Has anyone been able to get a reply from anyone at Ironman recently? When 70.3 Santa Rosa was rescheduled, I chose the option to defer to the 2021 race but their website shows me registered for the Oct. 2020 race. In addition, despite several e-mails and customer service requests on their website, I can’t get any sort of reply about the VIP passes I purchased for my family. Each time I open a ticket it gets canceled without any sort of reply. Any suggestions for how to get a hold of someone if they’re ignoring e-mail and CS tickets?
I got A total of 3 responses from Muncie 70.3 all within 24 hours of emailing. They are busy and I’m sure they will respond as quickly as they can.
I totally understand that they’re busy and was not expecting an immediate resolution. However, when they just keep canceling my open support tickets without a reply I don’t have the “warm fuzzies” that they will eventually reply.
The words “IronMan Triathlon” and “Customer Service” are an oxymoron. It has been this way for over a decade. In my experiences, and those I have read about, it is almost impossible to get someone to reply to an email, return a phone call, or follow through on a commitment about anything. They are happy to accept your money. But don’t expect much in return.
Just out of interest, are you contacting WTC, or are you contacting the particular organization for your race? Wonder if that makes a difference?
I’ve sent several inquiries to the Mont Tremblant 70.3 and full IM organizations through both their email contacts as well as the facebook page for each race, and have usually gotten responses within a couple days.
The words “IronMan Triathlon” and “Customer Service” are an oxymoron. It has been this way for over a decade. In my experiences, and those I have read about, it is almost impossible to get someone to reply to an email, return a phone call, or follow through on a commitment about anything. They are happy to accept your money. But don’t expect much in return.
Triathletes are one of the most high maintenance athletes and notoriously complain about anything and everything. They are getting sued over something that is very clearly in there contract. They likely get thousands of emails a day from people complaining and they have zero income coming in now so likely are low staff. As far as I’m concerned, there won’t be races for a while so they can a pass on slow responses.
I have 3 open tickets with Ironman it’s self.
When I’ve emailed the RD for the particular race I usually get a response within 3-7d.
But yeah what others have said Ironman Customer service isn’t really there for the customer and service is a misnomer. Hoping it gets better with the new owners
Just try again. I emailed a few days back asking to change my deferral from one race to another due to a recently acquired stress fracture and they responded the next business day. This is consistent with other interactions I have had with the company over the past decade plus. Obviously, there are going to be delays sometimes but just try again - they’ll help you out if whatever you’re requesting is reasonable.
While I am willing to give them a pass for response delays and timing, what I do think is what they are doing to you with their ticket system is unacceptable. I had faced the same issue last year while inquiring about accounts after they deleted my account without my knowledge. I also submitted 2 tickets that were cancelled without reply or resolution. If they’re busy and can’t respond for a few weeks fine, but don’t take the time to close out a ticket without responding. It seems they may be prioritizing requests and just simply willfully ignoring those that they don’t feel needs a response.
Just out of interest, are you contacting WTC, or are you contacting the particular organization for your race? Wonder if that makes a difference?
I’ve sent several inquiries to the Mont Tremblant 70.3 and full IM organizations through both their email contacts as well as the facebook page for each race, and have usually gotten responses within a couple days.
The original request was sent via e-mail to the Santa Rosa organization. I received an automated reply to my e-mail notifying me that a ticket had been opened for my inquiry, so it looks like inquiries to santarosa70.3@ironman.com are getting redirected to corporate.
I just tried again, and received the same auto-reply to my e-mail within a few minutes.
Maybe consider filing a chargeback for you VIP passes? Might be faster. I wonder if IM is responding to credit card company chargeback inquiries…?
Edit to add: I wouldn’t be too stressed about all this though. No races for a while. And I think they’re doing their best in a horrible situation.
I am pretty sure they laid-off all of the ‘athlete services’ team. Unless your title started with the letter ‘C’, so were almost guanarteed a pink slip a few weeks ago.
But good luck,
That’s my take too. And that happened the day they were sold. Combined that with the pandemic and cancellation of all NA races and here we are.
The words “IronMan Triathlon” and “Customer Service” are an oxymoron. It has been this way for over a decade. In my experiences, and those I have read about, it is almost impossible to get someone to reply to an email, return a phone call, or follow through on a commitment about anything. They are happy to accept your money. But don’t expect much in return.
Triathletes are one of the most high maintenance athletes and notoriously complain about anything and everything. They are getting sued over something that is very clearly in there contract. They likely get thousands of emails a day from people complaining and they have zero income coming in now so likely are low staff. As far as I’m concerned, there won’t be races for a while so they can a pass on slow responses.
Triathletes do also pay top dollar compared to most other similar sports (running events such as 10ks, half marathons, marathons and trail runs, OW swimming, cycle sportives etc) so maybe expect top service not low rent service.
the corporate email addresses at Ironman are notorious for leading to black holes.
The individual race emails seem to get more favorable results.
its a business with $0 revenues for the foreseeable future. They have our $$ for 2020 in the bank but no $ coming in for 2021. it is not a good situation.
That’s my take too. And that happened the day they were sold. Combined that with the pandemic and cancellation of all NA races and here we are.
Its a really tough scenario when revenue is down and there is no line of sight into how you pay your staff. I would be happy to give Ironman my money to race so these people can get their jobs back, but they have to be able to hold races and its not really their fault.
Here in Canada, Ironman should likely be eligible for Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy, whereby employers get 75% of an employee’s salary paid back by the government (to a cap), provided the employer meets certain criteria on revenue reduction either comparing it year over year (March this year to March last year, April to April, May to May…or each month this year to the average revenue of Jan+Feb).
Yes, our golden children on Parliament hill are digging a huge hole of debt for the generation of our kids to pay back, but the theory is its better for the nation to go into debt and issue money at ultra low interest rates than employers lay employees off and individuals have to borrow or worse yet accumulate a ton of credit card debt…in any case, at least locally I hope the Ironman folks qualified for this to keep employees on staff. Getting laid off sucks, laying off people sucks. No one asked for this mess.
Genuinely amazed that anyone thinks IM races are going to happen for a long time…if ever. COVID may well have killed it, for a good few years anyway. I hope I am wrong.
Wrong, IM Estonia & 70.3 Sept 5th is a go. IM Taiwain Sep 13th is a go. Couple more in France and Switzerland are a go in Sept. So IM will have races in 2020, North America now that is a different question.
Ok - well, I hope they don’t end up with clusters as a result.