Cancelations

stormbringer

stormbringer

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Ok........so just how late is ok to cancel on a match?

I mean really.....................

Last week I had 46 competitors signed up for todays ICS match.

Thanks to Omen and his wonderful Online sign up system which sends out emails to competitors some were good enough to drop out last week. Hey I know crap happens.

As such we dropped to 41 competitors at the start of this week.

Yesterday when I checked we were down to 36.........no problem it will make for a faster day.

Imagine my surprise when today for the first squad when only TWO of the 5 competitors showed up.

When I got home from the match and checked it shows only THREE competitors for that squad and only 30 signed up for the matcha at that point!

I mean what gives!!?? Sure I guess I could have checked the listing this morning at SIX FING AM when I got up to get to the match so it would be set up for the first squad! But hell I was up anyway so what did it matter?

This sort of crap does not make for a happy MD!

I can see a few solutions.

1) Say screw it do not host matches.

2) Hold off on openning the match for sign up until a week or two before the match ONLY.

3) Require prepayment for all matches even a stupid level 1 and charge a canellation fee.



That said I had a fun time at todays match..........it just burns my A$$
 
stormbringer said:
I can see a few solutions.

1) Say screw it do not host matches.
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But then we would loose that feeling of having to be so hounoured that you would put on a match for us lowly shooters.. Maybe all those people who felt that, being told that if they didn't help at the match, then they were not welcome..... didnt' want to show up..

:nest:
 
ckc123 said:
But then we would loose that feeling of having to be so hounoured that you would put on a match for us lowly shooters.. Maybe all those people who felt that, being told that if they didn't help at the match, then they were not welcome..... didnt' want to show up..

:nest:
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:popCorn:
 
Your A$$ is probably toasty

I bet that burns your arse. A lot of work goes into these type of events and most people take that for granted. And then there is the whinning afterwards, why doesn't this happen or why can't we have this or that.

The only solution in my mind is prepayment. If they are committed to the event then they should have no problems with this. Put a cancellation date a week or so prior in case of lack of interest and pay back.

Good luck in the future.

Greg
 
Can it be made so that people who sign up and then just don't show up are reported to Omen and then loose their abilty to sign up for a period.
This may stop people from signing up to all the matches, even those they don't really plan to attend and discouraging/ preventing others from being able to sign up as the match is now shown as full.
 
I'm worried on the opposite side of the coin; although less now that winter is coming to a close.

I have to travel minimum 4hrs and usually 7.5hrs to an event and at the price of gas don't want to end up there just to find out that it got cancelled for some unforseen reason.

I'm always checking just before I leave [like minutes] and have been known to do the internet cafe enroute just to make sure [traveling when its -40 can make you paranoid]
 
Maybe they heard that IPSC Ont is looking at the provincial classification system again and they (the shooters) realized that there is still hope, & they really don't care about ICS

:nest:
 
ckc123 said:
But then we would loose that feeling of having to be so hounoured that you would put on a match for us lowly shooters.. Maybe all those people who felt that, being told that if they didn't help at the match, then they were not welcome..... didnt' want to show up..

:nest:
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Then they would not SIGN UP silly. Unless they are trying to sabotage matches.........great idea its working! Just do not plan on attending any matches at EESA somehow they will not exist or they will be too full for us to make room for you.

Of course when was the last time YOU ran a match? Oh wait we already covered that one.........


Not a problem I can make a special arrangement for you.............say 150% pre-payment and you get back 10% if you work the whole match.
 
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Ipsik said:
Can it be made so that people who sign up and then just don't show up are reported to Omen and then loose their abilty to sign up for a period.
This may stop people from signing up to all the matches, even those they don't really plan to attend and discouraging/ preventing others from being able to sign up as the match is now shown as full.
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But then that would mean Omen's system has been deemed the official IPSC Ontario match sign up method. There is still the option for members to call MD for a slot... or mail-in, and e-mail.... I really don't think Omen would want the extra work... but then again who knows...

Storm... best solution is pre-payment. If a competitor has money already invested in a match they will most definately make arrangements to cancel before the match and less likely to say... oh screw it I don't want to go the day of the match... and if they do who cares the club still covers costs and the match moves even smoother than they normally do at EESA... well except for the unusually high amount of rain at the matches... I would support that for sure especially since our last match had several number of no shows as well as cancellations due to weather. You set the Bar and other clubs will follow.... have a club rep meeting... disscuss and present a unified registration policy... emt best way, then self squad.
 
This is not a new problem when signing up for a match months ahead of time... we had the same thing happen back when phone in reg was the only way to log a spot at a match.. guys would sit down and register for a full season of matches months ahead and then not show at half of them for various reasons.. IPSC Ont brought in a policy of no reg. taken untill 2 wks prior to the match starting on the monday at 6 pm... redail on the phone became your best friend.. in alot of cases the match was full well before 7pm that night.. this system of Omens is great but the MD's have to not open for reg so soon..we do it for waterford the day after our current match for the next one and I still think that is too soon
 
ckc123 said:
Kinda like those people who are signing up more then once so they can grab more the one spot at a match????? Nah.. they would never do that..
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Is there evidence of this? If so those people need to be taken off of the IPSC-matches program. If it is abused it needs to be corrected.

