Scammed....

As a race director I always try and take a runners "word for it." Many times folks tell me they mailed in a race application that we did not receive. I ask them to fill out another entry and we sign them up with no questions asked. Almost 100% of the time the entry does get to my po box. But here is one incident that really gets to me. The Friday night before the DE Marathon I listen to my voice box messages. One is from a runner from the Philly area. He is letting me know that he will not be able to make packet pick up Saturday since he is stuck in South Carolina for business. He goes on to tell me that he would like to switch from the full marathon to the half marathon and will be there Sunday morning to pick up his packet. I was doing a million and one things and did not have a chance to look at the roster of athletes. He shows up Sunday morning at 6:30 am and goes up to my volunteer at the trouble shooting table and lets them know that we do not have his race packet. My volunteer tells him that he is not on the pre reg roster (this was posted on the website and updated daily). He said he entered online but did not bring his receipt. I asked him if he ever looked at the pre reg list and he said "no". I asked him if he ever received any of our emails and he said "no". So the nice guy i am i say fill out this form and pay the pre reg price and i will look into active.com. His comment...."I do not have my wallet with me." Ok....what is your cell number which he did give me. I gave him a race number and goodie bag plus tech shirt. He runs the race and leaves. I call him Monday and left him a message that he was not on the list of those who entered online. He leaves me a message to call him in his office which i do and he states he will send out payment. OK.....almost 3weeks have gone by and NO payment. I have called a couple more times....guess what? Scammed...you bet.