Daniel H.
Yelp
I wish to express my dissatisfaction with Mount Snow's business practices for the recent Founders Day event, which was the worst customer experience I have ever encountered at a ski resort. Mount Snow oversold the mountain in a big way. A friend and I each purchased tickets online, and planned a day-trip to the mountain from Hartford, Connecticut. We left early enough that we anticipated we would arrive at the mountain between 9:30 am and 10:00 am. However, before we even got to Wilmington, we encountered a monumental traffic jam, and it took us over 2 hours to crawl from Wilmington to Mount Snow. They ran out of parking spaces in all lots, yet they posted signs directing drivers to other lots that were also full. Literally hundreds of cars were crawling through, trying to find spaces that did not exist.
We finally parked our car in a fire lane where it was illegal to park; however, many other vehicles were already parked there, so we followed suit. We knew we could not leave the car there all day for safety reasons, so we only stayed long enough to visit the Guest Services building to cash in our vouchers. We arrived at Guest Services at noon.
Guest Services provided us with $12 vouchers applicable for a ticket purchase on another day, as described in the exceptions to the guarantee terms that are posted on their website. While this response may be in line with their official policies, I feel that an exception should have been made due to Mount Snow's role in creating this fiasco in the first place. We should have been issued full vouchers for another day at the mountain.
By overselling the event, they didn't just create an unpleasant experience for their customers. They created multiple safety hazards in the overcrowded roadways, parking lots, fire lanes, buildings and ski trails that could have resulted in injury or loss of life. I shudder to think what would have happened at the mountain, had a fire broken out in one of those crowded buildings. There is no way that emergency vehicles would have been able to access an emergency. Also, by creating a monumental traffic jam, they compromised other local and regional businesses for their own financial gain.
Mount Snow should take a cue from one of their competitors, Magic Mountain, and limit the number of tickets sold to match the capacity of the resort. Magic has a self-imposed daily sales ticket limit (1,500 day tickets) to keep lift lines and crowds to a minimum, even on the busiest holiday weekends. Below is a link to that policy on their website:
https://www.magicmtn.com/tickets-passes
Mount Snow: Please consider these comments in planning for future events. Note that I have been skiing at Mount Snow since 1975, and Friday's experience has left me with a very bitter taste in my mouth.