Hyannis Marathon/half Canceled, No Refunds & No Reschedule

The risk is on the runner. I can't believe how many people are arguing otherwise.

Tip.. only go to races you can sign up for on or near race say when weather is suspect. Problem solved.

Presuming the race organizer made a good faith effort to put on the race (get permitting, organize staffing, etc) what other explicit conditions must be met? My argument is that there is a risk of cancellation, this risk is addressed in the contract, and the cost of that risk is explicitly assigned to the participant. What part of this is invalid?

Who said it did? My statement referred to what consideration the race organizer might offer the participants in spite of being under no legal obligation to do so.

I believe that most if not all of the posters defending this poor business practice work with this company. To attack posters and tell them to quit whining etc. is just an example of rude these people are. This company is shady and have absolutely no customer service etiquette. After I signed up for the race I did a little research on the company. They have ticked off a lot of people out there. When you sign up for the race you have to be very careful not to accidentally sign up for other "subscriptions." When I read "no refunds" I assumed (I guess my mistake) that it meant if I canceled for any reason. I would never in a million years think that the organizers would steal people's money like this. I have had friends sign up for other races (not through this company) in which the race was postponed and if they couldn't make that one they were given an option for a free future race.

If you are part of this company you can save your time with any reply's as I am saying my peace this one time and moving on. So feel free to stoop even lower than you already have (if that is even possible) and attack my post with all sorts of negativity and sarcasm (i.e. "wah wah") and help me prove to the rest of the posters what an awful company you really are!

I am lodging a complaint with the Attorney General and recommend others do as well. It takes about 2-3 minutes to fill out an online complaint. Follow the link below:

https://www.eform.ago.state.ma.us/ago_eforms/forms/piac_ecomplaint.action

The company is BA Event Promotions

Sommerville, MA and you will need to provide the website:

http://www.hyannismarathon.com

PTF wrote:...It was an interesting article because it also went onto explain the enormous financial hit to the Cape. The race brings in 10,000 visitors...all of whom patronize the local restaurants, stores, hotels etc...

10,000 visitors, I would highly doubt that. Last year they had 382 marathon finishers, 2986 half marathon finishers and 94 relay teams. If they have 5 on a relay team that's about 3900 total runners. There is no way every runner at this race brings almost 2 people with him or her. Plus scanning the results, a lot of the runners are semi-local, so they're not buying hotel rooms. And nobody is traveling to Hyannis to spectate at this race. Any spectators are people who live right there or who came with a runner.

While I wouldn't doubt that a race of this size creates a positive financial picture for the town, especially considering it's not exactly high season in Hyannis, to say that the town is losing out on 10,000 visitors spending money is massive overestimation.

The team I coach had about 10 runners who signed up for this one. But they weren't bringing anybody with them and they were crashing at one of the team member's houses. While that's a small sample size I think you'd see a lot of that if you looked at everybody who signed up to run.

after further research i retract my suggestion report. Although I personally feel that they should be a little clearer on their no refund policy, I do think that they did everything by the book.

That so many people are arguing otherwise might be a hint that this isn't as clear cut a matter as you think.

Someone else mentioned this point but it's worth emphasizing. There are a lot of "no refund" situations in the marketplace. You can buy discounted books, end of season clothes that are explicitly advertised as non-refundable. I imagine that many if not most people who fly these days buy non-refundable plane tickets. At my local running shop shoes are non-refundable. None of this means that you don't get the shoes, the flight, the sweater. It means that you can't return the shoes or sweater or decide not to take the flight.

Sure, everyone pretty much knows that once you sign up for a race you cannot get your money back if you decide not to run. If the race went ahead and people were wanting to bail because the conditions are so bad and couldn't get their money back that would be one thing. This is something much different. And why not just change the date?

THIS^ is the answer.

Pay for the next race with ass pennies.

There is a difference between a refund and a providing a service of equal value. If I buy a non-refundable ticket and the flight is cancelled, I'm not entitled to a refund, but I should get an available seat on a another flight. They don't just get to keep my money and make me buy another ticket.

The RD needs to offer a service of equal value. That could be done by rescheduling the race or offering entries to another race. If people refuse the offer, that's their problem. And stop barking about the race will lose money, these races aren't put on for free, blah blah blah. That's the risk of doing business. Sometimes you lose money.

800 dude,

I won't venture into the legal aspects, just the business side.

If the poster disputes it w/ Visa and wins and has his fees refunded the organizer has to dispute it with Visa first (as already pointed out).

The organizer can attempt to sell the obligation as a bad debt to a collection agency, but this would be a very poor purchase for anybody buying these debts. A supposedly neutral 3rd party (Visa) has already arbitrated the case and made a decision. Placing this as a bad debt debt on a credit report would be very risky move by a collection agency.

Bottom line is no collection agency buys this debt.

PTF wrote:

The T-shirts and medals alone cost $60,000.

