Demotivational Monday and my Road Runner Sports VIP Membership epilogue

I just learned about the new Demotivational Monday linkup that Rachel is hosting. Hilarious! I am obviously a couple of days late to the party (call it a direct demonstration of demotivation, perhaps?) But I wanted to participate anyways.

Here is my submission. I took some liberties with the guidelines.

As you may have surmised, this is also an excuse for me to talk tangentially about some recent frustrations.

Last November, I had posted here about my negative experience with Road Runner Sports and their VIP Membership Program. In summary, the sales clerk lied to me about the online membership price versus the in-store membership price.

The "perks" of the membership program are not all that they are cracked up to be, either. Basically members receive free shipping on all purchases plus 10% off select items. However, there are almost always promo codes available to nonmembers for free shipping and 10% off. So why bother becoming a member?

The free shipping was a marginal perk, too. Before I became a member, I ordered from Road Runner online using a promo code, and my order arrived a couple of days later. However, I have twice ordered from Road Runner online as a member. The first time my order took a week and a half to arrive, and the second time it took my order over two weeks to arrive. Neither of these orders were for back-ordered merchandise or anything, either. It was frustrating that I received faster shipping service as a nonmember than as a member.

A few weeks ago I submitted a membership cancellation request. However, I never received a confirmation or acknowledgement. I followed up with Road Runner Sports on it today. I was put on hold for quite some time while they tried to investigate. I was finally told that it had never been processed. They put me on hold again while they tried to process the cancellation on the spot. They then told me that they were having technical problems and couldn't cancel the membership until November 2013. They assured me they would set up arrangements to ensure it would be cancelled at that time. Here is hoping.

There was one positive note to the membership cancellation process. When I expressed my discontent regarding my incident with the membership price, they indicated they would refund me the entire membership fee. That helped a lot.

I do like the Road Runner Sports-branded merchandise that I've purchased, and their in-person shoe-fitting process was very detailed. However, given my mixed experiences with their customer service and their pricing, Road Runner Sports will not be at the top of my list when I shop for running gear in the future.