It can be challenging for a consumer looking for a safe place to purchase Toronto Maple Leaf tickets online, and so we’ve decided to provide a few tips to help consumers in making a wise choice.
Ticket Price Parody Online
Unfortunately, what you see is not what you get when it comes to comparing prices online. In most cases there are a number of hidden fees that materialize the further you get into the transaction. For example, on StubHub you are presented with a low initial price, but it’s not until after you’ve taken the time to create an account that their 15% “service fee” is added to your order. There’s also some potentially large shipping fees involved if your underlying tickets are coming from the U.S., a problem that’s evident for many online purchases.
There’s also an issue with the US dollar vs. CDN dollar, which even though the two currencies have been dancing near parody for a while, your credit card does not exactly give you a preferential rate on the transaction. Be prepared to see an additional 3 or 4% added to the final bill when it appears on your credit card statement.
Reliability of Buying Tickets Online
Even generally reputable ticketing giants like StubHub have had colossal issues with fulfillment (ie. the last BCS Championship game). Generally the more expensive and popular an event, the more chance there is for an issue with fulfillment. That’s because the market provides incentives for people to cancel orders when prices begin to escalate. Consider the case where an disreputable ticket broker has promised to deliver tickets to a marquis event, such as the Masters, to a client the week before the event. In this example, let’s say the broker has sold 20 badges for $1,000 ea. for each of the four competition days. That’s $80,000 and sounds like a good haul, but what if the market prices of those badges has actually jumped to $1,500 or even $2,000 each? A disreputable broker suddenly has a very strong incentive to break his original order (ie. $40,000-$80,000 in additional profit). This individual could claim a supplier problem and refund his original client in full, thereby fulfilling his claim to “Tickets are fully guaranteed, backed by a 100% refund”. The original corporate group, who has non-refundable flights to, and accommodations in, Augusta are probably not going to be super happy about that 100% guarantee, are they?
Even smaller issues of reliability are important to most people. Things like knowing exactly when you’ll get your tickets, having a live person answer the phone if you have any questions, and having confidence that the tickets will scan properly at the door.
Avoiding the Scam
The vast majority of online ticket brokers are legitimate, but there are a few things to look for to help ensure that you’re dealing with a reputable source. First and foremost, look for membership in either the National Association of Ticket Brokers, or here in Canada, the Canadian Ticket Brokers Association (preferably both).
The other thing that’s easy to look for is an address and phone number, you’d be surprised how many ticketing websites don’t have this information readily available. Dealing local if possible is a good idea too, a legitimate broker should have a place of business that you can attend to pick up your tickets if you so choose.
We’ve created an online brand that we feel addresses the issues in this article and fills a void in the marketplace for an open and trustworthy online source for even tickets. Tickets of Canada.com is a great place to Buy-Maple-Leaf-Tickets, it’s an RJB brand, so you know you can count on them!