IRONMAN Omdömen 59

Ironman race organization has become pretentious disgusting profiteering materialistic soulless money guzzling corporation which people should not support anymore. They created fee structures like with additional $4~500 more, racers would get priority for bike rack, bike drop, swim start-line access gear/clothes drop... What is this?! Racers with more money will get favors?! Top management team must be real messed up in their brain.

Worst customer service ever. Have been emailing with them about getting a refund over the last 5 months for about 25 emails, them asking different questions every time. They are actually agreeing that I should get a refund, but are blaming finance for not doing anything (for 3 months)

All about money. I have competed in 15+ events over the years. NEVER AGAIN! I will not spend one more cent with this company. I wish I never did in the past.

Very expensive with lots of extra costs, yet terrible customer service. Unlike other triathlon event companies they refused to give refunds from events cancelled due to Covid. I am able to rebook the same event in another year, but they're now charging an extra £80+ on top of the £270+ paid already. The worst thing is that they're putting people off triathlon and making it too expensive. I would recommend doing an event with another race organiser e.g Challenge or a local company.

This organization is entirely based upon fraud. If you give them money, beware. You will not receive what you were promised and getting a refund is impossible.

There are plenty of other triathlon events which are more centred around customer experience. Ironman is all about the money.

Really expensive to enter and the entire time you are there they are trying to upsell - equipment, clothes (both expensive and poor quality) and other events. All of this would be tolerable but on top of that there customer service is dreadful. I entered the full ironman c£600 but downgraded to a half c£300 due to covid and lack of training. I actually had to pay £40 to transfer to a cheaper event! That stung. Never doing an ironman event again, and I would recommend you all find alternatives.

I had registered months ago to participate in an IRONMAN event to take place in VICHY, France on Sat 20th August 2022. On 2nd August I had to have an EMERGENCY OPERATION on one eye, after a fall. The specialist surgeon instructed me to rest until the end of September, and specifically instructed not to do sports until at least end of August, with a possible extension. I wrote to Ironman, explained them the circumstances, and submitted evidence (dr certificate) and after several emails to the marketing and legal department, hit a NO WAY wall. Even though the event was fully booked, according to their website, they didn't even take the commercial step of granting me a refund, or any form of compensation (eg taking part next year, or at an other event). I find this disgraceful and misuse of sporters good will.

Possibly the worst sports organisation in the world. They showed their true image in the COVID-19 days: they did not provide any refunds and when booking to another race they offered minimal flexibility and charged additional costs. Ironman has only one purpose: making money for its shareholders.

I registered for the City to Surf 2022 that was organised by the Ironman Group. They have terrible customer service. There was an issue with my registration and I submitted a helpdesk ticket via Register Now and called the City to Surf team directly. A person by the name of Mikaela gave me information and told me that my registration will be fixed. She said someone will call the next day. When I did not get a call, I called them back. I talked to Courtney Bourke, who was extremely unprofessional and rude. She told me that she cannot help and that its just bad luck that Mikaela gave me wrong information. I asked her for a refund of my registration if my request cannot be resolved and she said that nothing can be done. I was looking to attend the City to Surf 2022 - as it was the first time that I was attending this event. However with my experience with the Ironman Group. I will NEVER attend events organised by them. I would give them a O out of 5 stars. They are TERRIBLE to deal with. Extremely poor customer service and NO empathy - seeing that this is a charity event!! It's a complete disgrace the way Ironman Group treats people.

What a disgusting organisation!! Will NEVER attend events with them again. They were rude to me and do not follow their own processes and blame their own people for providing incorrect information. But hang on. They went and complained to my employer about me being rude to them. I was never rude to them. I haven't ever heard people be so rude to me. That I couldn't be bothered with talking to the person (Courtney Bourke) - as they were so rude. That I just opted to end the call and not deal with her any more. I just left the issue there. But they went to my employer and complained that I was rude to them. What a low rated and disgusting organisation are you running - IRONMAN Group? You go to people's work and complain about private conversations? It's a disgrace!

