Theatre lover attacks Marlowe’s ‘ridiculous’ box office charges

Customers pay more in person than online ‘The tickets aren’t cheap. The Marlowe h some big shows, but this is still Canterbury’

A theatre- lover has branded the Marlowe’s decision to impose a booking fee when buying tickets in person “ridiculous”.

Mature student Toni Fuller said she often went into the venue itself to avoid paying the extra charge usually added for online bookings.

But she was surprised to find theatre bosses had not only introduced a fee – attracting dozens of complaints – but made it higher than when booking on the website.

The Marlowe said the fee covered the cost of staffing the box office, but Miss Fuller compared the situation to a shop charging customers extra for a cashier to serve them at the till.

The 31- year- old, who lives off the High Street, said: “It seems a bit ridiculous. I expect these kinds of things to be included in the ticket price.

“You used to be able to book in person to avoid paying a booking fee.

“That’s what I’ve always done because I live nearby. That’s not an option now.

“I appreciate why there’s an online fee, but it shouldn’t apply if you make the effort to book in person.

“The tickets themselves aren’t cheap. The Marlowe does have some big shows, but this is still Canterbury.

“I’m worried a lot of people might not even know about it.”

She said the new charge had made her reconsider visiting the Marlowe in future.

But theatre director Mark Everett justified the charge, saying more than 45,000 tickets had been booked since it was introduced last month – and only 25 complaints had been received.

He said: “We want to provide the best and most convenient ticket booking service for our customers.

“To make this possible, it takes considerable resources.

“Every ticket that we sell incurs a number of different costs, including a charge from our ticketing supplier, card commission fees, and the actual ticket.

“We do not include these costs in the price of the ticket because, on average, we retain only 15 per cent of the ticket cost, with the remainder going to the producers, meaning ticket prices would have to increase considerably to cover these costs.”

Mr Everett also said online booking did not require the same level of staffing as the theatre box office, which was why the fee was cheaper.

He added: “We believe that our shows offer good value for money, especially when our ticket prices and booking fees are compared with those in the West End – for example, The Jersey Boys, or Shrek - or many other comparable theatres.

“We have worked very hard to ensure that full information on the booking fee is provided on our website and in our current brochure, and we have updated all our existing print.”

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