TriAmerica Miami Race that was cancelled back in Oct.

Not at all.  I once spent 8 months trying to get $80 back from PayPal.  It had nothing to do with the money, I just hate being taken advantage of.  Oddly enough, all of the accounts I used with them have now been blacklisted.  Eventually my bank saw things my way and refunded me the money.  Haven't used PayPal since.  A$$holes.

I'm going to disagree here. You pays your money and you takes your chances, a lot of races have that or a similar disclaimer on the app.

From a guy who had four races cancelled in September and October, got fees back from only one. That was a small double century run by the LBS owner who I know personally.

I can understand the disclaimer being there, but that's pretty uncool to do (couldn't think of the right way to put it).  That seems like someone is literally stealing money to me.  Like if you win an Ebay auction and pay your money, but the product is never delivered.  The seller says something like "turns out it was stolen property, had to return it to the original owner"  and then doesn't refund your money.  You didn't pay for a chance to receive propery, you paid for property.  If you didn't receive that property they should have no right to keep that money.  The same for the race.  You paid to race, not to have it canceled.

I know there are disclaimers and other legal stuff that make this okay in the eyes of the law, but in my opinion it doesn't win return customers and isn't right from a moral (mine, I know) standpoint. Okay, I'm done whining.

This isn't comparable as it wasn't cancelled due to an Act of God. It was cancelled because the race director wasn't able to acquire the necessary road use permits so the city denied the event application.

There may have been language on the race application that covered this contingency. Also, I know zip about the permitting involved although I assume it's fairly Byzantine. I don't envy the race companies position.

Personally, I expect that when someone takes my money for a service, they are guaranteeing me that they have taken reasonable efforts to ensure that they are able to deliver the service. That includes permitting and licensure.  I don't hire an electrician because they figure they have a pretty good chance to get an electricians license. If a contractor isn't able to get a building permit that they've stated they will get for work I've contracted them to do, I expect any deposit to be refunded. Maybe the economics and timelines involved with putting on a triathlon make that impossible here. I don't know.

Also, in their letter to her the race company stated: "As a registered participant you will receive full credit for this race."

Depends on how you define "full credit", and what was on the race application I suppose.

Nice work! 

GatorGirl22 - 2005-12-15 10:20 PM Update: Got an email from Andrea (Fred's secretary) this afternoon. She has my refundcheck in hand and will be mailing it out tomorrow. Nothing like threateniing a little legal action to get the ball rolling...