Woman loses it after she had to pay £29 for a £25 festival parking pass. Then the website prompted her to pay 50p more: ‘Robbing me blind’

For TikTok creator Dani (@dani_b_unfiltered), what should have been a routine festival parking pass booking allegedly turned into a lesson in add-on fees. In a fiery rant sitting at over 83,000 views, Dani unpacked the infuriating cascade of add-on fees.

These “hidden” fees allegedly transformed an advertised rate into an inflated checkout total for her. It spiraled her £25 charge into unexpected service levies, transaction fees, and a surreal request to pay for an automated text message.

This is known as the practice of “drip pricing.” It means to advertise an attractive baseline rate only to tack on mandatory administrative fees during checkout. However, it has become an endemic frustration across digital ticketing platforms. Masking the real total price until the payment details page feels deliberately deceptive. In turn, it sours the experience before the attendee even arrives at the venue. As Dani put it, she felt like the “festival robbing me blind before I’ve even arrived.”

A £25 festival parking pass magically escalated to £29 at checkout

Preparing for an upcoming weekend music festival, Dani explained that she navigated to the events booking portal to reserve a spot for her car. According to her, the site advertised a face value of £25. And she was fully prepared to pay to ensure her vehicle had a secured place on-site.

However, once she reached the checkout screen, the numbers began shifting. First, the base rate allegedly jumped to £27.50 to absorb an unspecified service charge. Just as she resigned herself to the new subtotal, the platform reportedly tacked on a £1.50 “transaction fee” simply for processing the digital payment. This inflated the final ticket price to £29.

“They’re lying to me, because it’s not £25… So that’ll be an extra £1.50,” Dani says. “Right? So that brings your parking up to £29, then? … Yeah, it does.” Having reluctantly accepted the £4 markup, Dani prepared to finalize the booking. That was when the platform presented one final indignity. 

A ridiculous 50p charge for an SMS confirmation pushed Dani over the edge

While finalizing the £29 payment, Dani allegedly saw a prompt asking if she wanted an SMS booking confirmation sent to her mobile phone. Ticking the box reportedly revealed a 50p surcharge just to receive an automated notification confirming the purchase she had already paid for.

“50p for a text message? This isn’t 2003! Text messages are free,” Dani vented. She noted the sheer audacity of charging a premium for standard notification protocols in an era of unlimited mobile data plans. But Dani refused to surrender another 50p out of pure principle. So, she declined the text confirmation and completed the £29 transaction.

However, as soon as she finalized the payment, she realized she was left second-guessing whether her pass had actually cleared. Dani’s point in the video was that consumers don’t object to paying for access; they object to being misled. If you are selling an event parking pass, display the full, honest rate from the jump instead of nickel-and-diming drivers all the way to the confirmation screen.