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Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaint
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| General Discussion | Triathlon Talk » Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaint | Rss Feed  |
 2014-08-22 11:17 AM |
Extreme Veteran 368  |  Subject: Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaintLast year I was registered for Toughman Tri in NY, and was unable to race due to an injury, so volunteered for 6 hours on the bike course, so that I could get a deferral towards this years race, and race for free. After deferring, I ended up signing up (and finishing) my first Ironman (IMMT) after DNF'ing IMLP last year. I'd not planned on racing Toughman, as it was only 3 weeks post IM. Well, now here it is, 5 days post IM and I decided "what the heck, it's 1.5 miles from my house, i've got a comp'd registration, may as well do it". I emailed the volunteer coordinator who'd sent the thank you's after last years race, as I clearly was not yet signed up for this race (race is in 2 weeks). Much to my surprise, the response I get was "sorry, deferral registration is closed, I can give you $50 off". Deferral registration is closed? I knew nothing of this, added the RD to the email thread, stating that a $50 discount is unsatisfactory. They claim that two email blasts were sent out stating deferral entries would close in december (i received neither, or they went straight to spam). In any case, their website states "Race Deferral Athletes that are unable to race may receive a full deferral to the following year if they fulfill at least 6 hours volunteering for the race. Earning a full deferral for a 2014 entry means the entire entry fee will be credited towards the athlete's 2015 entry. You may assign someone else to volunteer on your behalf. To defer you entry, please register to volunteer by 5PM on 9/4/14." obviously this is the verbiage for this years race, but there is NOTHING stating that there is a deadline for when you need to register by. Do I have a right to be cheesed off (since general registration is still open), since I feel the RD is in the wrong, or am I just being a crybaby? |
| 2014-08-22 11:29 AM in reply to: Cavemann |
1159 | Subject: RE: Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaint do you have a written confirmation of your deferral from last year? it not - then I don't know if you have a leg to stand on - if yes, then i'd push it |
| 2014-08-22 11:33 AM in reply to: Cavemann |
Champion 7036   Sarasota, FL | Subject: RE: Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaint |
| 2014-08-22 11:35 AM in reply to: austhokie |
| Extreme Veteran 368 | Subject: RE: Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaint They've acknowledged that I fulfilled my deferral requirement last year and stated that deferrals closed in december (i never received notification). Additionally, their volunteer policy on their web page says NOTHING about a registration deadline. I received two messages from the RD today: "there were 2 email blasts that went out to all deferrals that stated explicitly that the deadline was Dec 2013. At this point the best we can do is to get you a discount. We are about 10 spots away from closing the race out with the only opportunity to race being a charity partner spot at $1500. The expiration of the code will be this weekend should you decide to use it." and "on our end we are very busy at this point trying to get everything together to make a safe race. This will be the last email that you will get as a response from us. I am the final say. You have a discount code for 50 off. The discount code will expire by tomorrow night if you are going to use it. Rich" the way I read it, i was told GFY and i'm out of luck. in reality, what would it take for them to add my registration? not a whole lot in order to provide a satisfied customer experience, instead, i get this.... |
| 2014-08-22 11:39 AM in reply to: RedCorvette |
| Extreme Veteran 368 | Subject: RE: Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaint I asked them to fwd me the blast, as I did not receive anything |
| 2014-08-22 11:41 AM in reply to: Cavemann |
Regular 309 Euless, Texas | Subject: RE: Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaint I feel for ya, but if 2 emails were sent out stating registration was closing, I don't think you can be mad at the RD or his team. |
| 2014-08-22 11:41 AM in reply to: Cavemann |
| 55 Downingtown , Pennsylvania | Subject: RE: Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaint aside frm th 6 hours you arguably wasted (although I personally really value volunteers at all races and see it as a way to give back to racing community), how much money are you talking about? If its a couple hunred bucks I'd chalk it up to experience and move on. You actually might have a legal claim if they can't show they sent the e-blast to you but for what I guess is the amount involved, I'd drop it and pay them back by never doing their race again. |
| 2014-08-22 11:42 AM in reply to: jjupiter100 |
| Extreme Veteran 368 | Subject: RE: Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaint Originally posted by jjupiter100 I feel for ya, but if 2 emails were sent out stating registration was closing, I don't think you can be mad at the RD or his team. Except I never received ANY emails. Otherwise why would I not sign up for a free entry, even if i wasnt going to use it. |
| 2014-08-22 11:45 AM in reply to: #5042406 |
| 111 | Subject: RE: Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaint As a sometime RD and not associated with the event you mentioned, at some point it has to be the athlete's responsibility. To think that you can just decide at the last minute to register for a race is a little ridiculous. And to give you an idea of why that it is the case, the closer you get to an event date the more expensive it becomes to add athletes. At 2 weeks before the event, the majority of the money is spent on everything from food to awards to permitting fees to insurance based on the confirmed registrations. Adding athletes at that point becomes very expensive. The deferral policy for that event seems exceptionally generous. They probably did put out some email blasts that landed in your spam folder. But they made a good faith effort to contact you about registration for deferrals. At some point, you as the athlete need to take responsibility for getting everything squared away for your entry and not place all the blame on the race director for letting it go until the last minute. |
| 2014-08-22 11:53 AM in reply to: snappingt |
Pro 6011 Camp Hill, Pennsylvania | Subject: RE: Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaint Originally posted by snappingt As a sometime RD and not associated with the event you mentioned, at some point it has to be the athlete's responsibility. To think that you can just decide at the last minute to register for a race is a little ridiculous. And to give you an idea of why that it is the case, the closer you get to an event date the more expensive it becomes to add athletes. At 2 weeks before the event, the majority of the money is spent on everything from food to awards to permitting fees to insurance based on the confirmed registrations. Adding athletes at that point becomes very expensive. The deferral policy for that event seems exceptionally generous. They probably did put out some email blasts that landed in your spam folder. But they made a good faith effort to contact you about registration for deferrals. At some point, you as the athlete need to take responsibility for getting everything squared away for your entry and not place all the blame on the race director for letting it go until the last minute. I agree with this on all counts.
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| 2014-08-22 12:23 PM in reply to: Cavemann |
Champion 10668 Tacoma, Washington | Subject: RE: Toughman Tri - volunteer deferral not honored complaint First, you say: Originally posted by Cavemann (i received neither, or they went straight to spam). And then you say: Originally posted by CavemannExcept I never received ANY emails. Otherwise why would I not sign up for a free entry, even if i wasnt going to use it. So you don't know whether you did or not. And apparently you don't look over "spam" to see if there are any legit emails in there, you just clear it out. I know of many people who do this, and you know, sometimes legit emails get tossed into the trash. That's not their problem, and it's not up to them to change their policy just for you because you didn't look. |
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