Laughlin River Run and Dal-Con Promotions
Life sure can be a bitch can't it? And the way she can sneak up on ya and bite ya on the ass always amazes me. I'll call this post, Life's Curve ball.
So, my last post, which was a mere few weeks ago was all about the Laughlin River Run and how my wife and I were getting ready to head out on the 23rd for yet another ride out to the desert. I had been talking about the state of the economy and how many of our friends were not going to be able to attend this year due to the economic meltdown.
We felt fortunate if not downright blessed that we were doing pretty good money-wise and we were looking forward to riding out to Laughlin and enjoying ourselves for a few days. I was also wondering how the turn out would be this year due to the economy and also noted that while the run has, in my opinion, completely ripped off bikers in regards to the cost at least they lowered the cost of room packages this year.
I had held off on the Laughlin River Run reservations just out of laziness but also out of some strange sense of...I dunno....caution I guess. Well, somewhere near the end of March, I think the 29th or 30th, I said to my wife, "I better get online and book those River Run rooms before they get sold out". I had been keeping an eye on them and noticed that ALL of the hotels still had rooms available. So I got on, went through the Dal-Con Promotions website and slapped down my $435.00 for our stay at the Riverside Casino.
Which brings me to "the curve ball".
Not 3 days later, over half our income was gone.
Poof
Vanished
Nada
As in, "Welcome to the California Employment Development Department"
Better known to y'all as UNemployment.
Yep, after waiting all that time, as soon as we paid for it, we couldn't afford to go.
I'm not going to belabor the whole bit about being out of a job though. The point of this post is to talk about Dal-Con Promotions.
Along with other bikers too numerous to mention, I've been quick to berate Dal-Con here in this blog and in conversations as being money-grubbing and not looking out for bikers. Considering the cost of the Laughlin River Run packages in the past, I think there has been some merit to that. When compared to something like Vegas Bike Week and the cost of a room there, Laughlin has been outrageously overpriced and many bikers have bitched about it for years.
So when we figured out we really needed to cancel our reservations, I saw on my confirmation email from Dal-Con that cancellations would incur a $100 charge as long as the room was canceled 30 days PRIOR to the event.
Considering I had only booked the room about 3 weeks prior to begin with, I was concerned about getting at least a partial refund.
I called Dal-Con the same day. I'll break down their response in my next post.
So, my last post, which was a mere few weeks ago was all about the Laughlin River Run and how my wife and I were getting ready to head out on the 23rd for yet another ride out to the desert. I had been talking about the state of the economy and how many of our friends were not going to be able to attend this year due to the economic meltdown.
We felt fortunate if not downright blessed that we were doing pretty good money-wise and we were looking forward to riding out to Laughlin and enjoying ourselves for a few days. I was also wondering how the turn out would be this year due to the economy and also noted that while the run has, in my opinion, completely ripped off bikers in regards to the cost at least they lowered the cost of room packages this year.
I had held off on the Laughlin River Run reservations just out of laziness but also out of some strange sense of...I dunno....caution I guess. Well, somewhere near the end of March, I think the 29th or 30th, I said to my wife, "I better get online and book those River Run rooms before they get sold out". I had been keeping an eye on them and noticed that ALL of the hotels still had rooms available. So I got on, went through the Dal-Con Promotions website and slapped down my $435.00 for our stay at the Riverside Casino.
Which brings me to "the curve ball".
Not 3 days later, over half our income was gone.
Poof
Vanished
Nada
As in, "Welcome to the California Employment Development Department"
Better known to y'all as UNemployment.
Yep, after waiting all that time, as soon as we paid for it, we couldn't afford to go.
I'm not going to belabor the whole bit about being out of a job though. The point of this post is to talk about Dal-Con Promotions.
Along with other bikers too numerous to mention, I've been quick to berate Dal-Con here in this blog and in conversations as being money-grubbing and not looking out for bikers. Considering the cost of the Laughlin River Run packages in the past, I think there has been some merit to that. When compared to something like Vegas Bike Week and the cost of a room there, Laughlin has been outrageously overpriced and many bikers have bitched about it for years.
So when we figured out we really needed to cancel our reservations, I saw on my confirmation email from Dal-Con that cancellations would incur a $100 charge as long as the room was canceled 30 days PRIOR to the event.
Considering I had only booked the room about 3 weeks prior to begin with, I was concerned about getting at least a partial refund.
I called Dal-Con the same day. I'll break down their response in my next post.
posted by Mike at 9:16 AM PERMALINK
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