All campers to pay Ticketmaster??

From: ssilver at wildwilderness.org
Subject: All campers to pay Ticketmaster??
Date: August 23, 2004 5:23:21 PM PDT
To: ssilver at wildwilderness.org

(+++ Be warned. The following may anger.+++)

Quoted from appended commercial forest recreation newsletter:

[The Government is promoting the "imbedded" fee model
because they feel the public's perception of a
seamless and free reservation system is desirable.]

Within the past few days, Ticketmaster/ ReserveAmerica was awarded a
monopoly contract worth an estimated $130 million to manage America's
federal public lands reservation system. Now, so I have just learned, the
"Government" is pushing forward a proposal that would allow Ticketmaster to
eliminate the reservation fee they would otherwise charge and to eliminate
all of the anger that has been expressed by unhappy campers. Not
surprisingly, many traditional and frugal campers looked upon Ticketmaster's
$8 - 10 reservation fee as outrageous so our Government is stepping in to
eliminate that perception. Our Government is proposing to increase the cost
of all campsites and simply give to Ticketmaster (and its billionaire
media-mogul president, Barry Diller ) a couple of bucks every time that you,
or I or anyone else camps in any public campground for which Ticketmaster
even offers a reservation service!

Think about that!!!!! What a wonderful example of privatization following
commercialization! What a marvelous example of the poor being asked to
subside the wealthy. And what a classic example of the Corporate Takeover of
Nature run wild.

Scott Silver

------ begin quoted -------
Source The NFRA Report, Official Newsletter of the National Forest
Recreation Association July 2004.

http://www.nfra.org/newsletter/nfrarep_jul_04.pdf
National Recreation Reservation Service - New Fee Structure

Submitted by: Bud Kahn

Gail van der Bie, USDA Forest Service Assistant Director of Recreation, and
John Cameron, USDA Forest Service NRRS Contracting Officer Representative,
reviewed the federal government's desire for a one-charge fee model for all
reservation and camping fees paid through the NRRS. The new National
Recreation Reservation Service contract proposal contains a one-price model
for reservations that would include the reservation fee within the
campground fee. John Cameron has performed an analysis and concluded that
the imbedded price model would compel the need to increase use fees from
$2.00 - 3.00 per site, per night for all customers (walk-in as well as
reservation). The Government is promoting the "imbedded" fee model because
they feel the public's perception of a seamless and free reservation system
is desirable. Since the other agencies have adopted this fee model, the
Forest Service feels it would help keep the business rules of the
reservation system consistent for its concessionaires to use it also.

However, concessionaires voiced strong concerns over this fee model,
pointing out that this fee model had been previously proposed, and
vigorously rejected for the current NRRS contract. Some of the reasons given
for rejecting this fee model include:

. An increase of $2.00 - 3.00 fee increase is 25-30% of the total current
price and is above the threshold that the public will tolerate, especially
in areas that allow dispersed camping for free.

. Adding this cost to the concessionaire's burden would compete with the
concessionaire's ability to increase fees to adjust for other increases in
the cost of doing business.

. Charging all customers this "seamless" fee penalizes local and "walk-up"
campers that would have to pay the incremental fee increase for a service
they do not utilize.

. The imbedded fee would create several new management problems that have
the potential of increasing costs to the concessionaire, such as increasing
the difficulty of assessing state and local taxes on just the camping fee
and not the reservation fee (since the reservation fee is collected for a
different agency). This has the potential to increase Gross Receipt Fees for
the concessionaire as well.

. Customer refunds would be more confusing if the reservation fee is not
included in the refund, or if the reservation is included in the refund, the
concessionaire would have to absorb this new cost.

. This fee model would make walk-in camping the concessionaire's best sale
causing the concessionaire to maximize walk-in camping and to reduce
reservation sales.

Gail van der Bie is on an interagency fee council in Washington, D.C. The
mission of this council is to ensure policies and business rules are similar
between agencies, including this pricing issue. Gail stated that no final
decision has been made, and that in July, after NRRS contractor bids have
been received, the government will conduct a special meeting with
concessionaires to discuss solutions.


-------end ------

PS... the source from which you have just read contains several additional
jewels. Here's another. It refers to Sally Collins, the former Supervisor
of my local forest, now Associate Chief of the USFS. Sally recently enjoyed
an informal breakfast session with NFRA's Board and here's what they had to
say about fee-demo, forest budgets and "one-stop shopping".

Sally spoke of the struggle going on in Washington
D.C. over the Fee Demo program and how important it is
for the Forest Service to be able to retain the
program. Sadly, the Forest Service recreation budget
is down again, a situation that keeps repeating
itself. A key priority is for the land management
agencies to coordinate and work together on the
'one-stop' shopping for recreation opportunities on
public lands. NFRA was very appreciative of Sally's
time and effort to participate in our conference, and
for her willingness to listen to our concerns.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Scott Silver
Wild Wilderness
248 NW Wilmington Ave.
Bend, OR 97701

phone: 541-385-5261
e-mail: ssilver at wildwilderness.org
Internet: http://www.wildwilderness.org

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NOTE.... If you want more, here's a rant by an unhappy camper. Apparently, this is the perception that Mr. Bush is hoping to eliminate.

http://greenwebdesign.com/antigone/

ReserveAmerica: They've sucked the joy right out of camping.

