold retail in the UK and for the UK customer,
>> should know exactly how much delivery costs and include it in the price.
There's a good reason why delivery charges shouldn't compulsorily be included in web prices, which is for price comparison. There's a good argument that both prices should be shown though - on some sites it's very difficult to find the delivery charge without going right through to the checkout.
I'm very aware that it costs me £6 in fuel to collect something from Milton Keynes, or about £3 from Aylesbury, one of which I would have to go to for many things. The £14 postage I 'lost' on the DOA tablet I bought recently from Aria and had to return wasn't far off what it would have cost me in fuel had I been to MK for it.
I do understand people being annoyed at delivery charges on shop goods that simply aren't available to take home - electrical retailers now hold much of the stock centrally, so even if you are prepared to put a washing machine or fridge freezer in/on the car, you can't.
Last edited by: Manatee on Mon 11 Nov 13 at 14:57
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You didn't read their checkout page:
INTERNATIONAL ORDERS: Orders to outside the Continental U.S. and Canada will not display applicable shipping charges. Additional shipping charges will be calculated by destination and weight. You will be quoted a shipping price via e-mail, for your approval.
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In which case dinner tonite is humble pie. with second helpings.
I never was any good at stuff like that. I still think that taking a week to email me the extra carriage charge was a long time. I'm just a village simpleton at heart who likes beer & curry.
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"HQ" Check out Max Boyce's Bitter Ale song from the Treorchy album...
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Umble Pie, it should be.
Umbles was an old term for the disgusting intestinal bits of animals, used by the poor to make cheap food, including pies.
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Sometimes 'Interest Free Credit with nothing to pay for XXXX' doesn't cost the selling company much, as the finance providers hope to slap on fat interest if the buyer doesn't keep strictly to the terms of the loan.
www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/4478423/Interest-free-credit-can-cost-a-fortune.html
For example.
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>> Sometimes 'Interest Free Credit with nothing to pay for XXXX' doesn't cost the selling company
>> much, as the finance providers hope to slap on fat interest if the buyer doesn't
>> keep strictly to the terms of the loan.
>>
>> www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/4478423/Interest-free-credit-can-cost-a-fortune.html
That's an ancient article that wasn't particularly accurate when it was written.
It's years since "Buy Now Pay Later" deals of that kind were allowed to be advertised as having an interest free period, and the APR always refers to the full interest rate that could be payable.
Most retailer offers of that kind now charge a flat settlement or admin fee instead of interest if the account is settled in the option period.
I don't like the loan type, mainly because because of the "backdated" interest, but the majority of customers have now learnt how to use it so it's barely cheaper than interest free for most retailers to offer now. It's declined a lot in popularity since that article was written.
If it's advertised as interest free now, it's almost invariably going to be interest free as you would imagine it - but you could still be charged fees if you don't pay on time, and these can be quite stiff - charges for bounced cheques or direct debits, arrears letters, phone calls, default notices and so on. (I'm ignoring the fact that the retailer or manufacturer will have to pay for it and recover the cost somewhere - but the cash customers will subsidise that to some extent).
Personally I can't be bothered with interest free credit, I'm never going to borrow enough to make any material money on the interest and I hate owing money even when it's the clever thing to do.
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I wasn't sure if that 'scam' still went on.
This looks similar at first glance, and says very little about interest costs, and is available now:
www.very.co.uk/web/en/bnpl.page
Near the bottom: You can avoid paying interest by contacting us and paying the cash price in full before the end of the deferred payment period.
Not an APR to be seen.
Last edited by: Lygonos on Mon 11 Nov 13 at 23:41
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>> Not an APR to be seen.
No, and I'm not going to guess it's not compliant with regulations because that could be arguable. But I don't think it's a model of clarity. I work on related things, and having read that page and a couple of links I still can't tell how the loan works.
"Very" is a Shopdirect brand, owned IIRC by the Barclay brothers.
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Last week I tried to book tickets for this weekend's Chirk Castle stages of the Wales Rally GB. Ticket price was £25, order by phone only as online sales stopped on 1 November. I thought it would be nice to have them delivered as it would save me half an hour of queueing with my young son.
After a 15-minute wait (on an 0844 number) to speak to an operator I was told the booking fee would add £8 to my order AND the tickets could only be collected from the venue on the day... sigh. We'll just queue and pay the standard walk-up price on Saturday then.
Last edited by: Dave_TiD on Mon 11 Nov 13 at 22:57
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Sunday Mail did a survey on Pantomime prices across Scotland
www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/theatre/revealed-theatres-charge-handling-fees-2716588
A spokesman for the SECC said: “Until recently, there was no ticket administration fee on cash-only transactions made in person.
“But with the introduction of UK Government legislation, this is no longer possible.
“Under the new rules, traders are expected to ensure that any payment surcharges are representative of the actual processing cost involved.
“Our box office, ticketSOUP.com, sells tickets on behalf of event promoters as an agent.
“The promoters decide the face value price of tickets and, when a ticket is sold, the total face value is passed to them.
“TicketSOUP.com requires to charge fees to operate as a business. There are significant costs involved in running a box office facility.
“Tickets purchased or uplifted at our box office still require processing.”
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Booking Fees - Zero