Ironman zeigt durch sein Handeln das sie einen Schei...... auf Athleten geben wenn es darum geht das man aufgrund von gesundheitlichen Gründen absagen muss. Und weigert sich das Geld zurück zu zahlen (25%) obwohl man innerhalb der 45 Tage ist.
Das ist einfach ganz weit weg von seriösem Handeln ich kann nur sagen Hände weg von dem Veranstalter

Very disappointing company to deal with. Would not recommend them in anyway.
Signed up for an Ironman for 2020 that was cancelled due to Covid. I allowed the company to retain my payment and provide me with a credit as I knew that Covid was not their fault. I deferred entry to a year later then 2022. Unfortunately, I am unable to race this year due to injury and wanted to defer my race to 2023 when I would be healthy enough to compete.
The company refuse to even consider moving my entry to next year and my entire entrance fee is forfeit.

I am very disappointed that I didn’t demand my money back in 2020 rather than doing Ironman a favor by allowing them to retain my entrance fee. I will never be using this brand again and will talk to members of my triathlon team to do the same. It’s a shame but there are other long distance race brands out there that I would recommend instead of Ironman.

Transfer requests - why bother putting a transfer policy in place if you aren't going to accomodate transfers in extenuating circumstances? You have the ability to do it, you just refuse to help people out.

World Triathlon Corporation and Ironman Triathlon are crooks! I would highly discourage doing business with these guys... I broke my foot, had to have surgery, and simply asked them to hold the $400 I had already paid for this year's Waco 70.3 and place me into the following year's race instead, as my foot would be healed by then. After multiple emails and phone calls they agreed to give back $75, but NO MORE. And would NOT let me simply change my entry to the following year. Keep in mind, that this discussion didn't happen a week or even a month before the race, this happened 5 MONTHS prior to the Waco 70.3, so there was plenty of time to make the change, and absolutely ZERO risk to the Ironman organization. But instead, they very arrogantly and unapologetically said, too bad... There's nothing we can do for you. They made it very clear to me that they don't care about their competitors... they care about one thing. MONEY. I will NEVER do business with this company again, and strongly suggest you think & hard about this organization before giving them your money!!!

Draconian and insensitive refund policies for those who would give the organisation up to 6 months of advance notice of inability to attend an event to keep £600 worth of entry fees. Fully aware of the policies and what was on offer when I had to defer, but it doesn’t change anything. Disgusting. Beware.

I signed up for my first iron man 70.3 during covid and picked Finland, hoping restrictions would ease by the race. About 6 weeks before the race I contacted customer services to enquire if the race was still happening given the Finnish borders were closed. I was told it would be but I would get more information nearer the time. As the race drew nearer and still the borders remained closed, I was told I could defer my place if I wanted. This was therefore an extension of the 30 day policy Ironman normally places.
Communications continued with me asking for updates and Ironman telling me I could withdraw (and not receive a refund) or defer. What was failed to mention to me was the ‘transfer’ policy. When I found out about it, I asked to transfer given I had been training for months and didn’t want to lose £280. However, I was told it was within 30 days of my race and therefore couldn’t (despite the deferral policy extending). With the borders to Finland remaining closed to the UK, my only option was to defer.
In this deferral, which I was forced into despite there being no date confirmed for the following year, I signed away any right to transfer/defer (and therefore get a refund) should I not be able to compete. This is absolutely incredulous given I had been communicating with customer services for well over 30 days before the race originally, and was not told about the transfer policy. Furthermore, I have not once asked for my money back, simply to be able to race and put my hard work and training into a competition.
Having stated at the time I travel for work and cannot commit to deferring to an unknown date, I was told that withdrawal is my only option and must forgo a refund.
Again, for a company that takes in around £250 per competitor for a given race, I’d like to think I could have been given the option to race in a location I was able to get to, especially as the circumstances were not self inflicted.
This year, with the date confirmed, I am as expected, travelling for work, and am unable to compete. Having contacted customer services to ask to transfer given the above circumstances around my forced deferral originally, I have once again been told my only option is to withdraw (and not receive a refund).

This is absolutely absurd. I have not paid £280 to train for over a year to then not race, because the Finnish borders were closed and customer services failed to mention there was a transfer policy.
I have never once asked for my money back, only to be able to race and yet I’ve been blocked continuously.
Make sure you have no doubts in a race before signing up, as Ironman will steal your money otherwise, whether it’s your fault or not.

Never again spending a single dollar with this company. Customer service is slow and inefficient. But the worst is the total lack of empathy and consideration for loyal customers! I have raced almost 20 different events over the course of the last 10 years, only to realize that does not mean a thing to them. It's a machine designed to make money, do not expect them to help you out if you have any problems. Now, with a recently diagnosed heart condition, I was not able to have a refund, or deferral, or event a transfer...ridiculous. Spend your money somewhere else!

After a very long and painful battle (1 sided battle it seems) with IRONMAN over email, I have no choice but to give up and never race with them again. IRONMAN has by far the worst customer service I have ever witnessed and had to deal with. Other reviews quite clearly echo this statement.

I have raced IRONMAN for many years and spent absolute tens of thousands on races all across the world (literally), for yet, nothing in return.

I had two 70.3 races booked which both got cancelled/deferred due to covid in the past year or so. One of them being venice jesolo 70.3, which I am still unsure if its going ahead, while they hold on to everyone's £300+ entry fee. I have made countless attempts to make contact with them about what our actions should be, but I/we have heard nothing. This has been going on for over six months.

My time and money will now be spent with other and better brands like challenge and outlaw. Brands that value their customers, and not just robbing from the athletes.

This is an e-mail I recently wrote to Ironman withdrawals and transfers. I got no response, in my opinion, they abused the COVID pandemic for company gain. Truly awful customer service.

Hi X,

Thanks for confirming; none of the below is personally towards you X, you’ve been accommodating.

I was looking back at the two options I was offered when the Ireland 70.3 got cancelled due to the COVID.

How to select your option: 
 
I want to defer my entry to the 2022 IRONMAN 70.3 Ireland

No action required now.  You will receive a deferral link to validate your registration upon our official 2022 Registration Opening. 

I want to request an event credit voucher for Ireland

As you know I took the first option and now unfortunately I can’t race. The other option is to get a voucher, under Ironman Withdrawals rules it says

"A refund is also excluded for athletes who paid the entry fee in whole or in part by redeeming a voucher credit at the time of registration.”

There is a similar policy under the deferrals.

What Ironman has done here is essential claimed everyone’s race entry even though the race was cancelled due to the COVID, to me this is an abuse of situation and extremely disappointing.

I know the way Ironman works means they’ve spent most of race entry fees before the event on set up cost and wages, I’m involved in an events venue where we run a very similar business model.

If you defer/transfer my entry then I take a place for someone new to bring more money into the pool, I understand that.

The difference is that we as the venue did our utmost to accommodate our current clients valuing them over new clients.

There are going to be 1000’s of people in my position giving way over 6 months warning that they can’t race. It upsets me that they're going to get the same response as me.

In my opinion, Ironman is the peak of the endurance races, I really want to compete for my mental and physical well-being. Going forward this experience has been extremely disappointing, the way Ironman essentially took my money due to COVID and now won’t offer me anything even though I’m keen to do another race just baffles me.

In a business where repeat customers/word of mouth is key I feel let down.

Thanks for all your help X, please withdraw my entry from Ireland 70.3 because I can’t race and I hope someone else can have the experience. - Please confirm this

Any compensation would be appreciated if you re-sell the place or on any other level.

Kind Regards

Rückzahlung Startgebühr immer noch nicht erfolgt aus einer Zahlung Ende 2019! Erreichbarkeit 0, Antwort auf Emails 0. Ich habe rechtliche Schritte eingeleitet.

Absolutely disgusting Customer service from Liverpool rock and roll events team!!!
Awaiting my refund due to them cancelling next years half marathon!!
I have an email confirmation stating the money will be paid back into my account.
I am still waiting and no one is replying to any of my emails regarding my refund of myself and my husband!!!!