I have been joining road races since April 2007 and since then I have been trying to convince my wife to join me to no avail. However, sometime last year I was able to convince my son Dax and daughter in law Pamela to embrace the sport. Both have been joining races since then and were even able to recruit four of their friends. This is the evangelization of running.
Early this month, of whatever reasons, I again asked my wife if she would like to join the family for the New Balance Power Run 09. To my great surprise it was an affirmative answer. Without hesitation I registered myself, wife, son Dax, Pamela and my youngest 10 year old son for the run.
I submitted and paid for the registration at New Balance Shangri-la Plaza on 11Sep09 total cost was P1,600.00. Race packet and singlet for 10K was available then but 3 of my registration for the 5K, the race packets and singlets were not available so I just asked for a receipt, the store attendant said that they are not issuing receipts so I just asked him to write a receipt of the amount in a piece of paper so that I have something to hold on as a proof of payment.
Since 11Sep09 till noon time of today 25Sep09 I have returned to the store four times and each time I was told that it should be available the following day. Today, I was told that the 5K race packets are onhand but the singlets are not available. I told the store attendant that I have spent so much time and gasoline to keep on returning taht I do not want to be further inconvenienced and instead would be more than happy to get my money back. However, the store attendant could not return my payment as according to him the amount is already with Extribe who are the organizers of the race and that New Balance are not involve. I reminded the store attendant that the race is sponsored by New Balance so in effect it has its responsibility and that my payment was received by them and not by Extribe as proof is the piece of paper I was holding. I asked to talk to a responsible New Balance staff/manager so that I could express my concern. He called and talked to somebody on the other line but the person didn’t want to talk to me apparently.
It was at this point I raised my voice/shout on the guy as I could no longer keep my composure. After a minute or so, a young person who was inside the store looking at shoes approached me and in a polite manner offered if he could be of assistance as he was part or know the organizers Extribe. The person was JAN LAYUG (am not sure if I spelled/got the name correctly) he called the person in-charged someone by the name Eric and explained the situation. A compromise solution was agreed upon that I shall get the race packets (the 5K packets are already available but the singlets are still not available) the singlets will be provided by Jan on race day.
I thank Mr. Jan Layug for introducing himself and offering assistance. He could have just kept quiet but instead did the right thing to involve himself as part/or friend of Extribe. For this action Jan, you have my respect. I hope that my problem in race packet and singlet collection is remote and not common to all, otherwise, it will be of a big concern due to the volume of participants.
In the end, I now have a race bib for my wife so that she does not backout of the race.
See you all at the Power Run 09.
hi amado,
ReplyDeleteit was very patient of you to return to the store four times. i only allot myself a maximum of two.
i can't understand why organizers don't prepare the kits ahead of the announcement of the start of the registration. it seems that they prepare an initial number of kits and just place additional orders if the stocks run out. they want the order for the kits to be based on the actual number of registrants, which have proven time and again to be problematic. they just don't want to risk wasting too much kits. however, their suppliers just cannot cope with the time frame, which by this time had become too tight.
organizing events carry certain risks. you can only do so much to minimize them. organizers should stick to the originally planned number of participants. anything more than this would just be courting disaster. it seems that they never learn from the mistakes of past races, as this has already become a nagging, annoying problem.
nestor
Wow Sir Amado, you sure have a lot of patience in going back there four times. I don't think I could pull that off myself. Props to the person who helped you out. Such a shame though that the race was moved to late November. Sigh. Anyway, I am offering my prayers to the recovery of your Mom po, hope she will be alright.
ReplyDeleteDear Nestor - My extra patience was for my wife sake imagine I finally was able to convince her. Sad to say now the event has been reset due to calamity brought about by heavyvrains. Now my wife has another opportunity to back out.
ReplyDeleteYour comments on the whys were indeed correct.
Dear Luis - I hope the date in November this race has been moved will not overrun any good upcomig event.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the prayers for my Mom. She is now doing her rehabilitation and getting well each day hopefully well enough to come/visit Philippines by Christmas time.