Rob Davies praises Ticketmaster for closing down its resale sites (Report, 18 August). Some of us remember life before Ticketmaster when we could ring the box office of a theatre or concert hall and reserve a ticket for the price of the ticket and no more. Then, insidiously, “ticket partners” took over the work of the box office and guess who had to pay? Now we are charged a booking fee for every ticket, sometimes a flat fee and sometimes a percentage, and then there is the transaction fee as well, which adds considerably to the price of an evening out. Imagine going to the supermarket and being charged a “shopping fee” for each item you bought and then a “transaction fee” at the checkout. Ticket companies are unnecessary middlemen and I shall praise them only when they close down completely.
Rosemary Chamberlin
Bristol
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