
No mud, no money back either for participants of cancelled Mud Hero event
CBC
Some Manitobans are scrambling after an event called Mud Hero was cancelled weeks before it was scheduled to take place, and participants are concerned they won't be getting their money back.
Charmaine Bloomfield paid $185 for two tickets to participate in the Mud Hero event with her son and some friends. After she bought her tickets, she went online to learn more about how to prepare for her big race, and learned through social media that Mud Hero in Manitoba had a history of being cancelled without issuing refunds.
"I got the email saying it was cancelled, and I actually immediately emailed [Mud Hero] and asked them if I could get my money back, but I haven't heard anything from them about that," she said.
Mud Hero is an annual race put on by Crazy Canuck Event Corp, held across Canada where participants race through a mud-filled, six-kilometre obstacle course. Mud Hero states on its website it does not offer refunds in the event of cancellation.
The race was originally set for Aug. 10, but on July 25, participants started getting emails that the event would be suspended until further notice.
Bloomfield isn't sure how successful she'll be in recouping the funds.
"I've heard stories about the chargebacks and essentially [Mud Hero] will always dispute it, and say 'oh, we gave you credit.' However, the credit is for the following year's event, which may or may not be cancelled."
Jen Elsen and a friend also signed up for the Mud Hero run, and they were looking forward to having some fun this summer.
"My girlfriend that I was doing the race with got an email saying that the race was cancelled. I still have yet to receive an email saying that the race was cancelled, even though I was the one that purchased tickets," Elsen said.
When Elsen learned about the cancellation, she reached out to Mud Hero to see if she could get a refund, but said they haven't replied to her emails, and they turned off comments on all their social media pages.
"I've reached out to Visa to see if I can get the charges reversed, which seems to be the only recourse for getting my money back," she said.
Mud Hero has been held at Hilltop Resort in the Grand Marais area almost every year since 2014. Gregg Kuhnle, co-owner of Hilltop, said in the early years of Mud Hero, the customer experience was amazing, it was well-organized and had a large turnout.
Kuhnle said ownership of the Mud Hero brand and its parent company Crazy Canuck Events Corp. has changed hands a couple of times since then.
"When they purchased it, it was right at the beginning of COVID, and they ran a race at Hilltop in 2022," Kuhnle explained, adding the event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021.