Big Blue Adventure — Local services in Tahoe City

My experience with Big Blue Adventures has been horrible for myself and my peers. I am not sure what impact Big Blue Adventures wants to have on the world but I can tell you the impact they have had on me was very negative. My experience with Big Blue Adventures has made me significantly less interested in triathlons and taken my money without any service other than bad service.

I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND you TAKE YOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE.

I have been extremely disappointed and discouraged in Big Blue Adventures business model, customer service, and general attitude towards the world. I'll list some specific things that have discouraged and disappointed me below.

a. My event was expensive and the service/event that I paid for never even happened. Not offering refunds and stating that this was part of the "disclaimer" that you sign feels fraudulent and criminal. They accepted money from thousands of people for an event that they never put on.

b. They have offered a "complimentary registration" in lieu of a refund. This is not an appropriate solution for many of the event participants as it is a huge ask to be trained for this type of event that is not done overnight. Little empathy to that situation has been shown and the lack of alternative options shows me that the company doesn't care. To build on that, requiring that we redeem these "complimentary registrations" before March of 2022 (still 6 months prior to the event) or else they are worthless makes it feel like they care even less about giving participants our value back.

c. Customer service with Big Blue Adventures throughout this entire process has felt absent and heartless. My peers and I have reached out multiple times over the summer inquiring about details of the race and details surrounding a potential cancellation. We were often left unanswered in our inquiries. When we were answered, vague answers were given that seemed out of touch with the reality on the ground. Following the cancellation of the event, we continued to not receive responses to inquiries and have not been treated empathetically in any response we did receive.

So, the any "complimentary registration" feels empty in it's offer. In not allowing any flexibility on the year we redeem or the timeline we have to make a decision, it encourages us to redeem them whether we plan to show up or not. It's all lost money at the end of the day because of the company's careless refund policy and lack of flexibility to...

Ok, I understand that they will issue a credit for the next event due to the last being canceled. Whether or not you think that's fair is up to you, another reviewer left a long review about how it's not fair, we can't expect to know what our work schedule or life will be like next year, especially since they require you to register over 6 months before the race. I agree that this is unfair in that aspect but accepted it when it was first announced. Now the reason for the 1 star review; I was in an accident AFTER the race would have happened. Because of this I can no longer accept a credit for the next event. I have sent emails to their support with NO RESPONSE. I had to have surgery and will not be able to compete in any race in the near future, will I know 6 months before the race? Most likely not. The best they could do a response of some sort. I will have to relearn how to walk. If I'm lucky I'll be maybe walking 6 months before the event. Is a response that hard to do? Terrible...

Do not recommend spending your time and money at the Donner Lake Tri. Besides the course having little support, terrible signage, dangerous road conditions where many cyclists had flats, dropped chains, bottles flying, my biggest concern is with the race director. Asking questions about timing chips and result accuracy will be met with explosive anger and intimidation from Todd (even if you mention that transition times * are * in fact included in overall times, something one would assume he’d know). You will also not receive any email reply to why the club scoring system rejects the fairness and inclusion of female timing being separate from male timing. Very disappointing on top of the already disorganized race. There are plenty of different races to sign up for where you wont be asking strangers if youre on the run...