36″ fresh snow and they tweet the mountain is 100% open. On arrival, nothing could be further from the truth. One gondola open to access the mountain and a two hour wait. Only two lifts open at mid.mountain. Meanwhile, exasperated punters filling the Vail Resorts coffers buying food and drink in the village while they wait. Cynical BS by Northstar/Vail. Cash cow in the short term, but these people will not return & they will tell others. Terrible experience.
OP via Google reviews
Category: Info
“Vail resorts & specifically Northstar are horrible”
Vail resorts & specifically Northstar are horrible! We came up to ski for the day. We are family of 4 & have a 14 year old disabled son & a 17 year old snowboarder. The plan was that I would ski with the 17 year old & my husband would hang back with our disabled son. When we arrived to the resort my special needs son would not let me out of his site. My husband & I decided to switch places. He was going to ski with our older son & I was going to hang back. So as my husband was getting on the gondola they confiscated the past because his picture did not match. We had no idea that the passes were non-transferable. We figured we had two skiers and two passes. It is written in the smallest possible letters on the back of the card which why would you even think to look there? When we explained our situation to the resort they were not only rude but had zero compassion for our situation. We were treated awfully!!! I will stick with the small non corporate ski resorts where they tend to treat people with respect & don’t belittle them, especially during a difficult situation.
Carmen Petti via Onthesnow.com
From the team: Yep, the whole Vail’s idea with “epic pass” is to sell as many passes as possible and cancel/revoke/suspend/etc as many passes as possible as well. The Vail & Northstar gestapo is making sure that stupid rule is enforced so their CEO gets her $6M+ bonus.
“What is this rental facility fee? Seems like a scam for them to charge more. (It’s Vail resorts)”
This is the same company that charged $4 shipping for every online pass purchased earlier this year, even if you reactivated a pass you already had, or picked your pass up in person without any shipping.
they will continue to pull this shit as long as people accept it.
Forget “experience of a lifetime” this is clearly turning into “whatever it takes to make this quarters number”
And they’re going to continue to do so as long as people accept their shitty business practices. F**k Vail. Stop supporting them, people. If you complain after paying the presumably hundreds of dollars shown here, it kind of doesn’t matter. They got what they wanted and the consumer put up with it.
Source: Reddit
“Avoid month to month billing for the EPIC pass”
I signed up for a month to month billing thinking I would be billed a small amount each month. Instead they just delay all of your payments until months later and hit you with hundreds of dollars all of a sudden that they will f**k you if you don’t pay. When they finally took the $577 out of my account they charged it again 2 weeks later. I called 3 times to dispute the charge and received no help. I have now submitted the double charge as fraud to my bank. My 19 year old friend was also double charged the same way. Luckily they didn’t have the funds in their account for the second transaction to go through.
Devon B via BBB.org
“Auto-renew is a Scam”
Resorts, what should be a proud company, is just a scam business committing fraud. When I purchased online a 4-pack pass for my 17-year old daughter last year, they claim I clicked on auto-renew for the upcoming year. I did not intend on auto-renew and it is impossible to get out of auto-renew. They automatically charged my credit card and my daughter does not intend on skiing this year so we are paying them without receiving any benefit. I think that is their scam. Bump up their revenue from people that will not be visiting their resorts and adding to their long lines. Resorts refused to refund my money. They directed me to their insurance process for a qualifying loss, which is impossible to meet the document requirements because there are a very narrow set of circumstances in which to get a refund. I filed a complaint with the AG directed me to file a complaint here. I likely will not receive my money returned but I will NEVER visit another resort or shop at EPIC Sports, owned by Resorts. I have likely spent over $2000 there in the last two years. Never again and I will tell everyone I know what a fraudulent operation Resorts has become. Resorts, I hope you are proud. Now, I just want as many people as possible to know the truth. Read the entry below from 9/23 and 10/9. They have no remorse, just their shoddy explanation of claiming “we sent you an email”. The employees should be embarrassed to work for such a fraudulent company. Be aware.
Connie B via BBB.org
“Judge Grants Final Approval of Vail Resorts’ $13.1-Million Offer to Settle Labor Law Violations Lawsuit”
Vail Resorts will pay $13.1 million to settle five wage and labor lawsuits brought against the company in California for claims of labor law violations.
Preliminary approval of the $13.1 million deal was given in March 2022, and on Friday 19th August, 2022, Judge Michael McLaughlin granted final approval of the settlement offer in court in South Lake Tahoe. The decision will likely put an end to a similar class action lawsuit filed in Colorado.
snowbrains.com
“Another scary Vail resorts accident”
..just witnessed the chair directly in front of us fall off the haul rope during a wind hold on the peak 8 superconnect at Breckenridge’s Peak 8 SuperConnect. The chair was close to the top terminal and fell about 20 feet. ski patrol was already there and the guy riding the chair is ok.
brettmgoldberg1 via Twitter
The lift involved was built by Leitner-Poma in 2002 and connects Peaks 8 and 9 with three stations. There are normally 190 chairs on the line.
..
