PreferredSeat.com Blog

 We get asked this question all the time. Why can you find the same tickets on most of the ticket broker sites on the internet? Yes, in most cases they are the same tickets. This is the way it works.

 Ticket brokers upload their inventory to one or more of several exchanges. These are databases of tickets that a ticket broker will then display on their website so they can sell their own tickets if they stock any, and all other ticket brokers tickets so they can sell them also.

 So then each ticket broker will choose to display their tickets on their website with either all the service charges included, or in most cases they hide the service charges until you choose the shipping method and then they mysteriously appear. 

 Ticket brokers will hide the total price to make it look like their ticket prices are cheaper, but the hidden fee will jack up the price of the ticket by up to as much as 25% or more. Usually, the higher the price of the ticket, the bigger difference between ticket brokers that include all the fees and those that hide them.

 And it’s not like they are doing you a favor by breaking down the service charge, though they hide it. The service charge you see is usually only a part of the total service charge you will pay. Companies like Stubhub and many others will already have marked up the price of the ticket above their cost when you see it on their website.

 Then they hit you with the service charge which does not give a fair tally of their true profits from the ticket sale. There is nothing dishonest about it. But it’s their reason for hiding the fees that we have a problem with, because the ticket buyer must go through the process of buying the tickets and choosing the shipping method just to find out they are paying more anyway.

 At one time, a very short time, we did the same thing to compete on the web with the other ticket brokers. But we received so many complaints about the hidden fees we vowed we would never do it again. And we hate complaints. You can often tell the difference between ticket brokers that hide their service fees and those that don’t. Check the Better Business Bureau record for each and you’ll see what I mean.

There are so many choices on the internet today to buy tickets it’s very difficult to find a website that doesn’t add more fee’s to the already high ticket price.

The first thing you must realize is that most of the websites selling tickets list many of the exact same seats, just at different prices. In order to make a profit they all have service fee’s. Some websites include all the fee’s in the advertised price, while others add a fee to the advertised price, and then another substantial fee is tacked on before you complete the transaction, more than doubling the service fee.

This is because most websites selling tickets are just listing tickets provided by ticket brokers, and they are just middlemen, making a service fee off of each sale, but they split the fee to appear as if they have the cheapest advertised ticket price you see. But when you start entering your information to buy the tickets, it’s then you find the additional service charge.

To find the lowest price you need to find the broker who actually is holding the tickets, but that is extremely difficult with so many ticket sellers on the web. This is what you need to look for to get the best ticket price and avoid the extra service fee’s:

1. Look for websites that advertise ” No Hidden service charges” or “No hidden fee’s”. This wording may be placed in the ad or on the website and you can verify this if the posted price does not change as you go through the buying process.You may still want to compare other sites for the best price, but realize you must add up the fee’s from them to get an accurate total price per ticket.
2. Check to see if the company is a member of the Better Business Bureau in good standing. Many companies with hidden fees get a large number of complaints submitted to the Better Business Bureau. Look for a company with a AAA Rating.And don’t just take the BBB logo for granted, you should be able to click on the logo to see the company information, the rating and complaint list for the company. If it doesn’t click through, there’s probably a reason they don’t want you to see the report.
3. Verify that they have a contact page with a phone number and physical address. Many sites don’t want to be contacted after the sale and don’t list either an address or phone number.Why would you want to buy a ticket from someone you cannot reach by phone or mail?
4. Be aware that even the large ticket sellers such as Ticketmaster, Stubhub, Ticketliquidator, Ticketsnow, etc all have fee’s added to the advertised price of their tickets after you select and start the purchase procedure and many if not most of their tickets come from ticket brokers also.

For tickets to all Concerts, Sports and Theater without the hidden service charges you can find them at Preferred Seating – No Hidden Service fee’s/charges