£6.50 for a ticket transaction fee is a bit much isn't it?

I was thinking about going to an event at the Sundance London film festival in April - film composer David Arnold is talking about his work. Last year I saw composer Harry Gregson-Williams talk about his work in film composition and I could quite cheerfully hear from all film composers (and anyone else who's involved in making films happen) telling me about their work.

The tickets are a very reasonable £14 but when the checkout page told me I was signing up for £20.50 my first thought was that I'd mistakenly ticked the box to say I wanted a ceramic Sundance Festival mug (I kind of do, to be honest) - there is a transaction fee of £6.50. That seems to be pushing it a wee bit, no?

Here's what See Tickets, who are completing the ticket transactions on behalf of the festival have to say:

"The transaction fee covers the costs of processing your order, packing and delivering the tickets to you. In many cases it also covers the cost of producing your tickets. This fee can also apply to tickets arranged for collection.

The transaction fee applies per order not per ticket. If you purchase six tickets, you only pay one transaction fee.

The transaction fee will vary depending on what type of postage we are being asked to use by the event organiser and these costs are reflective of the amount that See are charged by despatch companies. First class post and Registered Post prices will vary accordingly.

See only send tickets securely for events that do not issue duplicate tickets in the event that tickets get lost in the post."

"This fee can also apply to tickets arranged for collection"? Are they printed on vellum?

It turns out that there's also a surcharge on the face value of the ticket. The event actually costs £12.50 (the face value) but See Tickets also charge a bit extra on that:

"The face value of a ticket is set by the event organisers. They don't pay us anything to sell their tickets, so in order to make money See has to charge a little bit on top. The ticket cost is the face value plus the booking fee. We have to do this on a per-ticket basis to cover the cost of providing a 7 days a week, 24 hours a day booking service, labour costs, credit card commissions and all the other costs associated with running our business. The actual amount we charge is negotiated with the venue or promoter for each event.

For some shows, such as those held in West End theatres, there is no booking fee - the £1 shown is a restoration levy collected on behalf of the theatre."

So there's a booking fee and a transaction fee, totalling £8 on a £12.50 ticket. Hmm. Feels a bit fleece-y although the event sounds brilliant and I want to go.