Round House Racing may need Utah business bankruptcy attorney after angering customers
Not everyone is up for running the Boston Marathon, but entering races has become an increasingly favorite pastime for many Americans, especially when the organization hosting the race makes it fun. Running through the gauntlet of spectators throwing paint on participants (the Color Run) is one variation on the theme, and the 5k Foam Fest – where runners wade through waist-high fields of foam, army-crawl through mud pits, climb mass walls and fly down slip n’ slides– is another. But this year, Round House Racing canceled their Foam Fest at the last minute, inciting dismay and anger from race participants who had already paid and registered to run the race, according to this article in Salt Lake City’s Fox13Now online news source. Facing formal complaints by several of the runners, it may behoove the organization to team up with a business bankruptcy attorney in Utah, and quick.
The 5k Foam Fest wasn’t a local event—with several simultaneous races scheduled to start in multiple U.S. cities, the disappointment and outrage at Round House Racing’s bankruptcy declaration can be felt across the nation. Based in Spanish Fork, the company and its owner David Ballard have all but vanished. Ballard declined to participate in an interview, according to Fox13 News, but reported over the phone that “there weren’t enough people registering for the races to outweigh the cost of doing the events.” A business bankruptcy attorney in Utah might affirm that this situation is common to companies shutting down and closing shop, but is it what happened to Round House Racing? As of July 17, the 5k Foam Fest was discontinued, according to the notice on their website, but the abrupt way in which the company shut its doors without refunding customer payments is what has the complaints rolling in.
A business bankruptcy attorney in Utah like Clay A. Alger might warn Ballard and the now non-existent Round House Racing to be cautious at this juncture: canceling the events just days before they were scheduled in 44 cities across the U.S. for thousands of prospective participants who had already paid is a situation ripe for trouble. Ballard maintains that there is no money to refund, because the money isn’t there. “The race season has really bottomed out and we are being forced to close our doors,” Ballard wrote in an email to his landlord the day before the events were canceled. An apology on the 5k Foam Fest website, to customers who prepaid up to $100, stated that the company “no longer has staff or funds, and will not be able to respond to individual emails or phone calls.”
Though “Utah consumer officials can neither confirm nor deny whether an investigation into Round House Racing is underway, they say they’re getting calls from the public.” An angry public that is heading to the Utah Division of Consumer Protection and other consumer advocacy companies should signal to the now insolvent company that a business bankruptcy attorney in Utah may be a good choice in going forward in terms of protecting assets of affiliates and owners. Meanwhile, the Better Business Bureau “has put an alert on its website warning consumers” that no refunds—full or partial—are available from Round House.
