If there was no service fee how would Ticketmaster generate any revenue?

My favorite is the local tax office charges extra for paying online vs going in to the office to pay in person. At first, I thought it was a way to recoup the processing fees as you're obviously paying by card online. The last time I paid in person with a card, that fee was not added on though. So they are charging you extra for not having to pay an employee to process your account.

The one that pisses me off is when the waitress tells you to pay with your phone, and it's charged a "convenience fee."

I looked at buying tickets for a local hockey game last week, and the venue goes through Ticketmaster. The service fees were exactly the same as the actual ticket cost, maybe the total 200% of the list price.

I ended up going to the physical box office, where they still charged an extra 40% of the ticket cost in service fees.

usually the service fee doesn't even get refunded, which feels additionally foul

California, Minnesota, Maryland, and New York have