05/23/2018
Refund update
Jennifer has been dealing with RunSignUp, the company that processed online race registrations for Swamp House and Echo, regarding refunds.
Much of the problem involves the fee that RunSignUp charges runners at checkout when they register for a race. These fees are retained by RunSignUp as their profit for processing the payments and were never remitted to Final Mile.
RunSignUp is requesting that Final Mile deposit a “refund reserve” with them that includes the race registrations remitted to Final Mile, plus the fee RunSignUp charged runners when they registered, plus an additional fee they will assess Final Mile to process each refund. I can’t say that this is totally unreasonable under the circumstances. It is not surprising that a company that specializes in payment processing wants to charge a fee for that service. Unfortunately, the amount they are demanding for the deposit is thousands of dollars more than Final Mile received in race registrations. This is money that Final Mile simply does not have. It is our understanding RunSignUp will not issue refunds until the “refund reserve” is fully funded.
Jennifer considered expediting the process by issuing refunds herself directly to registered runners which would at least avoid the fee RunSignUp wants to charge for processing the refunds. However RunSignUp has control of the database containing details such as contact information and amount paid by registered runners and they have shut off Final Mile’s access to this information. Jennifer has requested to be granted access to that information. We do know that RunSignUp processed 199 registrations for Swamp House and 52 for Echo. This is further complicated by the fact that the vast majority of registrants for the June Echo Half Marathon received the entry for free when they registered for the December race as part of a promotion. I know some of you are operating under the misconception that thousands of runners were impacted. If that had been the case, Final Mile would not be experiencing the financial distress it now faces. The actual amount of refunds due is not an astronomical sum and again much of the problem is that Final Mile is not able to pay the additional fees RunSignUp is demanding, at least in the short term.
In the meanwhile, Final Mile has vacated its office in Debary and is attempting to sell off some of its assets to raise additional money. After six years and nearly 200 races, the company is now officially out of business. We are devastated.
We regret the individual impact this has had on each and every one of these runners, we are determined to make things right, and are striving to resolve the dispute with RunSignUp as quickly as possible.
