Status: Complete
Remove or reduce the surcharge/'booking fee' on society event tickets SUSU Box Office sells.
Hi,
I think it's unfair/odd to impose an extra charge on certain clubs/society events tickets sold by SUSU.
I propose:
Clarification as to why some societies' events are charged.
Remedy Box Office main page to warn about surcharges.
Removal of surcharges on all RAG events.
Removal of surcharge on PA Card/equitisation with Union Films Pass.
Reduction of going membership surcharge rate of 10% to 5%/cap on proportion of original price of an event ticket a surcharge can be to 10%/abolition of surcharges for all events under £5.
Responses
Hi Anon,
Apologies that this issue has so long to be resolved.
Although most of your questions have been answered, I would like to take the opportunity to further clarify some of this information:
- The fee covers the administration costs for the box office, including staffing, ticket printing, website and other administration costs. The fees are clearly displayed to customers when placing an order. There is a significant overhead in running a box office operation and the Union keeps this as low as possible. However the majority of events sold through the box office are not Union events, so these in effect result in a cost to the organisation. We are not able to fully subsidise this without impacting other areas of student activity, and therefore charge a minimal booking fee.
- We are not able to remove charges from RAG events as that would be beyond our power – we would be in effect subsiding charitable activity which we are not able to do under the law as we ourselves are a charity.
- We would be happy to look at the Performing Arts card charges, and activity for PA in general regarding use of the box office. If you are part of a PA society I would recommend talking to the PA Rep or VP DCI to take this further.
- The membership fees charges have already been changed for this year and are now a flat 50p regardless of cost (except for free memberships which are not processed through the box office).
I hope that has helped clear up this issue. Please feel free to get in touch with SUSU if you continue to have any questions.
Best wishes,
Steve Gore, VP Sports
Monday 17th Dec 2018 1:38pm
Hello again!!
I have some more answers:
1. The reason some society events have a surcharge is because they are not union socities (unlike Union Films for example), and so the ticket purchase would go to the society, rather than the Union.
2. We will put a little message on the front page of the box office to give a heads up about the surcharge!
3. Again, RAG is not a direct union society (see answer 1)
4. The PA Card point is super interesting and is something that I will look into with our Director of Activities. There definitely is some scope to remove the surcharge, but I will need to chat to the PA societies before making any decisions!
5. (answered before)
Hope this helps!
Emily, Union President
Thursday 16th Aug 2018 4:55pm
Heya,
We have reviewed these and capped them at £5 for any tickets costing over £50, and all membership fees will only have a 25p fee on them. While that is an improvement, I understand that you raised a few more concerns in your initial submission. I will tackle these individually and get back to you with more information!
Emily, Union President
Wednesday 1st Aug 2018 5:57pm
Hi! Thanks for your feedback. I will look into this and get back to you when I can address all the points you've raised!
Flora, Union President
Thursday 17th May 2018 4:14pm
Actions
- Forwarded to Union President
Friday 20th Apr 2018 3:50pm
Comments
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Huh, if you refresh the page it submits the last comment. possible bug?
There has been a further change and update. From next year all societies must sell memberships through the Box office, no exceptions. If they don't, they lose access to funding (as members wont be registered on the SUSU system, thus not fulfilling the 20 person criteria for a society). This is essentially extortion and Monopoly.
There has been a further change and update. From next year all societies must sell memberships through the Box office, no exceptions. If they don't, they lose access to funding (as members wont be registered on the SUSU system, thus not fulfilling the 20 person criteria for a society). This is essentially extortion and Monopoly.
I don't this is fair for societies, they will lose money in this way
There has been a further change and update. From next year all societies must sell memberships through the Box office, no exceptions. If they don't, they lose access to funding (as members wont be registered on the SUSU system, thus not fulfilling the 20 person criteria for a society). This is essentially extortion and Monopoly.
