Teacups Make Me Sick Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 ^I'll take your white flag and stop on it!!!! If you wanted to get anal, you could calculate your wattage (which you can find somewhere in the product literature) x price per wattage x amount of usage and you can figure out what your bill will be. Now...about those lockers.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 The lockers are pretty simple: $1 x 1 x 1 = You get to use a locker for your crap. The online tickets are pretty simple too: Advertised price + $5 x 1 = You get a ticket online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aldredd Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Can't help but chuckle a little bit at the irony. One of the arguments against this is not knowing what your final price is going to be / not paying the advertised price etc. In reality, pretty much every transaction in USA is like this, as all your prices are ex-tax anyway, so you never pay the advertised price. As for the argument about overheads involved due to the park collecting and sorting out the printed tickets; I find it a little, well, a little weak as an argument. I buy most my airline tickets online and print my ticket (here too I have to pay a 'booking' / 'transaction fee' PER PERSON & PER FLIGHT ). When I arrive to check in, I hand my eticket, they check me in, and then they throw my ticket in the bin if I don't want it any more - no-one goes around collecting all the etickets. As it goes, I'm totally against unavoidable surcharges added onto the price of things whenever I buy anything - it's mostly illegal to work like this in the UK (and most of Europe) but the grey area is what can be considered an 'avoidable charge' Oh, and for what it's worth, I just bought & printed off etickets for Alton Towers and Thorpe Park - no printing fee charged, and still got online discount (actually, I also get corporate discount due to a deal my company has with them ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Can't help but chuckle a little bit at the irony. One of the arguments against this is not knowing what your final price is going to be / not paying the advertised price etc. In reality, pretty much every transaction in USA is like this, as all your prices are ex-tax anyway, so you never pay the advertised price. But most Americans can distinguish what products have tax added in to the final advertised price, and what products are advertised "Plus Tax" (i.e. I toss the peanut vendor at a baseball game $2.00 for a bag, versus buying a bag of peanuts at the grocery store for $2.00 plus ___% sales tax depending on what state you live in). So, that's not really the argument. We pretty much inherently realize that most purchases, especially online, are advertised at the pre-tax rate. Hidden fees, etc. are different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teacups Make Me Sick Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 I buy most my airline tickets online and print my ticket (here too I have to pay a 'booking' / 'transaction fee' PER PERSON & PER FLIGHT ). When I arrive to check in, I hand my eticket, they check me in, and then they throw my ticket in the bin if I don't want it any more - no-one goes around collecting all the etickets. My favorite is that airlines charge a LANDING FEE!!! WTF is that? Isnt that part of the service? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 ^ That's the fee they pay the airport for actually landing and using the facility. They just pass it on to the customer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorChris Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 (Post removed by user) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jew Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 ^I don't think it is fair to call the practice a standard industry practice when many of the leaders in the industry (Busch Parks, Disney Parks, USH) do not currently charge fees for online tickets. Six Flags also joined the "industry standard" practice by charging the highest prices in the industry, which raises additional red flags. And while I agree that it is a convenience that guests do not have to pay for if they do not want to...that's not how it is being marketed. The companies who do tack on fees aren't saying "hey, buy your ticket online for a small fee and save some time at the front gate!", but instead are tacking on the fees just because they can with no mention of them until check out. I also don't buy the argument that online fees are to be expected just because they happen in other industries too. Does anyone really believe the costs are that high for any company to do business online? Oddly enough, some major corporations are (Verizon, American Express, USAA, and Citibank among others) are aggressively pushing for me to switch exclusively to online statements/bill paying without charging me any additional fees for this "convenience".... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 ^ I agree with most of your points. And I think one things definitely has to be made clear here - the fee is brought up to you at check out. You know there will be a fee. It is not like you punch in your credit card, and a month later the charge is $5 more than what you were expecting it to be. You still have the option to not buy the ticket after you know about the $5 processing fee. If you don't like the $5 fee, then you have another option..... just wait in line! Not really a big deal. I don't really understand why people are complaining about this. It is not like you are stuck having to buy tickets online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 ^ One reason, CP fanboys needs something to toss at Six Flags. As much as I try to listen to Joey's well versed rguments, I know he just hates Six Flags, so I ignore most of it....sorry Joey. Totally agree on I don't get why this is a big deal. Don't save $15 and buy your ticket at the gate. It's that simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 I think Joey made a few decent points in there. I don't necessarily agree with all of them, but I think me makes some good arguments. I think some people should go back to first grade math. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Look, I'll light a $5.00 bill on fire right now if it'll convince you that my problem isn't the money, it's the deception. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 I get that, but there isn't any freakin' deception! They tell you about the charge before check out. So, you either agree to the charge, or, click that little "x" that you see at the top right the screen. However, if you do agree to the charge, you just saved yourself $10 and that "long" wait in line at the park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchu Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 I think where people who are turned off by this practice are claiming the deception lies is right up front. If I go to SFOG website and click to get tickets, it pops up... "Buy your tickets online and everyone pays the kids price of $29.99. Plus, you can print your tickets at home and go straight to the gate. " So a potential customer could be thinking 'cool... 30 bucks for a ticket I can have ready to go when I head to the park'. Only at the very end do they throw in the fact that its going to cost you to get your ticket. Specifically, when I get to that step, it lists the following options. Nothing more, nothing less. Shipping Method $5 Print-n-Go $10 UPS Ground $5 First Class Mail $15 UPS Expedited Meaning my "$29.99" ticket is going to cost a minimum of $34.99. If