Sponge

Has anyone used this training service?

I have wanted to for years and now I can financially justify it but thus far I am greatly disappointed.

timmhaan

there are a few people on this forum who have used it. most people report they think they are riding at too low of a level at first. is that your complaint with it?

Sponge

No its the lack of interaction and such...

Their forum and propaganda preaches that they are all about interaction and dialog w/your coach but right now there are quite a few (at least for a new guy) unanswered posts, phone calls and general questions...many for days...and a few people are getting pissed including me.

A large number of us have questions about our program why it is the way it is and not including something that we wanted included that was put into the survey, and more importantly things that seem to be errors.

This isn't intended to be flame. I am not one to flame a company or a service particuarly without their response but when this many people have contacted them or posted in their forum I wanted to see if this is typical and if others have seen/heard of this.

milani

It depends which level of support you pay for. If you pay for classic coaching, you get the forums to interact with "coaches" which are 1-2 year CTS officianados. If you pay for the next step up, you get some interaction with "resident coaches" and so forth. It is all about what you pay for. Also with that, the benefits you get with the program increase as you pay more money. I do not currently subscribe, but I have been researching it very much, and was thinking about joining for my summer training.

Sponge

I am doing the $40 a month/$19 set up program that relies on the forum exclusively. I knew it was going to be the 1-2 year guys and that's all I really need right now. More to give me a proven schedule, motivate me, and answer my questions and concerns particuarly at the begining.

And when you rely exclusively on that type of format you would expect a response within their 24 hour window that they say they will?

Maybe I am expecting too much but I could have gotten this from Men's Health for 1/3 the price.

rule

Okay, so I am guessing that you are R------?

Your original post to the tech support forum was yesterday morning. I notice that as of this afternoon, the member services manager has posted an apology for the delay and a note that your schedule has been corrected.

I also see that you made a post in the coaches forum today about your problem. Within just a few minutes another CTS member gave you the contact number and extension of member services. A coach posted just a few hours later that he had already arranged for the manager of member services to contact you directly.

As you found out, getting help from CTS tech support when they are in the middle of a technical conversion can be hit and miss. They have had messages posted off and on over the last couple of weeks that they are taking the site down for maintenance and tweaks. I think you likely got caught in the middle of their tech guys being occupied on the site updates.

Otherwise, when you have a problem, don't start out thinking that you can let CTS know about it by adding a 'me too' comment in someone else's thread. That rarely ever will get you taken care of. That cost you most of the delay in this case from what I can see. Further, when their tech support people get backed up or aren't available - like in the middle of a conversion or system maintenance which as you have seen they will warn you ahead of time about - contact member services directly. And yeah, at times that may mean making a phone call. Those folks can get pretty busy too.

But hey, if a one day turnaround isn't good enough for you, let them know about it. They take their athlete's feedback very seriously and will do whatever it takes to correct a problem. And for whatever it's worth, the one time that I made a post like yours about tech support not getting back to me, I did get an email response...but it was directly from Chris Charmichael who was in France the week before the Tour began. So yeah, R------, they care, as do the rest of us. When you need help, just ask.

Sponge

That is great to hear...this wasn't intended to be a flame and I hope I made that clear. I was just looking for some outside input on them.

I assume you mean rookie? I would guess I could be called that I have only club rode and w/friends.

Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't aware there was a conversion going on. I assumed something but after reading alot a few other w/the same issues I wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting my $ while I could still get out.

Again thanks and I think my high expectations will be met.

The subject of this will be changed.

Cheers!

rule

Hey no apologies necessary...especially for just being the customer! Like I said, I have been the one with schedule glitch issues before. It can be a little frustrating when something goes wrong for sure.

CTS has it's own rhythm, like any business. Coaches aren't online on the forums all the time. Their IT guys work off hours a lot of the time. Member services folks are out sick, on vacation or just get busy with calls and such when CTS is running a promotion. They are a small enough staff that you can tell when something like that is causing the communication breakdown after you have been around a while.

Overall though, you have learned the key to CTS already! You get out of it exactly what you put into it! If you are active in the coaching forums with your questions and issues, you will get plenty of attention. That is definitely a key part to making CTS work, especially when you are new. All of us have been there, so don't worry about it. You did great! Ask your questions when you get them and take advantage of the CTS team and the community of athletes. That is the way that it is supposed to be.

Now the next time down the road that you see a post yours, you can respond with your expertise.

Sponge

Thanks for the feedback and I hear you on getting out what you put in...I am jazzed right now and want to keep with it.