Tag: Colorado

Corporate greed at it’s height

I have been a customer of Vail for 15+ years.
We have spent close to a hundred K over that time as a customer getting Epic passes every season for our whole family, using their ski schools etc.
I lost my job and per to the refund policy I am allowed to get this seasons passes refunded.

But they have a 30 day loophole that prevents you from getting the refund.
The insurance company sends you to Epic. Epic says they have no control and send you back to the insurance company.

An absolutely DISGUSTING way to treat long term valuable customers and spread ill will about their company. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Sep 2024 • Family, Luke H – via TripAdvisor

The lack of empathy and understanding for individuals dealing with significant injuries is deeply disheartening.

During our last skiing trip to Whistler in January, my wife suffered an ACL injury, and I underwent shoulder reconstruction surgery in June of this year. As a result, I did not regularly check my email account that was used for holiday booking, I was auto-charged for the EPIC Pass for next year.

Given these circumstances, it is impossible for us to ski for the foreseeable future. Despite reaching out to the company 4-5 times over the past few months to explain our situation and requesting the cancellation of my EPIC Pass and a refund, the company’s response has been disappointing. The lack of empathy and understanding for individuals dealing with significant injuries is deeply disheartening.

Instead, they informed me that they will proceed with charging my credit card next month for the passes for me, my wife, and my children, citing the fine print in the contract.

Knowing that my wife and I are injured, the company’s lack of compassion and understanding of the stress we are going through is both immoral and unethical. We will never ski at any of the Vail Resort-operated locations again in the future.

T.L. (SoMa, San Francisco, CA) via Yelp reviews

WSJ: The 100 Best Ski Resorts in the U.S. and Canada

Source: r/skiing

The rest of the list is at WSJ website

“Epic passes not received. Epic coverage is a scam”

Spent $1800 in April for Epic Passes. They supposedly shipped to an address that was not even in my account, tried to charge me for a reshipment of the passes the erroneously shipped to the wrong address, and have still not shipped out the passes after finally putting in the reshipment order. Customer service is quick to say “I’m sorry” and then wring their hands as they give you phone numbers that just hangup on you or general email inboxes for you to vent your frustration to the ether. Any lawyers out there because this is sounding like a great class action brewing.

David R via Tripadvisor

Epic pass is a total scam.
I’ve been promised mine is arriving for several weeks.
I want to use a partner benefit in France and have been told via online chat (Impossible to find 99% of the time) that I just need proof of purchase.
I’ve found three different links to what you have to do.
1. proof of active pass and ID
2. Actual pass and ID
3. You must register your visit on the Three Valleys site 10 days before.

Well, I don’t have a pass to show and have no idea how you register your visit on the Trois Vallees site – No details given.

M1A via Tripadvisor

Epic coverage is a scam. They make it as difficult as possible. Claims are handled through sedgwick so they can avoid providing basic customer service. Once you are denied Epic and sedgwick will provide no support. They are just waiting you out until the pass’s epic coverage is expired. For reference my pass was never used.

Ty7188 via Tripadvisor

The customer experience is a horror show….took me 50 minutes to order 3 4 day passes for adults….horrific, and pathetic. I don’t care about the mountain, the snow, whatever, the customer service experience is the worst, and gets worse every year…..I choose to go elsewhere

Paul B via Tripadvisor

“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

“Vail Resorts employee dies after tree falls on chairlift at Utah resort”

A Vail Resorts employee at the Park City Mountain Resort in Utah died on Monday after falling from a chairlift, according to resort officials. 

According to the resort’s Senior Manager of Communications Sara Huey, a tree fell on the line of the Short Cut chairlift at around 10:45 AM. An on-duty employee that was riding the lift fell from his seat, falling an estimated height of at least 25 feet, Huey said. 

outtherecolorado.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 Resorts’ leadership failing on multiple fronts

This ski season, Vail Resorts’ leadership has failed locals and guests with a subpar and unsafe skiing experience. Here’s the breakdown:

  • Vail Resorts was extremely slow to comply with the county mandate on masks in indoor spaces on its gondolas. It still isn’t instructing their employees enough to actually enforce this rule. As our community COVID-19 numbers skyrocket, gondolas are one of the best places to catch the virus.
  • As overworked/underpaid employees are strained or come down sick and resort operations suffer, Vail blames the “global talent shortage.” This is corporate speak for “we don’t want to pay people living wages.” The talent is there; Vail just needs to pay living wages for employees.
  • Snow is Vail’s business. When other competing resorts can open terrain, but Vail Resorts’ resorts across the country can’t, that’s 100% Vail Resorts’ fault.
  • The model of “sell as many passes as possible” clearly worked for the bottom line, but is that something we actually want for skiing? I’d gladly take an Epic Pass that’s north of $1,000 next year if it leads to shorter lift lines and fewer crowds on our ski hill. I’m not saying we should make skiing exclusionary. It’s already very expensive, and the more folks who ski, the more will care about combating the climate change that is ruining our winters. But there’s loving something to death, and that’s what Vail has seen this entire winter season with absurd crowds even on weekdays due to cheap Epic Passes.
  • No heartfelt Instagram post from Beth Howard changes that she’s in charge and responsible for these failures. She needs to step up, fight for a living wage for her employees, open terrain swiftly and safely without excuses, and combat the pandemic.

Source: Benjamin Gadberry and VailDaily

Single-Day Lift Ticket on Vail Mountain Hits $1,566

Skiers arriving at Vail’s namesake Colorado resort over the weekend were shocked to find four-digit prices greeting them at the ticket window. Adult one-day lift tickets were listed at $1,566, a nearly 700 percent increase over the previous peak price of $229. A child’s one-day lift ticket rose to $798.

“This is an outrage,” said Abner Stevens, 92, a retired mining engineer who was walking back to the car with his wife and six grandchildren. “Why I remember when you could barter a little squirrel meat and a shotgun shell for a ride on the chairlift. Now these damn kids will just waste the whole day Faceposting on their Nintendos.”

Full story at: StormSkiing