The heavy price of customer service

That'll be £2.90 each, sir
Picture: Rhan

Here's news of a theatrical postscript to Louise Manfield's excellent guest column on the hidden extras of flying with "low cost" airlines.

I have just booked two seats for a London show. No quarrels with the seat prices of £29 each (assuming I'll be able to see the stage).

Even the charge of £3.50 for using a credit card seemed unremarkable these days, though I am not sure how else payment can be made when bookings are made over the internet.

The box offices and agencies may also be justified in charging the cost of a stamp for posting tickets to purchasers, though £5.90 (UK) and £8.90 (overseas) - PER TICKET, for heaven's sake - suggests they are using collectors' stamps bought at auction.

So I chose to collect my tickets on the night of the show. You'd think, looking at what the London Westend Ticket Service charges to post a letter, that this at least was a decison that would save me a lot of money.

But they are even charging me, to the tune of £2.90 a ticket, for the privilege of presenting myself at the counter, announcing my name and showing a ticket voucher from my printer.

It is not so far removed from RyanAir's announcement that passengers are to face new charges for doing what airline travellers have always done - check in at a desk. Two questions arise: who else is milking consumers in this way and has the world gone completely bonkers?