One fan was outraged that they had to pay a premium for the convenient and eco-friendly ticket option that would seemingly cost the provider less money.
"I bought concert tickets and I have to pay extra to receive them by email," the customer complained in a post on Reddit in the r/Anticonsumption forum. "But taking them out in a shop is free."
As proof, they provided a screenshot of where they were asked to select their ticket. The page was originally in French, but one commenter provided an English translation.
Customers were offered a choice between email and mobile tickets — which each cost an additional €1.65 (about $1.80) — or a physical copy that they could pick up at a store for free.
Of course, sending an email directly to a customer seems unlikely to cost a company more than sending it to a physical location, with the additional cost of printing the ticket and paying an employee to distribute it making the in-person option appear to be much more expensive.
It seems clear that these fees are often put in place to make more money, with businesses banking on customers choosing the more convenient option.
And there's apparently more to the alleged money-making scheme. As one commenter pointed out, the free in-store pickup option likely exists "to get you into the shop to sell you stuff."
Unfortunately, this is incredibly wasteful. Needlessly using paper and energy for printing is bad enough, but making someone go to a store for a ticket can contribute to air pollution. Gas-powered passenger cars release 3.3 billion tons of heat-trapping gas into the atmosphere every year, and unnecessary trips can inflate that total.
When customers are buying tickets to a specific event, they may simply have to select the least wasteful method offered. However, you can stay up-to-date on recycling programs and look for more eco-conscious events when possible. And when making other purchases, you can choose more eco-friendly companies and send a message with your money.
"Patagonia [does] this too!" one commenter vented on the OP's post, highlighting how this isn't an isolated instance. "I finally [invested] in a solid rain coat, a couple hundred bucks, and I had to go order it from their in-store iPad to avoid a $25 shipping fee!"
"Concert tickets are already scam prices, but no surprise about these fees," another person opined.
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