Last year there were 382 finishers in the marathon, 94 relay teams or 376 runners and there were 2,986 in the half. So a total of 3,744. Round up to 4,000 to include people that didn't show up or didn't finish.

So you are telling me that they spent $60,000 on shirts and medals for 4,000 people? They need a better dealer if they are spending $15 per person on that.

The George Washington Marathon was cancelled last year due to weather. The people who set up the race couldn't recoup the cost of the race gear like shirts and medals, but didn't want to take any profit from a cancelled race. They ended up mailing out all the shirts with the medals and whatever money was left over in CASH. It was really awesome.

The second KO Runnner was not me. That was the company, telling you to not file a compliant against them.

Here is a list of their races to make sure you don't sign up for:

1.Ras Na heireann - March 15, 2015 in Somerville - Heard he got a new car from skimming off this

2. The Blues Run Walk - May 2015 - Paulie Redid his porch with this one

3. May 24, 2015 - John Kelley Half Marathon in Hyannis - They're doing another half marathon and couldn't give free entry to that one?? hmmm

4. 2 Crappy Musical Festivals in June

5. Pauliestock 5k - Guy loves himself, named a race after himself.

http://www.baevents.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/BA-Event-Promotions/207104282519?v=wall&ref=mf

The GW Birthday Marathon was always a great race. It's great that it's survived into the big marathon era. The people in charge were always classy and evidently still are.

I'm pretty sure PTF is the RD wrote:

Hey PTF if you are the race director, give the money back you scumbag.

Ha ha ha...

Thanks for a great laugh. Do I know you?

In case I don't know you...and you don't know me...I've never met the race Hyannis director despite living in Hyannis for ~16 years. But I've helped out with loads of races here on the Cape...measuring, marking, directing traffic, doing registration etc.. I've never worked a Paul Collyer race as his stuff is usually much bigger than the races I get called into.

I've helped with easily over 100 races. Unfortunately, I've never made a dime. In fact, I've spend hundreds...if not thousands...of dollars of my own money on tape, spray paint, poster board, signage material, measuring wheels, staple guns, etc..

It irks me a bit when people show so little appreciation for what goes into putting on a race. Hence, I'm sympathetic to the race organizer.

But to be honest...while I was just running races...and never actually helping put them on...I didn't have much appreciation either.

ekw wrote:

I don't believe the organization should be responsible for losing money on an event they did everything in their power to offer you.

Is this a joke? Yes, no company should ever be forced to lose money while trying to bring a product to market.

I understand weather and don't really have an issue if the refund was not promised from the start, but your statement is just stupid.

ekw wrote:

I don't believe the organization should be responsible for losing money on an event they did everything in their power to offer you.

The Capital Ist wrote:

Is this a joke? Yes, no company should ever be forced to lose money while trying to bring a product to market.

I understand weather and don't really have an issue if the refund was not promised from the start, but your statement is just stupid.

Wait, so you completely agree with me? And yet my statement is stupid??? Huh? Also, A refund was implicitly NOT offered from the start.

"I don't believe the organization should be responsible for losing money" = "Yes, no company should ever be forced to lose money"

"an event they did everything in their power to offer you" = "trying to bring a product to market. I understand weather"

Sounds the same to me, no?

His races are bad. They're more about the party than racing - I'm surprised he hasn't jumped the color run. The Hyannis race is terrible with spots where you have to squeeze between spaces between the parked cars and the cars you are sharing the road with. No wonder they can't manage it with all the snow. Most runners I know won't run his events any more. The races are bottom heavy with college students who don't know any better. He also teams up with Marathon Sports for a couple of races and it drags their rep down by association. I shop there less for that reason too. Runners vote with their feet.

I won't pay a dime to Paul Collyer after the 2015 Hyannis marathon was canceled and he was flippant and rude about not providing a refund. Last weekend the Twin Lights Half Marathon was canceled and the race director was a class act. This should make you think twice about hiring BAE promotions when you could hire Bill at Streamline Events.

Lets make America KIND again by choosing who we do business with wisely.

2017 Twin Lights Registered Athlete,

Thank you in advance for your patience as we sort through the post-event details for the cancelled event on Saturday. We are crushed the weather impacted the event plans, but remain upbeat by so many emails of support from the race field.

Here are some updates as promised:

Your Registration Refund. imATHLETE has filed a claim with the insurance company on our behalf, and are working towards a quick resolution to ensure you refunded the registration fee. We are told this may take upwards to 10-14 business days. We will update you as soon as we receive any information. In the meantime, if you have questions of any kind about the process, the imATHLETE team is ready and able to assist. You can email them at

support@imathlete.com

and they will get back to you as soon as possible.

The Athlete T-shirts. We are strong believers in "giving" back and helping with many community service related activities. As such, we have identified a group who would LOVE to have the finisher t-shirts for their members falling on hard times. We hope you will agree. If you disagree, we can send you the t-shirt.

We will continue to update you via email. Stay tuned!

Thank you once again.

Bill Burnett

Race Director