The Herberger learns a thing or two (or 13) from Ticketmaster

PHXated was interested in going to the AriZoni Theater awards at the Herberger next week, so we started poking around to try to get tickets.

The tickets—billed as $21 here—seemed reasonable. But we also noted an asterisk and the note: “Additional fees may apply.”

We smelled a rat immediately.

The page that purported to tell us how much tickets were. Why couldn’t it just tell us the full price, if it “might” not be the amount it was telling us here?

We had to make about a half-dozen more clicks, over the course of which we were told again the tickets were $21, before getting the real story:

In other words, the theater was adding on $13—a 30-plus-percent surcharge per ticket—for the privilege of buying a ticket.

Isn’t this low rent? Ticketmaster does this all the time, of course—but that’s because Ticketmaster is one of the scummiest companies in America. What’s the Herberger’s excuse? Why can’t it just name a price for its tickets up front and dispense with the cheesy last-minute mysterious “fees”?

Update: On an AriZoni Awards page, it, too, bills the tickets as costing $21—with an asterisk.

Down at the bottom of the page we read:

(*not including additional facility fees charged by the Herberger)

The issue here isn’t the price. It’s the anti-consumer, corporate-doings-in-the-background mentality. You don’t pay a hidden, only-revealed-at-the-last-minute “checkout fee” when you go to Basha’s. The AriZoni Awards and the Herberger should just work out their deal, set a price, and publicize it.

Note how the New Times cites the 30-percent-lower price. The paper got that figure from the awards, even though the producers knew the actual price to its audience was 30 percent higher.

(The Republic? Ah, well, the Republic doesn’t seem to be aware of the show.)