Eric Q.
Yelp
Horrendous customer service.
I have been up at Tamarack a few times prior to this to go skiing. Always had a pretty good time, even with the poor early season conditions in January 2024. Decided to try the mountain bike park with my family. We got a late start so did not arrive to the resort until 11:45. But that should still give us a good four hours at the resort, right? Well we got a nice first run in, I really enjoyed the trail design. Much longer runs, and less dusty than Bogus Basin. After that first run we all had lunch at the bottom at the Seven Devil's Tap House. Great service there and the food was good. Although that is when things took a turn for the worst.
Just as we are about to head back onto the lift at around 1:30, we are told that they are on a half hour hold due to thunder. Which is annoying, but the resort cannot control the weather so understandable. Although we were venting our frustrations a touch about only getting in one run with the guy who let us know the lift was closed up by Seven Devils. He said if we only had one run, we should be able to get a refund. At the end of the half hour, the lift was just starting to spin up, when we all heard more thunder. Another half hour of waiting, at least. Fortunately, the liftie was very understanding and happy to talk about the issues with lightning, the resort in general and other questions we had. He had mentioned, just like the other guy, that if you only have gotten one run in, and their are some extenuating circumstances, you should get a refund. Which totally clicked in my brain because I have seen similar situations at other resorts, like Whistler Blackcomb. My friend fell up there on his first run down the mountain, and ski patrol had to sled him down. They also ended up also breaking one of is skis. By default, they refunding him for his ticket, and replaced his skis, even though the whole situation was my friend's fault, not the resort's. The resort took responsibility so the customer could have the best experience possible. I wish I could say the same about Tamarack's customer service.
After hearing that it should not be too big of a deal to get a refund, I went to the ticket desk to ask about it. I politely told the woman working at the front desk about our situation, and if it was possible to get a refund. Although it seemed like she did not listen to a word I said, and replied, "It is against policy to give a refund." I was perplexed, everyone else I had interacted with at Tamarack had been very gracious and understanding. Even if she said that it was normally against policy, but she could do a 50% refund, I would have left happy. I understand that the resort does not control the weather, but $70 to ride a lift once is not reasonable either. I asked her if there was anyone else I could talk to, she said the manager was not in that day, so I could talk to Tyler who would be up in the bike shop. I went up there, but Tyler was not there.
Tyler came back about ten minutes after I started waiting. I reiterated my situation to him and he, at first, seemed a lot more receptive to my grievance. He told me he would go talk to the lady at the front desk to see what he could do. He offered me and my family bike park tickets for the future, but that was just the three weekends left in the season. My family was going back to Seattle, so they would not be around to take advantage of that. When I brought that up with Tyler he started to use the line, "It is against our policy." I started to get a little frustrated, but I did not raise my voice, and stayed respectful. I tried to explain how I understood his point of view, but at the same time, is it fair to the customer to have to pay for a lift ticket, and not get any usable compensation for only being able to go up on the lift once? Tyler again said, "It was against policy to refund due to weather and that he saw I bought the tickets at 11:45am. I am not sure if he was trying to imply that I was lying about how many times my family had ridden the lift. I described how my sister was a novice biker, so we took our time on the first run, and that we had gotten lunch after. Then he said, "I don't control when you have lunch." I am really not sure what that had to do with it at all. But I assume Tamarack would like people to spend money to buy food and have a relaxing time. I asked Tyler if there was anyone else I could talk to, he said we all could call his manager on the phone. We did, and I reiterated for the third time, my issue. She was about to tell me there was nothing she could do because of policy, until I said the liftie said a refund should be no problem. Immediate tone changed and I got my refund.
I am not sure what the problem is with customer service training at Tamarack, but I hope this is a good lesson and that customer service is improved if I choose to go back to Tamarack.
