Intensely annoying responses by TR staff

All of us here arguing about how good/bad the TR staff are keeps us worked up and off the bike. We get slower, so our competition is relatively faster. In a sense, somebody is getting faster. The system works!

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At least TR responds to silly forum threads faster than they develop features. Is that annoying enough for you?

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Ouch. Burn.

This feels like politics. “I have seen examples. No, I don’t have any examples to show you, but they are out there. You should go find examples yourself”.

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Dad?

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Such an annoying response by the staff (sarcasm)

This is the Friday night thread I didn’t know I needed.

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Hahaha, awesome.

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Doesnt every CEO of multi-million dollar businesses personally reply to a user in an attempt to help them with an issue?

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I haven’t noticed a change in the TR staff posts on here recently. As others have said and pointed out with examples, the responses have remained high quality, and there are numerous examples of TR staff generally trying to help even when issues have nothing to do with TR specifically. What I have noticed more of recently is an uptick in forum users/posts bashing TR. This forum has always been an awesome resource of knowledgeable people and even has some regular posters who criticize certain TR features in a constructive manner that leads to quality discourse. I have my things I love about TR (and ultimately why they get my money) and my things I’m less fond of (because nothing is perfect), so I don’t come here expecting an absence of critical comments at all. Recently though, it does seem like there’s an increase in forum posts that are heavy on the criticism and light on the constructive part. Generally speaking, this is still an awesome forum that I happily waste way too much time on, but if I’ve noticed anything different recently, it’s been that.

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Also, the podcasts are WAY too long when they are not entirely too short.

And if Coach Chad does one more deep dive that isn’t the perfect depth (which I’ve determined is exactly 23 minutes and 47 seconds) I’m going to lose my mind.

Also, this forum should be shut down. I mean, sure, if it annoys me I could stay away … just like I can fast-forward through a podcast and/or choose not to listen to it. But that would require me to be accountable for my own decisions, and I enjoy the convenience of being able to blame somebody else for not delivering me a perfect experience free of charge.

:wink:

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You’re definitely teetering on “K*ntish_Man” for sure.

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Of all the products I buy from companies, I’d say that TrainerRoad is the most goodest. They seem very earnest to respond to users, they make a great product, and they charge a fair price.

Now, my wife buys local artisan soaps and candles. You’d never believe how many soaps and candles we have in our house. She single-handedly propped up these industries during the pandemic.

So, of the products in my household, maybe the companies ran by these ladies in their home, making artisan candles and soaps are more wholesome than TrainerRoad. So of the products used in my household, I’d rank TrainerRoad as third overall. That’s still a podium. And mind you, still number one in my individual category.

I don’t think they should strive to beat out these other ladies and their soaps and candles. This would cause TrainerRoad to overdevelop in some areas, and underdevelop in others (like progression levels on outdoor rides). I think they should just keep on doing what they do best. Be consistent in their product like they tell me to do in my training. Consistently aim to finish on the podium with these purveyors of candles and soaps. Consistently put out a good product, at a good price, and engage transparently with their customers.

Congratulations on being #3, TrainerRoad. Keep striving. You’ve got this.

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Hmmmmmm

Perhaps a “Troll” methinks.

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Hey everyone!

I’m TR’s Support Co Director jumping in because our Community Managers are out (I hope this doesn’t feel corporate :grinning:)

It sounds like you’re getting a sort of “out of touch”, corporate vibe from TR staff responses where the question isn’t actually answered. Is that right?

We definitely aren’t going for the corporate vibe. We’re looking to help out where we can. We see a lot of potential to help our athletes on the forum, so that’s our CM team’s main goal when chiming in. And hyping everyone up of course!

Anyway, we’re always looking to improve. Can you DM me examples of where you feel like our responses aren’t helpful and don’t really answer the question? We always want to answer the question. That should be the first thing we do!

There are also a few personal attacks getting thrown around. We do not want any of that here, so please respect each other.

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Dad?

:wink:

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I don’t really see how TR could break into the artisanal soap and candle market without a massive re-spec and shift in production methods. Having said that, Chad’s deep dives into soap and candle ingredients would be pretty epic.

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Regarding soaps, we can certainly expect a knowledge gap when it comes to lyes and natural aeromatic additives and essential oils. (We should expect Jonathan to forego any such additives because they just get in the way of lathering).

However, I’m sure that Chad’s knowledge of fat burning will have some carryover into candle making. A flame intensity of 60% (according to Coggan’s Flashpoint Testing Protocol) optimizes wax melt and minimal smoke buildup.

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I haven’t noticed that. Usually, in my interactions with them on the forum TR employees come across as pretty genuine. Of course, you can tell that when they speak as employees of TR they tend to choose their words carefully. But that is their job.

E. g. in threads on commonly requested features (support for Apple Health, Apple Watch app with heart rate broadcasting functionality), they reply to posts acknowledging that this is a commonly requested feature, and give a response that reads pretty honest to me (e. g. “This feature is currently very low on the list of priorities, so don’t expect it soon.”). We just shouldn’t have wrong expectations here, support staff is not in charge of feature prioritization. Instead, they are part of a feedback loop.

In other situations where e. g. a member got hurt during a crash or they have something to contribute, their contributions are very nice. If anything, I have to applaud them, they usually stay out of heated exchanges and reign themselves in. That’s hard. (I’m speaking from experience, I have been a mod in a once very large forum for nearly two decades.)

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I recently posted my first question on here and got an answer in several paragraphs from an employee, which answered most of my questions and gave a reason why the other questions might not be the right ones to ask in the context of TR. I don’t think there was anything wrong with the answer - it was an answer to some things while an explanation on how TR does things for the rest. I would expect that.

So while I didn’t get straight up yes/no/42/blue answers to everything, I got a usable answer about how to continue using TR. Better response than I would have expected from other companies.

I am new to TR but have lurked in the forums for a while and also listened to the podcasts before deciding TR was the way to go this winter. The support and level of information was a huge factor in that decision.

So as someone who recently got an answer to a post in the forums: No, I haven’t noticed that…

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