We’re making an important change to our launch plan for Refund Guarantee.
Our announcement about refund protection came as a surprise to some. Before we launch, we want to provide clarity about the offering, benefits for you and your participants, and to answer all of your questions. We continue to believe this will be a great benefit to you and your participants.
Thank you to everyone who shared feedback with us this week. We will endeavor to share more detail in advance of future releases.
Updated Launch Plan
We are postponing the launch of Refund Guarantee to January 22.
What if I want access sooner than that?
Please let us know you want to join our beta program and we’ll let you use it ahead of the official launch date. Just reply to this email.
What to expect at launch
Upon launch you’ll find an additional setting in your Event Edit - General tab. There will be a new Refund Protection section where you can adjust settings according to your preference.
Managing Refund Guarantee Settings
Refund Guarantee will be “on” by default, but you can use these settings to change that behavior.
When “off” — (Hide refund protection option)
Participants will not see Refund Guarantee when registering for your event. Everything you currently do regarding cancelations and refund requests from participants remains as it is today.
When “on” — (Show refund protection option)
When refund protection is “on” for your event, a participant will see an additional panel in their cart summary which allows them to opt-in (if they choose) to including Refund Guarantee in their purchase.
How Runners Engage with Refund Guarantee
Runners can ignore this or select “No” and there is no change to their order amount. However, if they do not purchase Refund Guarantee at this point, they cannot take advantage of that protection if they need to cancel.
When a participant chooses to add Refund Guarantee to their order, it adds that amount to their total. When their payment method is charged they are automatically enrolled in the program.
Waitlists and Lotteries will note the addition of Refund Guarantee but not charge or enroll participants until they are invited into the event, accept, and are charged for their entry.
What do RDs need to do?
For most RDs there’s nothing you need to do.
Responding to Participant Questions
Participants who opt-in will have the added ability to cancel for any reason up to 24 hours before the race. They’ll do this through an email they receive after registration. When a participant requests a refund, their registration will automatically be canceled in our system so that your information and ours stays in sync.
When a participant is issued a refund, you keep the full registration amount. The 80% refund is paid directly to the participant from UltraSignup.
If a participant asks about refunds you can point them to their email and to UltraSignup to verify whether or not they purchased Refund Guarantee.
Turning it off
If you have specific refund policies and practices that may mean you want to turn Refund Guarantee “off” for your events. You can find this self-serve setting in your Event settings (shown above) or reach out to our team to help.
FAQs
We have a set of frequently asked questions and will add to this based on questions we get from RDs.
