LiveNation’s “No Fee” Wednesday (Some Additional Fees May Apply)

For those of you who were pumped about picking up tickets to any number of summer tours today during LiveNation’s much hyped “No Fee Wednesday?” Don’t get your hopes up. Because your dreams paying just for your tickets rather than an added $4 kajillion in fees to see this summer’s biggest tours have been crushed by LiveNation and poor advertising.

See, it’s called “No Fee Wednesday.” But you’re still going to have to pay some additional fees.

Wait, huh?

Apparently, while you won’t be paying ALL of the normal fees, you’ll still end up paying parking fees…whether you drive to the venue or not. A Live Nation spokesperson explained “We have always charged it this way to alleviate traffic issues that occur when the fee is taken at the lot entrance.” Which is great, except what if ticket buyers are carpooling together? Or getting dropped off and not parking? Or, how about those of us in cities where you have to take a LiveNations sponsored shuttle bus to the event…and have to pay $15 plus added ticket fees for THAT.

And anyone who’s bought a ticket through LiveNation before knows you don’t see your entire ticket cost, plus fees, until you’ve submitted your order. And then it all adds up: “convenience” fees (for buying your ticket through them instead of at the gate), venue fees (for upkeep and maintenance of the venue itself), shipping fees (and occasionally, fees for just printing your ticket out on your own computer) and more. LiveNation claimed it was “No Fee Wednesday,” but has charged fees and declined to give CNN a list of fees it would and wouldn’t be charging.

So what gives?

The big deal isn’t that minor fees are still being added on, really. You’re still going to save money on your tickets. The problem is the crappy advertising. Why call it “No Fee Wednesday” when there are still fees attached? “Low Price Wednesday” would have worked, “Reduced Fee Wednesday” is good as well. But “No Fee” implies, and this might sound crazy, NO FEES. Instead, this ends up feeling like Ashton Kutcher has been hired by LiveNation to punk ticket buyers.

“HA! You THOUGHT you were getting a ticket with no fees on it…but instead THERE’S FEES ON IT! Also, I pissed all over your toilet seat! You just got PUNK’D!”

How do you feel about this situation, Buzznet? Do you feel like LiveNation had a responsibility to inform their customers as best they could about the situation? Or should ticket buyers have realized there was no such thing as a free lunch?