Hit With Dynamic Pricing! Has this happened to you?
My husband and I are big fans of Broadway Theatre. We went to see a show recently and decided to buy tickets for a future performance while we were in town. The last time we did this, the box office saved us the fees typically charged online.
Imagine our surprise when, thanks to dynamic pricing, we actually paid more at the box office.
We were in the city with close friends on Thursday, September 4th, and decided to buy tickets for &Juliet on October 19th. On Sunday, September 7th, out of curiosity, I decided to go online and check the location of the tickets. I was surprised to see that my seat was still available. Not only that, the seat I paid $250.00 for was showing a price of $192.50. Concerned that an error had been made, I called the Stephen Sondheim box office.
The good news: my seat was confirmed. The bad news is that I was told the price we paid was accurate because they use dynamic pricing. Apparently, there was a huge demand on September 4th for tickets on October 19th? I checked, and the 19th is neither a holiday weekend nor close to Thanksgiving and Christmas. The person on the phone told me that the fees on that $192.50 were $15.00, or a total of $207.50 if I had waited until we got home and called.
I paid $42.50 more for the same ticket for the same future date. Would the fees online have been $42.50? Maybe I didn’t check.
This was the time for me to look at the definition of dynamic pricing and find out if it was legal. By definition, “it is the practice of varying the price for a product or service to reflect changing market conditions, in particular the charging of a higher price at a time of greater demand.”. The hotels use it, but tend to show the fees involved. Uber and Lyft use it. That’s more understandable since rush hour creates a high-demand situation.
Is October 19th a day of high demand? How do I find out? Even if I wanted to change the date, Broadway tickets are not exchangeable.
From now on, we will have to jump through hoops to find the best price.
What started as demand-based pricing has turned into a quagmire for consumers and gotten much more complicated.
Imagine our surprise when, thanks to dynamic pricing, we actually paid more at the box office.
We were in the city with close friends on Thursday, September 4th, and decided to buy tickets for &Juliet on October 19th. On Sunday, September 7th, out of curiosity, I decided to go online and check the location of the tickets. I was surprised to see that my seat was still available. Not only that, the seat I paid $250.00 for was showing a price of $192.50. Concerned that an error had been made, I called the Stephen Sondheim box office.
The good news: my seat was confirmed. The bad news is that I was told the price we paid was accurate because they use dynamic pricing. Apparently, there was a huge demand on September 4th for tickets on October 19th? I checked, and the 19th is neither a holiday weekend nor close to Thanksgiving and Christmas. The person on the phone told me that the fees on that $192.50 were $15.00, or a total of $207.50 if I had waited until we got home and called.
I paid $42.50 more for the same ticket for the same future date. Would the fees online have been $42.50? Maybe I didn’t check.
This was the time for me to look at the definition of dynamic pricing and find out if it was legal. By definition, “it is the practice of varying the price for a product or service to reflect changing market conditions, in particular the charging of a higher price at a time of greater demand.”. The hotels use it, but tend to show the fees involved. Uber and Lyft use it. That’s more understandable since rush hour creates a high-demand situation.
Is October 19th a day of high demand? How do I find out? Even if I wanted to change the date, Broadway tickets are not exchangeable.
From now on, we will have to jump through hoops to find the best price.
What started as demand-based pricing has turned into a quagmire for consumers and gotten much more complicated.
The post Hit With Dynamic Pricing! Has this happened to you? appeared first on HumbleDollar.
No comments have been added yet.
