Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon

Without a doubt, this is the worst race organizer ever.

Well the term 'worst' is relative since this is my first encounter of such unprofessional handling of matters.

Look at the picture below:


It is a screen shot of my Maybank2u credit card transaction slip. It says, if I may, that I have made a payment to Standard Chartered Singapore SG for the amount of $52 (for half marathon) on the July 27th.

I have emailed them about 5 times. I called their hotline about more than 15 times. I think they all know my name already. I still haven't received the confirmation slip. When they checked their database, they say my name nor the payment is recorded. They asked me to check with my bank.

I checked with Maybank, and they said there is really nothing they could do because the payment has been made to them. I should print out this transaction as proof, they said.

I have already attached this screenshot. And the hotline said that if it was their payment, it would have the RBS Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon on the slip.

So I said, okay fine. I'll re-register again, even if it means I burned rm 128 for some phantom payment to standard chartered, even if it means I missed out on the early bird fee.

This morning, I registered. And I GOT THE SAME PROBLEM AGAIN. As soon as I pressed Ok for the visa payment, it LEAD ME BACK TO THEIR WAIVER PAGE, no confirmation whatsoever. What is wrong with their system?

To say that there is something wrong with MY card, it couldn't be because just yesterday I registered for the great eastern women singapore and it got through just like in seconds. From RBS as well. So no complaints from my card or the bank.

What I am frustrated about is the fact that they don't want to help at all. Like, dude, I am sorry, but you seem to be the ONLY one who's having this problem... so it's your loss not mine. We've already received a staggering response from people.

I told them that I have no idea how this happen, but my intention is simple: I just wanted to register. Is there anything, ANYTHINg you could do? I mean, short of telling me I have to register in person in singapore, there's nothing they could do, they say. Just like that.

The worst thing is that I might have to look for someone who lives in Singapore who is kind hearted enough to register for me at the registration center. The standard chartered people gave me their number, and when I told them (the singapore athletics association) they say it's typical of the race organizers to 'tai-chi' the problems to the registration center. That guy was really kind. He says since they have no such technologies, and they can only accept manual registration, he would allow somebody else to register for me, even if it is strictly in person.

THAT'S how you want to help people. Even if I'm the only person having this problem. How could you say, "Sorry... there's nothing we can do?" to someone who wants to register?

Anyway, yesterday because of this particularly upsetting news, I decided to take it easy on my running. I did a simple 5.5km in 39:38:09 which is slower than my normal times, but I couldn't be bothered. My knees hurt all the time now... and my shin is starting to throb. Im feeling an onset of injuries piling in. But I'm a bit upset about the registration to worry about other things. I do not want to miss the race. But how am I able to register if they won't let me??