You might call it a run to go with your beer. The concept of the National Beer Run is to chug 12 ounces of beer every quarter of a mile.
Chris Kremer, his wife and two of their buddies signed up for the event scheduled in Clearwater last October. But in mid-October Chris says he received an email saying the race was off for logistics reasons and refunds would go out in a month.
Six weeks later these runners started asking questions. Multiple emails and Facebook messages were not returned and by December they were still waiting.
Bryan Oglesby with the Better Business Bureau says it is not unusual for these traveling events to cancel over slow ticket sales or logistics issues.
Runners need to background every race before paying the registration fee. They can start with BBB.org and scour search engines putting in the terms complaint, refund, rip-off after the event’s name.
We typed the National Beer Run in a Facebook search and found a page filled with dozens of consumers who say they paid for events that were never held and are still waiting on the return of their registration fee.
In the Kremer's case, we emailed the run organizers asking about the missing money and they responded quickly. Days later they refunded the couple's $88 and their friends got their money back as well. No one from the National Beer Mile would comment.
