Why Am I Paying Handling Fees When Nothing’s Being Handled?

The charges are correct. The airline now charges for emotional baggage as well.

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Once upon a time, in the olden days, when we purchased tickets to the theatre, we called the theatre, made the purchase over the phone and gave the reservationist our credit card number. Those tickets then had to be printed and mailed. They were actually handled and there were fees involved, which of course were passed along to the consumer.

Now we live in a culture of self-serve. We buy the tickets online with no live intervention. The tickets are emailed to us. We can either print out our tickets or just bring them up on our phones at the theatre for scanning. Then why are we still paying the same handling charge as we used to when tickets were handled?

I recently bought tickets for a play at Stratford. Each ticket included a $2 facility improvement charge and a $4.75 handling charge. This boggles my mind! I’ve never heard of a facility improvement charge and I’d like any normal human being to justify a $4.75 handling charge when I’m the only one doing the handling. In essence they’ve charged me $4.75 for sending me an email. Isn’t that a nice way to gouge the public?

I love Stratford and I understand that they’re a not-for-profit organization, but I hate getting screwed by anyone. Raise the ticket prices if you have to by $4.75 but don’t charge me a handling fee of $4.75 for self-service. It’s the same sort of BS as the banks charging you to use an ATM to access your own money.

We’ve created a self-serve society and I have no objection to that. What I do object to is being charged for service that isn’t being performed.

Shoutout to ATM fees for making me buy my own money.

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Make someone smile today.

Geri

The Power of Suggestion

Did you know line dancing was started by women waiting to use the bathroom?

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I recently had the pleasure of seeing “A Chorus Line” in Stratford. It’s a magnificent production! In fact it’s much better than the show that was staged in Toronto a few years back. Do go see it if you can. 

As everyone was settling into their seats, there was an announcement over the public address system that the run time of the show was two hours, there would be no intermission and anyone leaving during the show would not be permitted re-entry. This very innocuous statement put fear into the hearts of this audience, or as in this case, their bladders. In a nanosecond there was widespread fear about what would they do if they couldn’t “hold it” for two hours. Collectively the audience rose from their seats and scurried to the nearest washroom for one last tinkle. And contrary to what you might think, there seemed to be an equal number of panic stricken men.

Let’s be honest, hundreds of people didn’t collectively need to use the toilet. It was the power of suggestion. The mere suggestion that they couldn’t use the toilet was enough to command a visit to the washroom. Whether or not anyone donated a few drops will remain unknown but most of them tried.

You know you’re getting old when you can’t walk past a bathroom without thinking “I may as well pee while I’m here”.

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Make someone smile today.

Geri