StubHub Boasts Its New Transparent Pricing
By Jason Epstein
That’s right: StubHub is treating price transparency as though it were a perk.
In recent years, StubHub has joined the ranks of Ticketmaster in providing a highly sought-after service with hardly any competition – and making an absurd profit from service fees that have ballooned to epic proportions. But now, StubHub is purporting its friendliness with promises to be transparent about the service fees you’ll be paying…by forgoing showing customers ticket fees, in exchange for displaying the full price of the ticket. (Okay, that’s not entirely true; if you click ‘See Details’ under ‘Price Details’ they’ll let you in on the actual makeup of your total cost.)
It’s called “All-in Pricing.” Here’s a quote from their announcement email:
“On StubHub, you’ll see the final price right when you hit the site. Nothing more will be added to your cost. Not even delivery charges.”
It reads like a loud, aggressive sales pitch for a feature that is basically saying, ‘We won’t bait and switch you like any ordinary good business wouldn’t anyhow. You’ll still pay ludicrous fees, but we’ll just give you a mild heart attack at the beginning of the sale – not the conclusion.’
What they don’t call attention to is that you’ll already be paying for whichever delivery options have been selected by the seller. Service fees are often about 10% of the price of the ticket before this delivery fee. Percentage-wise, that’s certainly better than Ticketmaster, but because these are high-priced scalped tickets, you can bet it won’t be amount-wise. And that’s not the end of it, because they charge the seller a fee too, further inflating prices.
StubHub is a great service and I’m certainly not upset that it exists, but you know what else works well? Buying tickets when they go on sale, and to a lesser-extent, nabbing some tickets outside the venue from a shady dude who only has $100 bills as change. To see the entire announcement, click here.
