Was on the IM site tonight, going to sign up for IMCA in October. Looked at price for individual entry, $920. Expensive but OK. Go to “Register Now” and the individual entry is now $949.01. I hate to quibble over $30 but they’re advertising a lower price, then want to charge a higher price. The term “low ball” (if you can call $900 low ball) comes to mind.
Is that $920 but then there’s processing fees or a day license included? I hate that crap anyway, but may be the legal defence.
ETA: Yep, Nope, they claim the $920 is with processing. So who knows….
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Nope. If you check on the home page for IMCA, it shows an entry fee of $840.28 with $79.72 in processing fees to total $920. But when you actually go to the registration page, the entry fee is now $866.77 and the fees have jumped to $82.24.
I’m probably going to end up doing it anyway, because I expect this to be my last FIM. But it’s silly sh** like this that turns me off, regardless of who it is.
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[quote=“VegasJen, post:3, topic:1295120, full:true”
I’m probably going to end up doing it anyway, because I expect this to be my last FIM.
[/quote]
Sure,thats what they all say.
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I’ve personally only ever said that 5 times…. And I’m quite certain the last time i said it I meant it, well, after the next one in 2027 that is…
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I would email Ironman to ask them to break down the price and why the extra $30. Even though you plan to sign up regardless it doesn’t hurt to ask.
It appears that live Dynamic Pricing based on demand is here.
And that they’re probably going to hide behind this chestnut.
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Aren’t we talking about the normal “first 200 slots for $X, next 200 slots for $Y”, etc., rule? Been transparently practiced by IM forever. At least in Europe.
Yes except it looks like ther web coder likely entered a static value that has to be updated manually vs having it a dynamic field that pulls directly from the pricing app. So it’s flipped to the next price on a weekend and there’s no one home to manually update the site. Pretty rookie mistake if that’s the case.
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To both you and @kajet: yes, I think there’s a static web element on that page, before you then head into the registration site. But I also do not think this is a case of there being live “tiers” of pricing where you knew if you got in at Tier 3, for instance, exactly the price you’d pay. It’s a live dynamic pricing model that changes based on demand, much like how Ticketmaster might ahem raise prices on certain concert tickets with high demand versus their “face value.”
At least, reading their code from the registration platform, anyways.
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Hmmm that would seem odd to build a true dynamic pricing model for something with typically less than 2k of purchases. There’s pretty high risk in that especially when they advertise tiered pricing as part of their marketing strategy. If so they have a pretty big disconnect between their pricing team, web development and marketing teams.
Is Ironman in a partnership with Ticketmaster? LiveNation?
The static web element makes sense. Quick check there.
Switzerland showing 867chf on IM site and 894chf when you click in
No difference in the Wales price £711
Italy 821eu but 859eu in registration
No diff in Portugal 832euro
No diff in Vichy 832 euro
No diff Tallinn 821euro
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not sure but i think recent CA rule requires total price with processing up front now. But you dont live in CA so rules change
I’m in CA and I got the same nonsense when looking at Oceanside a couple months ago.
They’ll probably start buying your data from Amazon and youtube next. The more triathlon related content you consume and the more products you buy, the higher your individual price will go.
Ehhhhhh…I mean, they have traditionally had a hell of a time with their internal CRM. My sneaking suspicion is that any type of data mining like that is a good 3-5 years out.
(Note: I used to buy email lists / profiles for marketing purposes outside of my triathlon life. It happens. It’s effective. But it’s expensive.)
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Until two years ago, I was a high volume IM customer (doing at least 6 races per year). There are a lot of reasons I have backed away from the sport, but somewhere on the list is the value proposition.
In percentage increase terms, the cost of doing 70.3s has gotten ridiculous. Ten years ago, it might have cost $250 to do a race. Now it’s +$500.
For full distance races, $700 has gone to $1000–still a lot of increase, but relatively less so.
I am not sure how a person on a tight budget could afford this sport. It’s brutal.
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