NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail
The good, the bad and the ugly about NorthStar California ski resort and Vail Resorts
“According to a letter posted to Boston Mills’ social media pages, staff from all three resorts are being pulled in to get Boston Mills open, and staff are being cross trained to help run the ski lifts.”
“Vail Resorts is advertising online for ski lift operator positions as well as retail and food jobs at $11.25 an hour.”
Source: MSN.com
Parking issues and long chairlift lines at the Stevens Pass ski resort east of Everett are among the issues that have been reported by customers, some of whom are now demanding partial refunds for their season passes.
In an online petition first reported by The Herald that has received more than 28,000 signatures, Jeremy Rubingh criticizes Vail Resorts, which purchased the Stevens Pass ski resort in 2018, for “the mismanagement of the ski area, the failure to treat employees well, or pay them a livable wage, and the failure to deliver the product we all paid for and bought with hard-earned money during a pandemic.”
Source: MSN.com
“Terrified witnesses recalled seeing a chair on the ski lift falling to the ground at Wildcat Mountain Saturday afternoon. First responders rushed to help the man before taking him away in an ambulance.
“He was conscious, but he wasn’t very talkative,” Jeff Doughty said.
It wasn’t clear from the initial information released by Vail Resorts what happened to the 22-year-old or what condition he was in after being taken to Androscoggin Valley Hospital.
All the people on the Snowcat Triple ski lift when the incident took place were unloaded by about 1:35 p.m., and the lift will be closed during the investigation, Vail Resorts said.
Vail Resorts owns Wildcat Mountain, in Pinkham Notch.”
Source: MSN.com
They pretend to offer you covid insurance, but it is basically a scam. They claim you can skiing confidence, but then refuse refunds, credits, or pass extensions. Customer service will not tell you why.
Mark Vickery via Facebook
My elderly dad skied no days because of Covid – unable to vaccine til April. They refused to give him any money back. They only care about their bottom line.
Elise Kristi via Facebook
Just discovered that for 2 consecutive seasons I have been charged for someone’s pass that I went skiing with nearly 6 years ago. She has somehow been authorized on my auto-renewal card and Vail says that they have no means for reversing the charge. They told me that the only option would be that I contact this person, whose contact info I do not have, and have her provide a new card number for her account.
I NEVER authorized her to be on my policy, I was never given any paperwork to sign or info to provide. Simply put, someone mad it onto my account and could authorize my credit card without my knowledge or consent. This is unlawful. Their final solution, dispute the charge through my CC company.
Rene Rabbitt via Facebook
Horrible customer service, 0 public safety planning, liberal run organization. Staff hate working there.
JD Sellers via Facebook
While every industry has been impacted by the pandemic, Vail Resort’s failure to operate their ski areas, compensate with a livable wage, and provide the product we all paid for, has made it clear that this is a Vail Resorts problem, not a covid-19 problem. By comparison, every other ski resort in every state Vail Resorts operates has been able to open their terrain and run lifts.
via Change.org
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
This democratic run joke of a company has ruined the resorts it’s taken over in the Poconos. They don’t have enough workers. You know why? Because they’re requiring employees to be vaccinated. They refused to hire my 15 yo son bc we won’t get vaccinated due to religious reasons. When they hired 2 of his friends who got vaccinated. I smell a lawsuit.
Amie Amc via Facebook
Vail sold thousands of Epic Local passes good at Stevens Pass in Washington. They weren’t willing to pay market wages, so couldn’t hire enough staff to open the mountain. During peak ski season between Christmas and New Year’s, they opened less than 40% of the ski area because of staffing shortages. They are stealing from people who paid in advance for season passes.
John Bravenec 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)
In addition to poor financial results, high leverage and frustrated customers, MTN seems to be challenged with public labor struggles recently.
Ski patrollers at Park City held a public rally this weekend to gain support for their contract negotiations.
Patrollers walk-out/”work exclusion” caused a 3-day closure at Hunter Mountain earlier in Jan. (Vail’s communication on this issue has been vague)
$100M lawsuit alleging violations of labor laws for not paying employees for all hours worked.
Labor risks could be significant if they result in a major resort closure. At minimum I would expect that trends like this put upward pressure on labor costs.
Yahoo Finance board on MTN stock
Stevens Pass ski resort has a new general manager after mounting complaints from customers about poor service and limited operations of its lifts.
Property owner Vail Resorts has replaced Tom Pettigrew with Tom Fortune, who currently manages Heavenly Ski Resort in California, on an interim basis.
Nearly 40,000 skiers and snowboarders have signed a petition demanding that Vail boost staffing at Stevens Pass and open up more of its closed off terrain for activity.
And almost 90 complaints naming Stevens Pass have been filed with the Washington Secretary of State’s Office during the current ski season.
Source: KPQ
To Vail Resorts: you should hire professionals based on their leadership skills, not based on their vagina presence. Hashtag: #VailEpicFail.
The most recent “disrupter” in “male-dominated industry” was Elizabeth Holmes with her Theranos bs. Google it if you are living under the rock.
Source: Knowledia
NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail 