A Word on Integrity

I'd like to preface this post before I begin and state that while I've only been racing for about eighteen months, I did nearly twenty races last year and I've worked in customer service my entire life. Because of this, I have a very strong sense of morality when it comes to communication between organizations (in this case an endurance event company) and their customers.

In the past forty-eight hours I have received multiple emails from both Superhero Events and Gemini Timing advertising up to $25 off of race registration for Costume Party Race Half Marathon participants who register before prices increase by $5 on April 21. That's fine. I'm all for saving money on race dues. My issue is that I signed up two days after last year's event for early bird pricing at $75 per person and now, less than three months before the race starts, racers can get a price that's almost 14% cheaper than what I paid nine months ago. That just didn't sit right with me, so I contacted the Costume Party Run facebook page yesterday afternoon just to see what was going on. What happened next is what has me more frustrated than anything else.

Below are two screenshots of my "conversation" with CPR regarding the issue of pricing. My initial question was just one of curiosity and hope that they would have a decent answer for me in regard to this issue. The answer I got back was in my eyes curt, so I decided to reply back to them, but they had already deleted my post to their page before I could respond. See the little red "!" next to my post? That was because they deleted my inquiry entirely from their page before I could respond back to them. Why? My guess is because they don't necessarily have a good response for me regarding this issue, even if Active.com is in charge of this promotion. I can handle that, but companies should be very aware of how they interact with customers. Acting flat-out crusty toward an inquiry on Facebook and then deleting that same post moments later is not the best idea in terms of good PR.

I'd be foolish to think that this is an isolated event considering the mounting problems that Superhero Events has had with the Costume Party Run this year. On March 20th I received the following email through Active.com:

Hello Costume Party Run Participants! We thank all of you for your interest in the Costume Party Run Half Marathon & 5k. Unfortunately, due to updated NFL scheduling with Qualcomm stadium, the Costume Party Run date has been changed to Sunday, July 13th. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause for you. If you are unable to attend the event because of the new date, please let us know so that we may issue you a full refund. We look forward to all of you joining us on July 13th!

Personally, I was grateful for the date change, but a lot of racers have requested refunds due to this issue. This is speculation on my behalf,  but it's possible that Superhero Events is currently taking a loss on this event and is frustrated that their race's date change is negatively impacting business. I can understand that and relate to it, but it's not something that should also affect loyal customers who agreed to come back and race again just two days after the event was over. Just my two cents, but I don't know if we'll come back to race with Superhero Events in the future if we continue to have bad experiences. It's a shame, too, because they put on good events, but we're all about fairness where I come from and this is currently an unfair pricing situation with inadequate explanation as to why. I'll keep you updated if I get more information.