I've been camping at the same state forest campground between 2-4 times a
year for about 8 years now. A lovely, peaceful place called PineWoods,
tucked away in the Southern Kettle Morrain State Forest in Souteastern WI.
In the past, you just drove through, found a site that you liked that wasn't
taken, filled out a slip, paid the ranger, and set up camp. Three years ago
or so, they changed that. There were still a few non-reservable sites that
you could show up and camp in, but for the most part, now you had to make
reservations ahead of time through a company called ReserveAmerica. I'd done
it a few times, and the fees weren't toooo bad ($4 or $5 bux). After what
happened today though, it is my very firm belief that Reserve America Sucks.
I'll never do business with Reserve America again. They've completely sucked
the joy out of camping for me, and if you have 5 minutes to waste, I'll tell
you why.

When we went to the ranger station this year, they told us they no longer
have any sites that can be self-registered in person, and that all
reservations are now through Reserve America. Fair enough. Using a website
to reserve a site is progress, and I like progress. So, I went to Reserve
America's website and made my reservation. I winced as I paid the $9.50
reservation fee they tacked on to my bill. That's more than the $8 a night
it takes to camp there in the first place! (I found out later that their
parent company also owns Ticket Master, so go figure). So I pay the $25.50
for two nights and the fee, and get really really excited all week long
thinking about our upcoming camping trip. (Have I mentioned that I've been
going to Pine Woods for 8 years, and that it's my favorite place in the
universe?) Then, my husband's grandfather, who lives with us, gets extremely
ill. Almost a week passes, and he's not getting any better. He's getting
alot worse in fact. And he's starting to scare me, with the not knowing
what's going on and throwing up, among other things.

We made doctors appointments, and rescheduled things for the coming week so
that someone could always be home with him, and we realized that there's
just no way we'd be able to go camping as planned. So, I call reserve
america, explain my situation, and ask to reschedule. I say I expect there
will be a fee and that I understand. She says that I can't reschedule, and
that I'll just have to pay the cancellation fees on the first reservation,
and then make new reservations and pay the $9.50 fee again.

Inwardly I sigh, but I say fine, I knew that the $9.50 fee was
non-refundable so that's okay. She says "no, there's the $9.50
non-refundable fee, and another $5 cancellation fee, and then there's
the..." at that point i was too shocked to remember anything else..
basically, the fees totaled $22.50, and I had paid $25.50 originally, so my
refund would be a whopping $3. That's roughly a 95% penalty fee for
canceling the reservation, even though I hadn't wanted to cancel at all,
simply to reschedule. Shocked, I try to politely inquire about what can be
done to fix this already disappointing situation, and am told "absolutely
nothing".

At this point, I'm no longer disappointed. Now, I'm just feeling irate. I
said something to the effect of, so you're telling me that I'm not allowed
to reschedule, and there's no real reason except "that's how we do it,
sorry, there are no exceptions." And to top it off, because they force you
to cancel it instead instead of letting you reschedule, I have to pay $13 in
cancellation fees in addition to the $9.50 non-returnable fee? I mean, come
on! I understand that there are rules and all, but this just seems
ridiculous! I ask if there's anyone else there who would be able to
authorize it, and she says that I could ask the customer service department,
but that they would definitely say no too so it wouldn't do any good and
they have kind of a long wait time today. But she'd be happy to refund my
$3, and then I would just have to pay another non-refundable $9.50 fee to
make another reservation right away, plus the $8 a night (that i already
paid, darn it) bringing my total to $25.50, and would I like to do that now
on the phone?

At this point, I (somewhat sarcastically, I'll admit) thanked her, told her
to leave the reservation as it stood, and hung up, seething, wondering how
many campgrounds I'd be forced to boycott now. I went to their website and
logged into my account, and found that she had gone ahead and deleted the
reservation anyways though I had told her to forget it. But she did refund
my $3 when she cancelled it. If there's one thing I've learned from this
ordeal, it's that I really and truly hate Reserve America, and I never want
to give them another cent of my hard earned money. Never again will I go to
a campground that forces you to use ReserveAmerica, because quite frankly,
they suck.

I love camping with all of my heart and soul. It makes me feel I feel happy
and alive, but Reserve America just sucked the joy right out of it for me. I
find it completely disheartening that our state forests are only accessible
by doing business with Reserve America (And as I mentioned before, the same
company that owns ticketmaster owns Reserve America, so that should tell you
something). I mean, I was already really disappointed that I wasn't going to
be able to go camping to begin with, but after talking to them, I felt even
worse.

The only reason I'm even ranting on about this is that I'm really
heartbroken. PineWoods was my favorite place in the entire world. My
sanctuary, if you will. Once again, something really amazing and beautiful
is now ruined it for the people who loved it, and someone else will profit
off of that fact.

Thanks for listening to me rant. And please, I beg you, don't ever use
Reserve America. Being forced to deal with Reserve America to be able to
camp in our forests is pretty much the equivalent of selling your soul to
Satan at gunpoint.