This is the second carrier to fall from a detachable lift in North America this season. Earlier this month, an empty gondola fell from Mont-Sainte-Anne’s gondola, an incident blamed on human error after a grip attach fault. Last season, an occupied gondola cabin fell from the Sunday River Chondola in high winds. Prior to that, a chair detachment at Camelback, Pennsylvania injured three people in March 2021.
Liftblo
“Vail will collapse. It’s not IF but WHEN.”
Vail will collapse. It’s not if but when. When pass prices go up by 20% they can only muster a 6% revenue increase associated with a 12% drop in units sold their upper tier passes while buying FOUR new areas. This all in an economy with huge inflation and huge labor cost increases. The financials just don’t add up to sustainability.
Their Experience Of A Lifetime (TM) is turning people away. Limited snowmaking this year (disasterous last year).
…
Poor grooming quality. I laugh at some of the pics posted to the pass group on Facebook talking about the amazing conditions when there’s huge grooming ruts, 2 foot ice boulders, death cookies galore, etc. in the pics.
Lack of maintenance to their lifts leading them to break down all the time (Attitash last year, Stowe this year). Lack of running lifts. Non lifties running lifts. Grumpy employees some that scream at you for no reason. Bad traffic. Long lines. Charge you to park with no lifts running. I can go on…
Interest rates are through their roof. Their line of credit they’ve been using to fund their upgrades is now suddenly much costlier. Meanwhile their bread and butter resorts — Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckinridge, Keystone — have a ton of aging detachable that need to be replaced within the decade.
obienick via Snowjournal
“Vail can’t hire competent managers to run the resorts”
Vail can’t hire competent managers to run the resorts and don’t care enough about front line employees. Profits over people all day everyday.
Joe Zimmerman via Facebook
Vail has to be one of the worst run companies I’ve ever seen. They pay their employees far less than competitors, and then blame anyone but themselves when they don’t have enough workers to operate the mountains that all of us paid thousands of dollars for passes on. They don’t care, they already have everyone’s money. I know Stevens Pass in Washington, at some point only 1 of the chairlifts was being operated by the lifts department, the rest were being run by other departments like rentals and ski school, simply because they couldn’t find enough suckers to work for their pitiful wages. I’ve heard from instructor friends that they went from 6 people per instructor, to an unlimited number of people per instructor, and my friend had 17 kids in her class. I can walk from my condo to the gondola in Vail, and next year I plan on driving to Copper Mountain and getting an Ikon pass instead. Vail Mountain is great, but the company that runs it can’t go bankrupt soon enough. Maybe then someone else will step in and actually run things the way they used to be.
Tommy Newnes via Facebook
I’m trying to find a way to make a official post to bring attention to what Vail Resorts is doing. OBVIOUSLY the WORST lines, services in many years. SO, since Vail is going to keep taking everyone’s money and NOT HAVE ENOUGH employees there is a solution. Our Government has a program which allows immigrants to come into the United States of America. It is a Visa called H2-A which allows U.S. Employers to bring in as many as they want. The H2-A visa is based on mainly ONE FACT. That is that there are NOT ENOUGH citizens of the United States to do the SEASONAL WORK which QUALIFIES the Employer as well as the immigrants. This Visa program I mainly designed for farmers and landscape companies during the season. What do you think?? I personally think that I myself would rather stay in a WARMER CLIMATE. If you like what I said please post it out there. And please check out the Government program H2-A Visa. It is VERY CLEAR. GOOD LUCK. and by the way SHAME ON VAIL ASSOCIATES for trying to be the WALMARTS of the SKI INDUSTRY. They are ruining it for EVERYONE
Peter Wolff via Facebook.com
Worst ski experience ever. If you like waiting in long lines for lifts and dining come on down. 30 minute lift lines and they continue to sell ski passes at the base. Lots of snow but 30% of mountain open making congestion all the worse. After buying 5 epic passes per year for 10+ years I am done. Ikon or mountain collective here we come.
Leonard Feiner via Facebook.com
“EPIC waste of $400”
I ordered a Stevens Select Pass and just learned that every weekend in January and February are blackout date. When I ordered the pass I knew it did not include Holidays but I specifically recall looking on the website to ensure the pass included weekends. Nowhere did it say the weekends were blacked out (or it was buried in the small print) I work during the week so this is an EPIC waste of $400. Vail thanks for screwing me over, again.
Will Bronaugh via Facebook
Do not honour season pass refunds. A consistent issue, well known by the ACCC and fair trading. They’ll take your money in a heart beat, but you’ll never hear from them when lodging a refund request (supported by the correct paperwork as dictated by their own T&Cs). No way to contact them aside from email; and as mentioned, good luck getting a response.
Nicholas C Kaye via Facebook
Another unhappy RIPPED OFF customer. Sold ski passes under the guise that because of the pandemic they could be refunded. Only to be denied over a year later because “we didn’t have refundable passes” someone needs to take accountability for the THEFT that vail resorts is getting away with.
Tyler Burkhart via Facebook.com
NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail 