UPDATED: 9/19/2012
So I’ve been talking for months about all the fun runs I had coming up this fall and how excited I’ve been for the Color Me Rad Run this weekend in Albany.
My excitement was crushed by a twitter response today:
My question was legitimate. I’m running as part of a team so I didn’t get an individual e-mail about packet pick ups. I scoured through the website Sunday night while making my plans to travel the almost 3 HOURS one way to the event. I’m carpooling with some friends and we needed to make plans to meet. I couldn’t find the answer on the site about packet pick up. If there wasn’t packet pick up day of which for some races now days there isn’t. I was going to need to figure something else out. I sent an email and I asked the question above on twitter.
I know the race is meant to be funny and I get that. BUT as a social media professional I have never seen a more clear example of when “Your” funny is misplaced. I’m not a procrastinator. I am an adult who paid money to run this FUN race. I live 3 hours a way and I need to travel there day of.
I just recently was discussing on my facebook page the COST of racing now. I feel that each race I run is more expensive than the next but the one thing I’ve always loved about the running community is the money never seems wasted. Race officials and organizers are always so great to runners, But in this case I am so not impressed.
And as I’m writing this post they are only digging themselves in deeper on twitter. Nothing like insulting me and my entire team who are traveling to attend a run that has promised to be one of the best in the country. Oh and the fact we each paid $45 a person to run it…shame on us.
My heart is crushed by this because I’m a runner and a social media person. I love social media I love the power it has to connect people and spread great messages. I encourage businesses and brands to get involved and learn from their customers.
I’m upset because this is a horrible example of what happens when you don’t value your audience. I’m also sad because I’m a runner, I love running and this race was going to be my first color me rad run. I’ve heard such wonderful things about the experience and honestly I don’t think I’ll be running Saturday. Why would I waste my 6 hours in a car and 30 minutes running to give my energy to people who obviously don’t value me as a customer or a runner?
For all my running friends out there I’m going to strongly caution you NEVER to give your money to the COLOR ME RAD 5k. Find a local race that still values it’s customers and maybe even has a great charity as a benefit.
Have you ever had a horrible customer service experience that not only upset you but also made you completely change your opinion on a product or event?
The Outcome of this all….myself and my entire team will NOT be running this race, this was our choice. We encourage everyone to give directly to the Special Olympics and support local races.
{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }
WOW! Twitter fail indeed! Beyond that…courtesy fail. BIG TIME.
While I am very sad to hear that this happened to you, I am glad that you posted this because these kinds of things need to be discussed. As you mentioned, in this day and age of instant communication, messages spread through social media are permanent and their detrimental impact can be extremely long-lasting.
Thanks Krissy I agree it is important to discuss when social media goes wrong. IMO this would be a great case study of what happens when you go too far.
Well put – and timely! Very unfortunate, all ways around. I totally *get* – and APPRECIATE – sarcasm, but sarcasm has its place. If there’s no serious forum for serious questions, that’s seriously unprofessional. But they’ll take your money seriously, right?! Some people have the impression that, because social media tends to be free of monetary investment, it’s not a “real” PR tool, and therefore doesn’t have to be taken seriously – these folks are missing the point entirely (of social media, AND strategically deployed sarcasm!)
Corrie thanks for the support! If this was a client of mine and I responded like this I’m 100% sure I would be fired. In customer service/ PR / Social media there isn’t a place for poorly placed rude.
Thanks for sharing!
My career and side projects are all about social media. I’m sure they have no idea how this comes across. I dealt with the same stuff a year ago when I was preparing for the Baltimore Marathon, which lets “Facebook boy” make comments and replies. It’s so unprofessional and borderline offensive, it’s one of the reasons I won’t even consider that race again. Thanks for sharing this!
David, I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s really unprofessional.
I did the “Color Run” in Philly this summer with my Running Mommies team. 2 of the moms came to Philly from Indiana and Ohio! Honestly, had it not been a Running Mommies event, I would have probably been disappointed. We made it fun with our matching shirts and tutus, not the race organizers. It was so bare bones, no swag, not even a banana at the end! We each paid $40 to run 2.98 miles (yeah). I will probably do it again, but only because the group that I have makes every event a party. But yeah, it’s all a bunch of gimmicky nonsense. I’m sorry that they were so rude…And I’m glad you put them on blast.
Jess I’m happy you had fun regardless of the short, no swag race. I’m sticking to local races for a while for real fun!
This is crazy! I haven’t been into the color races because I don’t like the idea of breathing in the color, but this makes me like it less. Glad you shared your experience.
