Telecharge.com Beta or The Telecharge Paradox: Which is The Real Price for This Seat or Ticket?

In the Ticket Search History seat L113 is listed at $166.75.
(photo: TheHopefulTraveler)

Telecharge.com, one of the two official online ticket sellers for Broadway theaters and many Off-Broadway productions, is testing a new version of its website now in the beta phase. On certain days I noticed the beta version may or may not be available. But the older version of the site is still up and I am guessing it will be removed once the testing phase is complete.

When I began purchasing tickets for this trip back in April, I tried using the beta version and found it clunky to use. I have to admit I probably was so used to the old version that it'll take some practice before I'm comfortable with the beta site.

So I want to bring up something unusual that happened during my online purchase of a ticket to the new musical 'Once' using Telecharge a couple of weeks ago. It was the last show I needed to book and I found an available seat that was showing two different prices.

It looks like since winning the Tony Award for best musical most of the best seats, even those farther back in the orchestra, have been designated as premium priced seats. So I found the best seat available among those premium seats which was an aisle seat in the center orchestra and made the selection. This is when I saw something weird. When I pointed my cursor on the seat in the 3D seating diagram on the website, the price shown for the single ticket was $275 which is the cost of premium seats. When I pointed my cursor to the Ticket Search History list, I was shown a different price of $166.75 which is the top ticket price for non-premium seats.

I wasn't about to pay $275 if I could buy the ticket for $166.75. So I picked the lower price, my order went through and I got my email confirmation. This was for orchestra seat L114. For a moment I wondered if just misread the prices. So I tried to see what happened if I tried to purchase the seat next to mine (L113) which was still available. The same thing happened. Two different prices depending where I pointed my cursor ($275 and $166.75).

So as proof I took photos of my computer monitor screen which I have included in this post. It was probably a fluke but no doubt I'll be pointing my cursor in both places in the future just in case.

In these photos, the same seat is being shown to cost $275.00.
(photos: TheHopefulTraveler)