the original advertisement at the first step of the process didn't say what it says... there would be no grounds for complaints of deception. "Buy your tickets online and everyone pays the kids price of $29.99. "... doesn't mention the extra charge, but doesn't promise you can go straight to the gate, either. So its somewhat fair grounds. "Buy your tickets online and everyone pays the kids price of $29.99. Plus, for just an additional 5 bucks you can print your tickets at home and go straight to the gate. "... that's fair... up-front. Honest. But just tacking on the "you can go straight to the gate!" after the 29.99 price can be seen as deceiving. For me personally, I'm fine with the charge, I just think its stupid from a business standpoint. As was mentioned earlier, the purpose of special deals (be they Coke cans, AAA discounts, online purchasing) is to get new customers who won't pay full-price to come to the park. The purpose of discounts is not to save the guy who's going to come no matter what (full price and all) a few extra bucks. It's to target new customers. It's to bring in people who wouldn't come at the regular price. So doing anything that could be seen as deceptive is counter productive for business. If I'm trying to get Joe Schmoe, who has never visited a Six Flags park and never will at full price, to come to my park by advertising that he can skip the wait at the ticket booth and get in for the cheap price of $29.99... and then add on that $5 fee at the end... and Joe Schmoe clicks that little 'x' in the corner of the screen, then I've lost a new customer. I've lost the 30 bucks I coulda made on the ticket, plus whatever Joe would have spent in the park, plus an experience that would leave him wanting to come back. It's not about money, not even really about what's "fair". Its about the smartest business move possible. And anything that turns customers off (whether the customer's view is 100% accurate or not) is a questionable business move. It's the same thing with the aviation industry. Airlines start announcing a sudden $20 charge per piece of checked luggage and people were livid. Why not just jack up ticket prices 20 bucks or so? You add 20 bucks to ticket prices, and 90% of customers won't even realize tickets have gone up. And even the 10% who do realize it... likely aren't going to be too upset. It's called inflation. The price of everything goes up over time. But announce a charge for something that's always been free... and people go nuts... some choose not to fly anymore. Sometimes it just makes more business sense to include all fees up-front. If a customer feels like he/she's being deceived half-way through the process, they're more likely to turn away from the product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jew Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 ^^I still personally find that practice to be somewhat deceptive. To me, it's like all the fine print buried in car commercials, coupon deals, etc. The intent (IMO) is to hook you in and hope the fine print doesn't scare you away. What I find most interesting about the online ticketing system is that the two most innovative things about the Six Flags system do not actually charge the fee. The option to buy parking and meal vouchers online is something no other company offers, yet you are not charged the $5 fee for buying these items online. Which again makes you wonder what the true intent behind the fees is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Which again makes you wonder what the true intent behind the fees is... Just to piss you off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginzo Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 ^^What about those stupid airline ads that say "London - $195", but that's for one-way with no taxes. And then round trip with tax winds up costing the normal $1,000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolcalicoaster Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 It doesn't matter where you go, you will be nickeled and dimed. That is just the way our world is these days. I can't believe it costs $8 for a beer at a concert or ballgame. Anyone that is not upper-middle class or upper-class cannot afford to go to a Yankees game in New York. The blue collar people built that franchise and now they are shutout from the games. It is not just an amusement park or Six Flags issue, it's a world economic issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchu Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 It doesn't matter where you go, you will be nickeled and dimed. That is just the way our world is these days. I can't believe it costs $8 for a beer at a concert or ballgame. Anyone that is not upper-middle class or upper-class cannot afford to go to a Yankees game in New York. The blue collar people built that franchise and now they are shutout from the games. It is not just an amusement park or Six Flags issue, it's a world economic issue. Yeah, but just imagine if they offered "5 dollar beer! Get your 5 dollar beer here!" You, thinking that's much better than the $7-8 they usually go for, wave down the vendor and hold up a 5 dollar bill. He pulls out a cold one, turns and says "and that will be 3 extra bucks for the convenience of me handing it to you." Something tells me a lot more customers would be unhappy about that than they would just an 8 dollar beer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 You're all missing the best thing about this, they offer UPS ground . I wonder how many people go for the $10 UPS instead of the $5 USPS offer or print at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRapidsNerd Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 This is just another "Sure we'll sell you 4 tires for $4, BUT the lug nuts will cost $496.00" to me. I really miss the old days of consolidated pricing mixed with good sense. This nickel and dime/hidden fees/shadiness gets annoying. Simply said, I don't agree with this tack-on fee and hope they change it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahecht Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 If you have AAA and click the link on the AAA website to print Six Flags tickets at home they will waive the print-at-home fee (and give you 30% off the gate price). If you're an AAA member, just log into your local AAA website and then paste the following into your address bar (replacing the XXX with your 3-digit club code from your membership card and the YYYYY with your zip code): http://ww2.aaa.com/scripts/WebObjects.dll/AAAOnline?page=AAASixFlags&association=aaa&club=XXX&zip=YYYYY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArizonaGuy Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 I'm still not seeing what the big deal is. You're still paying less than what you would be paying at the Park Entrance. Heck...I bought tickets to the No Doubt concert here in Phoenix and paid 94.90 for the ticket. The price of the ticket was $80 and the "ticket fee" was $14.90. I just hate it when people make Six Flags out to be the bad guy. I was at SFFT back on 5/9/09 and there were PLENTLY of people who printed they're tickets in line because they were in front of me waiting to get it. They were also in front of me with meal/drink vouchers. As far as the per bag fee that airlines charge, I totally disagree with charging a slightly higher fee to all tickets rather the per bag fee per person considering I never check baggage. Why should I pay for someone else's bag to ride on that plane? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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