While Energizer Night Race Malaysia generally agree to have refund to everyone. But not all are hoping for refund. Below are note from Karen's facebook:
Who cant be pissed off coming back from a marathon run only to find out that the Organiser were no longer at the event (or rather stop carrying out their duties)!!!!!! Then came the shockwaves of complaints lambasted across FB. Of course, i contributed to the complaints.
Then came the issue of Refunds from ENR......so i thought, should this be done? The were 60 runners who demanded and somehow were promised refunds. Is this legally correct? In fact i would like to answer it as Would This Be Fair?
Before i answer this from a simple legal standpoint of view or equitable principle, lets see the scenario of how the FIASCO started.
A video posted on the collection of goodie bags and medals that night showed this :
The Organisers defintely did not prepare enough staff/crew to handle this. The medals were in boxes and were not prepared to be given out systematically. The delay prompted excessively long queue and the longer it became the less it could quell the emotions of tired participants.
Then an outburst... There were scenes of participants taking action into their own hand.
Crowd control from the organisers was bad, they shouted like fishmongers and threw bags in midair for participants to catch. Then what could be no worser, they brought down the shutters to the collection area and called the police. Police forces forcing the participants to leave left an indelible image of injustice.
This is the diagnosis :
Crowd control by organiser was done in a very unprofessional way, in my opinion and failed to cut down possible damage. Incited and incensed by this, the crowd of participant who took things into their hands werent cooperative and some dealt with the issue in a manner not called for.
I hv read that participants admittedly grabbed the medals themselves. Runners who ran 11km taking 21km medals and others for different categories. This is also not right if you ask me. I ran the marathon and came back to NOTHINGNESS BUT I WOULDNT HAVE taken any medal in that manner.
The CROWD CONTROL FAILED because of Bad Management by race organisers (which is now an issue because apparently the so-called Race Director is not the Race director for this event! blimey!)
AND THIS FAILURE heralded more shortcomings for runners to voice out....TUNNEL OF DEATH, CAR PARK issues, CLOSURE of water stop in the circuit, LACK of Signages ...and blah blah all sorts of complaints.
However, Lets not forget we have runners who cheated too and/or grabbed the medals and took off with too many....so take a look at the situation from a different standpoint.
Underlying factor is that the ORGANISER failed to deliver a Good Run and manage the event it in a most unprofessional standard.
On these grounds can you ask for a refund?
In summary for layman's understanding:
When one asks for a refund, it means a recision...this means you are put into a position where you were before you have signed the contract. (when you registered and paid you have a contract).
This cannot be possible as (1) Energizer has delivered what they have promised....a night Race. That they did though in a deplorably unprofessional manner. (2) you have run the race too.
So all those 60 runners who have asked for refunds and were promised refunds....without offence, i will say to you, it is not fair nor right for you to demand for refund. There have been cost incurred to getting this race organised too. Sure, we can suspect that the Organisers reaped plenty of profits from here but there are other remedies and other avenues to demand for a sub- standard race.
You can demand from Energizer, your contractual rights ie, the finisher tee and the medal(plus the certification).. And this, They Have CONTRACTUALLY FAILED TO Deliver to you. You may write them a 3 day's notice to them to which failure to deliver after the 3 days would entitle you to damages (compensation in money form). And this is what we should do....ask for compensation for late delivery of our medals and finisher tee. Set an amount of money as compensation if they fail to deliver within a period we have set out too. (normally 7 days period is taken as the reasonable period and the amount fair for compensation would be the cost of the finisher tee and the medal including the cost you have incurred to ask for compensation ie travelling, postal)
Presently, the organisers ought to set up a counter to cater for the runners/ participants who have GENUINELY yet to get their finisher tee and/or medal. ( i havent got my finisher tee, so GENUINELY i shall only demand for the tee...ooh and yes the headlamp i didnt get). However, Energizer may have problems of identifying who has taken the finisher tee or the medal or the headlamps.
ALso, always remember when we want to seek a legal redress, you must go in with clean hands too...ie you have not done anything wrong on your part. Please dont go ask for redress when you have grabbed 10 medals and ran off with it, or if you have taken your medals mistakenly of other categories and decide to keep them. Be Fair too. :-) .
Thought:
After reading all these, will you still ask for refund?
For me as runner, and also many other runners, we share same thought:
We only want Finisher medal, Finisher T and Certificate. A recognition of us completing the run !
Thank you Karen for allowing me to share your note on facebook.
Thought:
After reading all these, will you still ask for refund?
For me as runner, and also many other runners, we share same thought:
We only want Finisher medal, Finisher T and Certificate. A recognition of us completing the run !
Thank you Karen for allowing me to share your note on facebook.
8 comments:
BRAVO Karen, well written and I definitely agree with you. As a regular runner(though I am still new in the running community) I am a runner with dignity and integrity. I am not a 'cheapo' runner who demand for refund. I just want what I've deserved - my medal (not even the goodies bag and the headlight)
well said. i waited for the very last few of the goody bags, and it just a coupon, tampon, shaver and a usb-powered battery charger, and a finisher medal for FM. not even worth to claim (except for the medal)but those from other category that waited for the goodie bag just grab em nonetheless. im concur with you, what we need not a refund, but our finisher tee.
and as i said in my blog, those who took something not belong to them, they are just a bad person. Boo! shame on you!
Hi, a friend has pointed me to look at your post, nice blog and thanks for helping to make ppl/media aware of the disastrous event. I have actually responded to Karen on the same note in our FB discussion so the below are just summary of my response.
I am just trying to get the refund as a consumer. If i am a real passionate runner who cares about the safety of the community and if this is not in a cowboy-law country like Malaysia, i would have taken legal action against the organizer as a runner. They are the one who disgrace(or shall i say scammed) the running community of malaysian. You can check out Dato Chandra's email reply to Azly Anwar if you want to know what happened at the back, he has posted that on his blog as well (http://azlyanwar.blogspot.com/2011/04/crappy-race-organizers.html).
Seriously Energizer/Expose is lucky enough that we are only talking about refund now, thank god there was no stempede or casualties due to dehydration/lack of medic. We must punish the irresponsible organizer(mass refund would be the best way), before another PR/Event company feel like trying their luck to make crazy profits by organizing marathon without the necessary precautions.
For most runners, the finisher medal doesn't have any meaning now as even the ppl who didnt attend the race at all would be getting it too(i heard some 5km runners were given 42km medals too). I know the passionate runners wouldnt be discouraged by just 1 single bad experience, but there were many first-timers in ENR since there's 5&10km categories and the F1 circuit attracted many of those. These new runners would get discouraged for going through such bad experince after paying rm50, a refund would probably encourage them to try the next run(and get addicted :P ).
I cant really see how "illegal" it is to get the refund since we were "contractually entitled" to a nice running experience(at least on their advertisement) but obviously we arent getting it now, so just treat it like a normal product RMA process. If you feel bad about donating such money to charity, just treat it as like Energizer's carrying out their CSR.
Lastly, thanks for reading my long comment(longest i ever written). If you feel offended by my opinion(just a humble opinion from a runner who got pissed), just feel free to delete all my replies, sorry.
Post a Comment