hmmmmm. it seems here like there's a failure to communicate. the following written transactions occurred on my team's forum. i cut and pasted the interesting stuff and names including the sponsor have been changed to protect the ill. here's the deal: we have a sponsorship with a dealer and some of us think it's not so hot...
rufus: This is a pretty strict contract from people only giving us 40% off retail.
team captain: I wouldnt bitch to [sic] much, its better than 0% off.
crocus: TRUE, WITHOUT THE DISCOUNT THE HELMET WOULD BE 160 WOW, 96 IS STILL A BIT MUCH, AND THEY HAVE NONE IN STOCK
me being a smartass and piling on: i respectfully submit (i.e. no bitchin'): yes it is a 40% off a 30% markup from msrp; and did i mention i love rejayjay as our sponsors? yessir, i do. team captain, missed you at the denver spoke ride sat...i see why the products are non-transferable: it'd be difficult to find somebody more gullible than we are (statistically improbable). did i mention i love our sponsors-rejayjay especially? the free ten-dollars-for-shipping-goggles was coolio though...
i'm keeping my fingers crossed for the pro-deal i'm working with wal-mart for one of those sweet mbx dual suspension, coil-over rear shock rigs for my off-road campaign this year.
and another thing, i want to thank team captain for giving us the opportunity of having more than 30 minutes to order an out-of-stock item for the team (i'm being serious).
y'all have a good day. ite den...
team captain: WTF is up with this bitching about sponsors BS!
You dont like the deals dont fucking order anything.
From here on out I will just let the guys that work on these deals with our sponsors know we are not interested any breaks on products they might offer because they are not good enough for us.
I will be absolutely honest, all I hear right now is a bunch on un-grateful cat 3 & 4's bitching.
A little gratitude never hurts...............
team captain (a little later on): First off, I have to apologize for flying off the handle in my email to the team. I hope I didn't offend anyone to badly. I was not pointing a finger at any-ones email in my response, but at the attitude I was getting in general. Sponsorships mean different things to each of us, to some its no big deal, to others it means they can afford to upgrade to products they might not otherwise be able to afford. Regardless of what the sponsorships mean to you, a general thankfulness that we even have these deals might not be a bad idea.
kathy (not liking my sarcastic reply): Machmoud, I honestly can't tell what the point of your email was. If you're trying to thank team captain, you should try to make it clear that you aren't being sarcastic.
Just so people know where you stand....
yours truly with smart-ass full throttle, replying to kathy: Kathy et al.,
i'm going to preface this with i'm being sarcastic. oh, and my apologies to the king estate.
i have a dream today.
this is our hope. this is the faith that i go back to vitamin cottage 3/4 team with. with this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of sponsorships a stone of hope. with this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our sponsorship into a beautiful symphony of discounts, without having to go to performance bike. with this faith we will be able to race together, to stand up to BRO deals together, knowing that one day we will get a true, pro-deal (instead of trickle-down from our elite brethren).
i have a dream today. okay...
just expressing my opine on our forum about the ultra-le-hame rejayjay deal and the realities of participating on a 3/4 team (read: crocus' last thread). it isn't a form of dissension; furthermore, your attempts to work out deals for us does not go unnoticed, and for that, i am appreciative (Kathy, in that aforementioned run-on sentenced section, i was being truthful or not sarcastic). this repartee of illness-or malingering feelings-has no bearing on our future endeavors as a team, which, from the group rides (under your tutelage), looks promising. ite? ite.
peace be with y'all...
andreas: To bring a little perspective to this crazy thread here is what this whole thing looks like to me.
1. team captain decided to take the sponsor bashing personally and really shouldn't have, especially since he had nothing to do with working the deals.
2. The sponsorship blowz [sic].
3. The divide between the different teams grows when rosalyn and kathy cannot post freely on this forum. It keeps the elitist attitude going by closing off communication with other team members.
Teno needs to chill and realize that this team's sponsorships are one of the worst in the ACA. There are other 4's clubs that get full bikes: carbon, dura ace etc, for around 800 bucks. Their races are paid for if they race a minimum of X and even have travel expenses reimbursed if they place well. So, if the sponsorship and racing were the only reason we were all on this team I am sure everyone would have left a long time ago and gone to other clubs with better deals. The reality is, we all race in purple spandex because we are friends and we enjoy each others company, in a non-gay way. I like to ride with rosalyn, I like to ride with team captain and with everyone else on the team. So to team captain and everyone else that has their panties in a twist over the reality that the sponsorship is sub-par, get real and understand that we don't care. We are on VC for the sake of racing and riding with people we like, not to get flashy new gear every year. That's part of the sarcasm in everyone's posts. If they were serious they would have left the team or never joined in the first place.
I believe this subject is now dead.
and last, worth mentioning, a friend of mine benny, whose subject line read, "Ciao": I personally don't like the changes that I have seen in this forum lately. I don't want to deal with the petty bullshit, I no longer feel welcome, and I am thus choosing to take my leave. For those interested, I have set up a new "open" VC group over at i blanked it out
I am about to send an invite out to all members here. If for any reason you don't get it and would like to join, just visit the group at the URI [sic]above and request to become a member. I hope to see you on the flip side. If not, best of luck to you!!
the saga continues...
6 comments:
I still loves ya :) I think we should move the entire thing to Google groups anyway. I hate the Yahoo groups and the way it works.
Our sponsorships are not always that great, but hey, we do get to rock to Purple and Orange.
and i, love you too, brah. boy. i guess it is the purple and orange that keeps us coming back...
Oi Mick, I can see why you didn't make friends there. (hehehe) Very entertaining, more entertaining than our forum. :-) But it can get quite hairy there, too. http://roadgrime.com.au
Not a team forum but rather for the whole South East Queensland cycling scene. Guess it's here like there like everywhere. It's human nature.
i just couldn't help myself. so how're your sponsors? this actually caused a schism dear sandra. there's more noteworthy transactions actually but i think you get how the trajectory of the exchanges went down...
Sponsors? What sponsors? :-)
no sponsors? y'all must all be millionaires down there:) just recently with the advent of $10k bikes (and $3k entry-level), i do believe this sport is pricing me out!
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