Paulette I wondered about that too. I was told it’s corn starch and ok? Thank you for reading!
Yeah…they should reconsider the person they’ve put in charge of their Twitter account. I don’t agree with how this is being handled. Wow.
I’m hoping they will reconsider this type of response. It’s unprofessional.
Wow! This makes me so sad. I just ran this race in Fontana on Saturday. I cannot believe they treated you this way. :/
Thanks Heather I’m very sad too about it. Maybe it will cause somethings to change? I hope!
UGH, I am sorry. Not only do they have terrible customer service, but they have a terrible race IMO. The announcer at my race was in a cherry picker and one girl was wearing a running skirt and he said “if you flash me I will throw you some sunglasses” through a microphone. Also he had a dance contest and tried to get men to partake and again said into a microphone “come over gentlemen, I think they are at least 16″ I felt so uncomfortable.
I also had to do same day pick up since I was racing near my in-laws and could not get there Friday afternoon, and the same day pick up was a nightmare, so get there early!
I hope your experience is better than their social media and mine!
Thanks Kelly! We decided as a team not to participate. I’m hoping they change some things moving forward. As always thanks for reading
Wow. That is pathetic. And such a major FAIL on their part! Don’t they know we runners talk? Insulting you like that is just juvenile. Thanks for sharing so we know not to support them in the future!
Hey Lauren I think they thought no one would find out about it? I’m not sure. Thanks for helping spread the message.
As a fellow runner and someone who personally and professionally uses Social Media, this is a great example of what NOT to do and is showing you the true “color” of the company. These races are simply put on to make money …. oh yea and “be fun.” Some friends have done some of the color runs (whether by color me rad or the other company doing them) and they are expensive, crowded, disorganized, and designed for you to spend even more money when you get there. Running local races is so much better. Bonus that usually they are for great causes. So glad I’ve never had the urge to run any of the color races. And that I have a lot better customer service skills than that person haha
Thanks Amanda I agree with what you are saying. I just wrote a whole post on supporting local races! If you have some great ones near you I would love to give them some exposure and blog about them. Just send me the links!
I too am running on Saturday in Albany. Someone else on your team will be able to pick up your packet for you as long as you signed the waiver when registering. Although if your whole team is traveling the 3 hours this probably doesn’t help!
Caitlin sadly we won’t be running on Saturday but I hope for everyone involved the race is better than the customer service. Have fun, run hard!
WHOA. MAJOR FAIL.
Hopefully bringing some attention to it will help put an end to it? I hope! Thanks Carlyn!
WOW. SO glad I read this. Thank you for keeping it real!
Thank you Electra!
Wow! You handled this so well! I am so sad for you that you had this experience. What a horrible feeling to have someone attack you via sarcasm for no reason. Someone needs to lose their job!
Thank you so much! I’m really sad too but hopefully it brought to light the fact that funny is not always funny. I hope they change their attitude.
You DO realize that on their website they specifically say that race day registration is for procrastinators??? I understand your feelings were hurt and you are miffed, but they do refer to procrastinators directly, so they really were just being consistent . . .
In a few months, you may look back at this and find it amusing.
IMHO, if blood isn’t shed , cancer isn’t diagnosed, and/or the police aren’t involved it works better to sit back and laugh. Life it too short to be miffed.
Laura I honestly was a little shocked at first by the procrastinators comment. I have COMBED that website and couldn’t find the information I needed. I’m an adult I’ve been doing this a few years, usually questions are quickly answered through email or twitter. But when I explained I was traveling 3 hours to run instead of saying oh hey dry humor see you Sunday. They just insulted me. I think had they backed off before insulting me I would have been fine, but this is again where in social media “your funny” isn’t funny. I doubt I will look back and laugh at this, it’s a great social media case study for how NOT to treat real customer service questions asked through twitter, no matter how FUNNY you think you are being.
You know they could have DM-ed me and said yes we offer day of packet pickup can’t wait to see you in the COLOR on Saturday. But they didn’t. I respect your opinion.
You know, with their first procrastinator comment I was going to say “let it slide”, but the second comment is really rude too. Wow. These races are really expensive, and they better realize they wouldn’t have an event if we didn’t attend. I hope they contact you and clear the air. Not cool at all.
I’m with you Joy I was upset at first but I was letting it slide. The responses were what bothered me the most, it just made the whole situation even worse!
