Forums >Off the Beaten Path>active-dot-com
Kalsarikännit
Their pricing varies by the cost of the registration. Most 5k/10k races have the $3 fee, but some marathons are in the $6-$10 range.
Imagine the costs for ultras. The last race I used them for had a fee of over $20!!! I just stared at the computer in shock. I admire race directors for trying to go green, and get away from using paper, but this is crazy...
I want to do it because I want to do it. -Amelia Earhart
Imminent Catastrophe
Another rant...There is a race that typically fills up in an hour or two. Guess what, Active.com hasn't activated it, and it's one hour after registration was supposed to open. And I have to leave soon, and won't have internet access for a few hours. Grrrrrr...
MTA: Got in, 1:20 late.
"Able to function despite imminent catastrophe"
"To obtain the air that angels breathe you must come to Tahoe"--Mark Twain
"The most common question from potential entrants is 'I do not know if I can do this' to which I usually answer, 'that's the whole point'.--Paul Charteris, Tarawera Ultramarathon RD.
√ Javelina Jundred Jalloween 2015
Cruel Jewel 50 mile May 2016
Western States 100 June 2016
I looked at the online registration for Silicon Valley marathon - $97.50 at active.com ($90 + $7.50 fee). If I mail in my registration there is a $7.50 'administrative processing fee' so $97.50. They're obviously trying to force people to register through active (with the $7.50 admin fee for mail-in reg).
But Dean Karnazes and crew flubbed the Expo registration fee. If I register at the Expo then the registration jumps to $95 but there's no admin fee so $95 total. Hmmm .... vhat to do, vhat to do ....
The King of Beasts
Can someone tell me the whole story of Cool Running & Active ?? or post a like to where it has been explained before ?
"As a dreamer of dreams and a travelin' man I have chalked up many a mile. Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks, And I've learned much from both of their styles." ~ Jimmy Buffett
"I don't see much sense in that," said Rabbit. "No," said Pooh humbly, "there isn't. But there was going to be when I began it. It's just that something happened to it along the way."”
household is on a very tight budget these days so have had to implement several cost saving ideas this year: cut back by about 1/2 the races from last year, take the no-shirt option whenever possible, preregister, & mail in registration whenever possible (avoiding active.com fees).
during these less than postive economic times, prices continue to go up for just about everything, it is hard these days to find even small local "fun runs" for less than $ 30 a pop. We have tightened our budget across the board the past year & still are barely saving on monthly expenses. ex: city changed their curbside garbage/recyling service recently to help with city budget & our monthly fees still went up 15% ! ok done ranting
Feeling the growl again
-Many of us used the coolrunning boards, which were very popular and well-run. A great community. Resources such as C25K were also available.
-Active bought them out and buggered everything up. They screwed up the boards, login, and just about everything else. Their customer service to alleviate this was completely lacking and everyone got irate.
-Many of us gave them more than reasonable time to address and correct issues, but it never came. Their on-screen replies were pretty much "but why are you so unhappy when we are so awesome? You WILL be assimilated". So we left. Many ended up here.
-To this day I continue to find hoards of Active spam in my spam filter box and when I have tried to opt out it keeps coming.
I refuse to use them for registrations. There have been races I have not run simply due to the requirement to use them and others I have gone hard copy and mail. A reasonably business model would be to reduce the overall cost to the end customer while gathering some of the difference in the administration fee back to the online vendor, and the race benefits from more convenient registration and likely higher numbers/broader reach (more $$ overall). Instead, Active racks on large fees and it's MORE expensive to do it online. I am not big on "convenience fees". If you want me to use your product, why should I, the customer, pay more? It just makes other options more attractive.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
I joined coolrunning right near the time of The Catastrophe. I guess that's why, when I sign up for a race, I'll just pay Active the three bucks or whatever and move on.
"If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus
Not to defend Active but a lot of the stuff people are ranting about are within the RD's control.
Anyway for my race I use signmeup.com for online reg. It's cheaper, easier, generates less spam and less anti-Active backlash. I've heard tell that RunningAhead dot com might offer online reg at some point and I'd be eager to try that.
There are other services out there too, RunReg has been popping up at more races I've registered for lately
Runners run
I have an aquantaince thaat owns an Online registration Company.
Thier policy is quite simple.
It cost the RD nothing to utilize them. To do so only requires a copy of the race application...if applicable or a simple online form to fill out. The registrant is charged; The cost of the race, plus a 6.5% processing fee and a $0.98 transaction fee. Any "free" registratins given out by the RD incur no charges.
The Online registration company pays the Credit Cards processing fees which vary by card and by bank.....Due to the sheer numbers they process his rates are pretty good.
He issues a check to the RD on the 15th of every month. He claims no ownership on the database.....which is handed over to the RD. If you were to look at his active list of races applications right now......you'd see he's doing quite well for little overhead. In one smallish Marathon alone he'll gross 20K.
Old, Slow, Happy
I was on Cool Runing and thought I had lost my log and everything. Eric helped me out here so:
Active can kiss my skinny, flat runners ass!!
I'll never use them for anything.
Good Bad & The Monkey
Another rant...There is a race that typically fills up in an hour or two. Guess what, Active.com hasn't activated it, and it's one hour after registration was supposed to open. And I have to leave soon, and won't have internet access for a few hours. Grrrrrr... MTA: Got in, 1:20 late.
That could be Active's doing OR the RD's doing. Depends on how the RD has things set up.
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
I refuse to use them for registrations.
Well, don't punish the RDs. Right now, there are NO other registration sites that meet the needs for the race I put on (e.g., password-protected registration options with varying date ranges, custom questions that differ across different registration categories, etc.).
Eric, you listening?
One day at a time
household is on a very tight budget these days so have had to implement several cost saving ideas this year: cut back by about 1/2 the races from last year, take the no-shirt option whenever possible, preregister, & mail in registration whenever possible (avoiding active.com fees). during these less than postive economic times, prices continue to go up for just about everything, it is hard these days to find even small local "fun runs" for less than $ 30 a pop. We have tightened our budget across the board the past year & still are barely saving on monthly expenses. ex: city changed their curbside garbage/recyling service recently to help with city budget & our monthly fees still went up 15% ! ok done ranting
Same here, skyedog! We now have to pay about $2.50 for every trash bag we use. With a home businesss, we go through a lot of trash bags. I've had to eliminate races for now. Sometimes I'll meet my running partner at a race. While she runs the course, I run around the neighborhood and meet her at the finish line. I don't have any choice, with our oldest in college and two more kids coming behind him.
My basic take:
A very good free site was out there, with a nice, usable, simple running log. (coolrunning)
Active.com bought it.
Log-ins stopped working.
The running log was no longer accessable except through a back-door discovered by someone (can't remember who)
eric was nice enough to import all of our data from Coolrunning
This log is MUCH better than the crap active was trying to make us all pay for (which was worse than the coolrunning log they bought)
ActiveSara made me want to go postal. Luckily, I don't live close to Active.com's offices.
Prince of Fatness
ActiveSara made me want to go postal.
I actually felt sorry for Active Sara. I'm sure that she wasn't the one who made the decision to move forward with a project that clearly wasn't ready to go live, but she had to work the front lines and deal with the fallout. I've been in her position, and have nearly gone postal myself.
No, it was someone sitting way back in a corner office looking at a spreadsheet and seeing dollar signs that you need to go postal on.
Sigh. I miss my corporate life.
Not at it at all.