Velo Birmingham Cancelled - NO REFUNDS!

[wyre forest blues]

One of my friends is trying chargeback with his bank as its under £100 and he paid by debit card. Worth trying?

 

[Drago]

Worse that can say is no. Would serve them right if a few people did that.

 

[tribanjules]

As one of the 13 who crashed on parsons hill, I’m still in queue for shoulder surgery from last year. Accident was preventable with simple road markings

 

[PaulSB]

@Pale Rider - thanks. I've taken all those points on board.

 

[rivers]

Etape Loch Ness have allowed participants to transfer to the new date in September, defer to next year, donate the fee to charity, or refund. Velo Birmingham could learn something

 

[DiddlyDodds]

I dont pay these prices to ride my bike anymore preferring to do Audax and such like ,,,,, oh wait i am signed up for the "Coast 2 Coast in a day" oh bugger (update - it was cancelled but got a 100% refund)

 

[LibraRider]

@LibraRider : Change in plans then?

Birmingham Velo has been haemorrhaging cash for a number of years now. I guess their business model involves getting the ball rolling, and then future events making the money as they don't have the set-up and marketing costs of the first few years.

Going to be a tough year for cycling and cycling events, although I guess manufacturers of turbo trainers and people like Zwift will do well.

Yes sadly.
I have signed up for ride London for free as I’m still doing it for charity.
Hopefully that will still go ahead

 

[vickster]

Yes sadly.
I have signed up for ride London for free as I’m still doing it for charity.
Hopefully that will still go ahead

I think that's unlikely to be honest

 

[Racing roadkill]

Yes sadly.
I have signed up for ride London for free as I’m still doing it for charity.
Hopefully that will still go ahead

The problem is the pay ahead that the PRLS has. They are going to have to make a call in the next week or 2. I think it will be to call it off and mass defer everyone’s entry, personally

 

[dhd.evans]

This is absolutely disgraceful. I only take part in two sportives a year (Etape Caledonia and Kinross Sportive) which have both offered refunds or deferrals.

Spectacularly disgusting behaviour by Velo Birmingham.

 

[Polocini]

As someone who has organised a lot of sportives this is pretty disgusting to see. The last event that I ran had to be cancelled because of the weather and also because I'd had a bad crash just before and was struggling to move.

I gave 100% refunds. If I had have had another event coming up then I would have also offered to move it over to that.

I took a financial hit on it but that came out of the contingency money I kept from previous events. The fact they cant even offer 50% is disgusting.

I got sick of all the pirates, thieves and negative anti sportive sentiment so havent done any events for a long time. Event organisers like this just fuel it.

I did almost sell my event business but the guys coming in were purely about just upping the entry fees and spam emailing our rider database.

At the end of the day I was running events to make money for myself. That's business. But theres a way of doing things properly.

Hopefully after the all the covid 19 stuff calms down people will start to boycott the likes of wetherspoons and easyjet and at least a little bit of social conscience in business will return. But I doubt it!!!

Cheers
AL

 

[Racing roadkill]

I hope that we see the return of more “reliability trials”. The purists our there may sign up to those, and leave the “sportives” for the rest.

 

[Kestevan]

Shame you've decided not to run events Al @Polocini the Winter Sprinter was a cracking season starter (despite the Cheshire lanes usually being coated with a good covering of "not mud" ). Always a well run, well catered event at a reasonable price (and that's from a Yorkshireman).

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Take up audax when it returns. Run by cyclists for cyclists and not for profit.

 

[172traindriver]

As someone who has organised a lot of sportives this is pretty disgusting to see. The last event that I ran had to be cancelled because of the weather and also because I'd had a bad crash just before and was struggling to move.

I gave 100% refunds. If I had have had another event coming up then I would have also offered to move it over to that.

I took a financial hit on it but that came out of the contingency money I kept from previous events. The fact they cant even offer 50% is disgusting.

I got sick of all the pirates, thieves and negative anti sportive sentiment so havent done any events for a long time. Event organisers like this just fuel it.

I did almost sell my event business but the guys coming in were purely about just upping the entry fees and spam emailing our rider database.

At the end of the day I was running events to make money for myself. That's business. But theres a way of doing things properly.

Hopefully after the all the covid 19 stuff calms down people will start to boycott the likes of wetherspoons and easyjet and at least a little bit of social conscience in business will return. But I doubt it!!!

Cheers
AL

I did one of your sportives @Polocini many years ago back in 2012 and thoroughly enjoyed it. Very well organised and cracking food afterwards.
'Let them eat cake'?