Ticketmaster holds on the fees when refunding Orioles fansBuying tickets online to a sporting event is like booking a flight with AirTran. You look at the price and say ‘hey, that’s not so bad,’ then you click through 10 more screens that nickel and dime you with stupid fees until you’ve added an extra 10 percent on your purchase.

When Baltimore Orioles playoff tickets became available, I jumped all over them on Ticketmaster.com. I purchased tickets to the Wild Card game and all three divisional playoff games. Then later in the week, I bought tickets to game 163 and the ALCS. I didn’t want to miss out on any postseason play.

The Wild Card game ended up being played in Texas, game 163 never happened, the Orioles only hosted two divisional playoff games and of course they Yankees and Tigers are in the ALCS. That should have meant that a lot of money was refunded to me from Ticketmaster.

Like a lot of Orioles fans, I’m frustrated that the ticket broker decided it was okay to hold on to the “order charge” money and not give me back a full refund. Is there really an order charge if there’s no game? So they keep my six bucks and in return I get nothing?

Fans have voiced their concerns with the Baltimore Sun and Childs Walker says that the Orioles are not responsible for the charge or the refund policy. That’s pretty standard, they aren’t the ones selling the tickets. It’s Ticketmaster’s fault.

I would say that next time I would buy playoff tickets somewhere else, but there’s no place else to go. They took all of my money for games that were never played, then only gave some of it back.

Seems ethical.