When a guest pays a price you weren't expecting, the rule is usually working correctly and something about the booking, the product or the timing is different from what you had in mind. This guide walks through the most common reasons, in the order they're worth checking.
Common causes
The rule isn't applied to the product, or a tier has no price
A higher-priority tier applied instead of the one you expected
The tickets didn't count toward the tier you expected
The price was changed after the booking was taken
The booking was amended after it was sold
The guest bought on a channel the rule doesn't price
Solution
Start with the booking itself: what was bought, when it was booked, for what date, and through which channel. Then work down the causes below. Each one is independent, so check the ones that fit what you're seeing rather than all six.
You'll need the Can manage price rules permission to open a rule and check its tiers, and Can edit products to check or change a rule on a product.
Check the rule is applied and every tier is priced
A product with no rule, or with a blank tier column, charges its standard price.
From Venue Manager, go to Products > All products and select the product.
Scroll to the Price rule drop-down field.
Confirm the Price rule drop-down shows the rule you expect, not Fixed price.
In the variations table, check every ticket variation has a price in every tier column.
If the rule you want isn't in the drop-down at all, it may not be supported for that product type. See How price rules work with different product types.
Check which tier applied
On a time-based rule, more than one tier can cover the same session. Tiers apply in this order:
Custom dates (eg holidays or special events)
Override times (specific hours within a day, time-restricted sessions only)
Recurring days (eg every Saturday and Sunday)
Base tier
A custom date group left in place from a past event still wins, which is the most common cause of a price nobody expected.
Go to Products > Price rules > All rules and open the rule.
Check the custom date groups for a period that covers the booking date.
Remove or re-date any group that has passed.
Check how tickets are counted
On a quantity-based rule, how tickets count toward a tier is set on the rule, not the product.
Any variation counts all ticket types together, so 2 adults and 1 child qualify for a "3+" tier.
Specific variation counts each ticket type separately, so 2 adults and 1 child do not qualify, but 3 adults do.
If a guest bought a mixed group and didn't get the tier price, open the rule and check which counting method it uses.
Tickets also only count toward a tier when they're for the same product, date and session time.
Check when the price was changed
Tier price changes apply to new bookings only. A booking already taken keeps the price it was sold at, on every rule type.
If you updated a price recently and an older booking still shows the old amount, that's expected behavior rather than a fault. Check the booking's creation date against the date you changed the price.
Check whether the booking was amended
What happens to the price when a booking changes depends on the rule type.
Rule type | What happens when the booking changes |
|---|---|
Quantity-based | The price updates automatically if the number of tickets changes |
Time-based | The price updates if the booking moves to a different day, time or custom date period |
Early bird | The price stays the same, because it's locked to the original booking date |
Capacity-based (beta) | The booking holds the price it was sold at |
One amendment is worth knowing about separately. When a guest arrives on the wrong day and staff reschedule the ticket at POS rather than redeeming it, POS shows any price difference before confirming, based on your existing price rules. Moving a booking from an off-peak day to a peak day shows that difference upfront, and staff can issue a credit or keep the original price. See ROLLER release notes: January 2026.
Check the channel the guest bought through
Quantity-based, time-based and early bird rules price the online checkout, POS and Venue Manager automatically. Self-serve kiosks and the legacy checkout charge the product's standard rate, so a guest buying there pays the normal price while the same ticket in the online checkout follows the rule.
Capacity-based rules are different again. You select which channels the tiers price on when you create the rule, and a channel you leave out charges the base price.
To check where a rule prices, see Which sales channels a price rule applies to.
Still not right?
If you've checked all of the above and the price still isn't what you expect, contact your customer success manager or the support team. Have the booking reference, the product, the rule name and the date and channel the booking was made on ready.