Madness........no worries you were just one of many. I am sure you will make it up.

Perhaps early registration is the main problem here. Prepayment in my mind should only be applied to larger matches. Heck the fee for this one was only $15. Most banks chage $1.50 or so as an EMT fee so 10% seems a tad high.

I am particularly miffed becuase my daughter did not shoot the match because I had set aside the last squad for EESA members (to allow our valued guests to have as smooth a match as possible and to allow for workers to tear down.). She had another event to attend yesterday that started at noon and did not end until 10pm last night. If I had KNOWN that only 2 shooters were going to be there for the 9 am squad she could have shot the match. Regardless she will be entering the scores from the data because she had promised to do so prior to bowing out of the match a few weeks ago.
 
The way I see it any club putting on an IPSC match at any level is selling a service at a price. In order to derive the maximum profit the club keeps costs as low as possible and the price as high as the traffic will bear. As with any value proposition the better the perceived cost to benefit ratio from the customer’s perspective, the more inclined he/she is to buy. This is the nature of any retail business. When the sum of the costs, including match fees, travel time, weather conditions, and hours of work expected, outweigh the optimum cost to benefit ratio the customer is likely to decline.

Having said that, I do think it is bad form to not show up or cancel within two weeks without explanation or apology. As a suggestion, a shooter who transgresses a given number of times might only be allowed to sign up on standby.
 
arancio said:
Having said that, I do think it is bad form to not show up or cancel within two weeks without explanation or apology. As a suggestion, a shooter who transgresses a given number of times might only be allowed to sign up on standby.
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Just like most business have. a "minimum 48 hours cancelation" policy.. How you choose to penalize the shooter can be up to the club..

As for prepayments.. why doesn't someone decide to do it as a business, and open up an online payment web site.. I'm sure all the clubs would love to have a "clearing house" to collect all the payments via CC in advance. The person can charge a nominal fee, (Of course they would have to deal with cancellations, but thats part of doing it as a business). If you stick to the No refund in 48 hour" then that one person's cancallation probably paid for the CC fees for the match.

There are many web hosting sites, that already have gateways to CC companies, you would just need to sing up for the account at your bank..

once that is setup, then you have a nice lead in to do things like be able to have IPSC ontario do online setups/charges for renewals on the yearly dues..

It's just a virtual business, which acts as a clearing house for payment (Ebay for IPSC).

You would obviously have to charge enough of an overhead to cover the costs of the web hosting, and the CC charges. probably nothing more then an extra $5 per match fee.
 
ckc123 said:
You would obviously have to charge enough of an overhead to cover the costs of the web hosting, and the CC charges. probably nothing more then an extra $5 per match fee.
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Add $5 to the [already ample] $25 for a 75/80 round level II and many will not bother. Not everyone who wants to shoot is wallowing in discretionary cash.
 
arancio said:
Add $5 to the [already ample] $25 for a 75/80 round level II and many will not bother. Not everyone who wants to shoot is wallowing in discretionary cash.
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$5 is nothing.. consider the cost of Gas to the Match, and the cost of rounds that is already being spent (already more then the match fees) and $5 is not that much.

The only way that matches are going to continue to propser is to run it like a business.. provide a good service, and charge a fair price for it. If a shooter does not respect it as a busines (and reserves a spot and does not even have the respect to cancel it) then charge a non refundable deposit. Why should the MD's have to suffer the loss..

People seem to want to run it as a side hobby, and after things don't start to go all perfect, then they get all pissy.. if you've got $20 coming in for every shooter regardles if they show up or not, then great.. the less shooters, the earlier every can go home.. they still have the same amounn of $$ coming in.
 
ckc123 said:
$5 is nothing.. consider the cost of Gas to the Match, and the cost of rounds that is already being spent (already more then the match fees) and $5 is not that much.

The only way that matches are going to continue to prosper is to run it like a business.. provide a good service, and charge a fair price for it. If a shooter does not respect it as a business (and reserves a spot and does not even have the respect to cancel it) then charge a non refundable deposit. Why should the MD's have to suffer the loss..

People seem to want to run it as a side hobby, and after things don't start to go all perfect, then they get all pissy.. if you've got $20 coming in for every shooter regardless if they show up or not, then great.. the less shooters, the earlier every can go home.. they still have the same amount of $$ coming in.
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CKC123 amico;

I heartily concur with most of your post. The exception being the $5. To some it is nothing. To others it can be the straw that breaks the camel's back when added to the other costs: match fees, transportation, ammunition, etc.
 
omen said:
nothing wrong with pre-payment, with interac email transfers, it's trivial to pre-pay ;)
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IPSC Alberta requires pre-payment for all Level 2 or 3 matches, either by EMT or by cheque. If you don't pay ahead of time it is up to the MD whether you shoot or not (which often comes down to how difficult it is to squad you in). If you don't deregister from the match one week prior and you don't show up then you lose your match fee.
 
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