…you do realize that your money is non-refundable, so even though you got a little peeved at their Social Media person (who I’m extremely sure is not going to be in Albany that day), you still spent the $45 dollars and you aren’t getting it back. So I see no reason to not run and to not get your money’s worth. People are going to be rude. That’s life. You could have also simply asked them a question on their facebook page – I did twice over this month and both times I got wonderful, polite, and informative answers back. It was also extremely easy to find others that were running and you could have asked them. Not really an excuse to not run the race, but oh well, I’m glad to not have party poopers there when I have an extremely great time!
Jenna I’m jealous you got great customer service on another social media platform, but that only proves my point that I should have been treated better on the social media platform I reached out on. I’m not running on principle. What kind of a fool would I be to participate and act like nothing happened? I wouldn’t call me a party pooper I would call me a person who stands for something.
http://colormerad.com/images/cmsfiles/cmralbanypreracedocs.pdf
I don’t think they were trying to insult you with the “Super RAD” comment, more likely they were saying “Noone would travel that far for any race . . . unless it was TOTALLY AMAZING!!!!”
I would have been a little daunted by needing to travel 3 hours each way and not having my packet, and not knowing where and when i would be able to get said packet. In that case, i might have missed the humor. I really think that when you are away from this a bit you will think it is written in the same tongue-in-cheek vein as their website.
Either way, Best of luck to you in your running and lovely blog and family!!!!!
I’m not sure what the point was but they could have treated me better at the end of the day you treat people AND customers with respect. Thanks Laura!
I have to say there are a couple things that have disappointed me about the Color Me Rad race. It was for the special olympics, and I am hoping to hear back from the NY special Olympics on exactly how much they got from the race, because many people didn’t even make it in time to do the race and ended up getting a refund. The race was poorly planned, so you didn’t miss anything! I agree that they could have handled their responses both to you and to many of the upset runners who ended up turning around after waiting over 3 hours to actually get to the race better. Hope you find another great race!
I’ve heard from some who ran it in Albany it was a nightmare. Horrible Traffic, Parking and no color left at stations. I would love to know how much the Special Olympics got from this races as well. I saw the e-mail that was sent at 5pm by the run to all runners stating they were sorry for the problems…that’s usually not a good sign.
I have to say, I think there is some overreaction here. The *entire* website of color Me Rad is written in the exact same tongue in cheek sarcastic manner. It goes hand in hand with what they do. They do not take it seriously.
It’s humor, and it’s not rude, it’s just their style. On their page, they also tell you the race will regrow your hair and give you a flat screen TV. Clearly it won’t, and most people understand none of it is serious.
Their first response was completely in line with the rest of their social media, and all their written statements as a company. Taking the entire thing into view, you should have realized it was a joke and not targeted right at you.
The second, eh, maybe, but honestly, you were already offended at that point and likely to take anything poorly. They, clearly, didn’t realize this. I still don’t think they did anything wrong, but it would have been wiser for them to just give no further response. I read it like they thought you were all pals and they were joking around.
Thanks Becky I appreciate your comments.
Wow, you’re kidding right? Did you really get upset about this? I’ve run this race an it’s meant to be fun. Lighten up. Don’t live your life offended, it’s bad for your health.
Thanks Jason for the comment I did get upset because I paid money, had a question that needed to be answered, and was a customer. The race I’ve heard was a bit of a disaster. I got an e-mail at around 6pm the night of the race, that went to all runners that basically admitted that much and was offering refunds. Getting upset in hindsight saved me the 6+ hour drive to a ho-hum race.
Quite a passionate response you got here from either side. While I understand their site is all tongue in cheek I appreciate your side of things and I think I would have reacted the same way. The first comment was one thing but once they realized you were upset the second comment should have been different, in my opinion.
I won’t be racing with them anytime soon!
Crazy isn’t it? And they are coming to Syracuse this year!
So terrible!! I ran this race in Greensboro this weekend and honestly I wasn’t impressed. I much prefer the local races, that are really races, with timing and support. I like that they are getting people into running who maybe wouldn’t consider themselves runners, but I don’t like that it felt like a circus rather than a race. Most of the people walked, which is TOTALLY FINE with me, but I definitely felt an anti-runner vibe as I weaved my way through them. It was a good lesson for me and I’m really glad I didn’t have to drive very far to do it. That twitter feed is just awful!
I’m so sorry to hear that you had a bad experience too. I’ve honestly never run one. As a runner all I want it for everyone is to run great races. For some people if may be their first ever run don’t turn them off to a race by putting on a bad one. I’ve heard great things about the Color Run and I may have to drive to try one out
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