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Sherwood Pines Half Marathon Scam?
Runners entering the Sherwood Pines Half Marathon yesterday received notification that the event has been postponed due to volunteers dropping out and ensuing safety concerns about the event. This with only six days to go before the event.
The event is run by marathon trails uk and unlike other race organisers they do not allow the entry to be transferred to another event and they will not give out a refund for the race being postponed.
The postponement appears to be a great dodge for them because if you can't make the rescheduled date you count as a no show and have no right to a refund.
They only refund upon cancellation except in the case of force majeure.
The word locally is that the company had not asked Sherwood Pines trail centre for volunteers as is the normal procedure. It is impossible to say for sure but the whole thing appears to be either woefully organised or a rip off made possible by terms and conditions. Of course the facebook group for the event now has commenting turned off and there has been no further comment.
The rise in social media has made generating a buzz and getting attendance for an event a lot easier but the difficulty of actually organising the event is probably greater than ever. With the cost of event entries always rising its definitely a case of caveat emptor. But perhaps the runners should be receiving a little more protection for their participation.
The event is run by marathon trails uk and unlike other race organisers they do not allow the entry to be transferred to another event and they will not give out a refund for the race being postponed.
The postponement appears to be a great dodge for them because if you can't make the rescheduled date you count as a no show and have no right to a refund.
They only refund upon cancellation except in the case of force majeure.
The word locally is that the company had not asked Sherwood Pines trail centre for volunteers as is the normal procedure. It is impossible to say for sure but the whole thing appears to be either woefully organised or a rip off made possible by terms and conditions. Of course the facebook group for the event now has commenting turned off and there has been no further comment.
The rise in social media has made generating a buzz and getting attendance for an event a lot easier but the difficulty of actually organising the event is probably greater than ever. With the cost of event entries always rising its definitely a case of caveat emptor. But perhaps the runners should be receiving a little more protection for their participation.
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Comments
That's pretty poor. Lack of volunteers doesn't sound like force majeure to me, I suspect that a lack of refund wouldn't stand up to scrutiny under UK consumer laws, but you'd need someone with better legal knowledge than me.
There seem to be a lot of these event companies these days - some of them are very good, despite the complaints that they're more expensive than club events, but unfortunately there are some very ropey ones as well.
They are repeating this event in the summer as the January one was such a success.
They even had a road closure and safety marshals too - it seemed pretty well organised.
If the rescheduled date appears and I'm able to do it then I will but I won't expose my self to that risk again if I have any other option.