Cowards - Gore Mtn.

Okay, I can be outspoken.  I said it.  Normally on here I keep it quiet but on my facebook page I speak my mind.

I'm on the Gore Mtn. page on facebook and today I spoke my mind.  They made a point of reminding all of us mid-week season passholders that our passes will not be any good this Friday along with all of next week.  I shot back.  Friday?  Really?  People have a 3 day weekend or they have the week....they are not driving up Friday morning and skiing that day.  At least not enough people to make any kind of difference.  What is this, some sort of ploy to make people buy a full season pass vs. a non-holiday pass?  Those of us who invest in season passes (full season or non-holiday) are people who are committed to the mountain.  We are ambassadors for Gore Mtn. I spend money on food, at the bar and in the shop and additionally I tell my friends what a great mountain it is and make an effort to get them to join me.  What sense does it make for Gore (ORDA) to screw us over a day???

As it is Gore is notorious for screwing us with closing half the lifts and trails mid-week while still charging full prices.  This is not a customer service friendly mountain by any means.  Personally I love the mountain.  I've been skiing for over 35 years and it's one of my favorites if not my favorite BUT right now if a family member or friend asked me about making a commitment to Gore I would hesitate.  Is this what they want?  I for one would be driving to VT vs. Gore if the distance was the same.  State run BS isn't working.  I respect Mike and his crew working there, they do the best with what they have but once again government intrusion isn't helping the matter.

Back to the original point of this post.  I voiced my opinion, Gore responded and I responded once again (at all times very civil) and their final response was to pull the post.  You are on a public forum and chose to communicate with your customers.  Have the guts to respond and stand by those responses!!!

Gore is not scoring any brownie points these days......

totaly get where your coming from,as for there fb page,yea that happened too me too,i would ask a ? or make a comment,and would get the same run around ,but they went as far as too ban me from there page,whitch is no big deal.and we still laff about it..did u see the one where the guy was complaing about the lifts and lack of trails midweek and there response was  well mid weekers get plenty of perks,,no lift lines,less crowded slopes,and cheaper lift tickets.i just thought that was kind of funny..i think mayb the less crowded slopes mite have something too do with the amount of what they offer.kinda like two plus two still = four kinda thing.
  skiing was good today,but there was nothing groomed past the gondi,,thought that was strange allso.race kids all over ,and they wouldnt even run the triple for them,for a race at the bottom of showcase.

 got a big week comming up,sure hope they get some crowds,or who knows what will b next on the chopping block..

Snowhunter wrote

They made a point of reminding all of us mid-week season passholders that our passes will not be any good this Friday along with all of next week.  I shot back.  Friday?  Really?  

Yep, I see it right on the Snow Report:
"Non-Holiday passholders: Please note that the holiday period is in effect Friday, February 17 through Saturday, February 25."

I gotta agree with you Snowhunter, that doesn't seem fair to me.  Sounds like it's Non-Hol passholders as well as Mid-Week passholders who are shut out on Friday.  I never would have thought that the holiday period begins on the Friday before President's week.  To me this is the wrong winter to be alienating those passholders.

Snowhunter, is your pass good at WF on Friday?  Sometimes the two areas don't exactly follow one another.

Agree Outlaw's got a very legitimate gripe. Taking Friday away from them is ridiculous and does strike me as rude, petty and playing games with your customers. What would it cost Gore for a few people more to the ride lifts one day, people who in fact already paid for that day. Plus they lost any incidently $$$$ these people would have spent.

Gore. The mtn that loves you back and will kick yo azz out. That includes FaceBook too, " friend " .

Watch, Jeff will be correct and Face/Placid/Lussi/and what's 'is name will be open for them.

Calling Friday a Holiday is just outrageous.

Simply horrible.

More poor customer dealings from Gore, WF and ORDA. While the snow report labels the Friday as a new NYS Holiday, when you bought the pass last year you would have only seen:

"Valid only at Gore, this pass offers adults ages 23-69 lift access Monday-Friday, non-holiday for the 2011/2012 Snowseason. Not valid any Saturday or Sunday, or the holiday periods of 12/25/11-1/1/12, 1/14/12-1/16/12, and 2/17/12-2/25/12. Not valid at Whiteface Mountain."

If you did not check your 2012 calendar you would not have known what days those dates match up to. It is also confusing as the dates match up to a Friday to Saturday when clearly the pass is only good mid week. I would say that this is pretty deceptive. The WF only midweek pass link does not work.

I just checked various ski areas in the Northeast and Gore and WF are the only ones so far that do not start the holiday period on Saturday, 2/18/12. This includes Bellayre and Hunter. I guess that this is not a NYS holiday; it must only be an ORDA holiday.

Very lame and a big buyer beware when dealing with Gore,Whiteface and ORDA.

Does anybody reading this have a company holiday on Friday, 2/17/12? I don't.

Be careful next year as the Friday before MLK weekend could be the next Friday turned into an ORDA holiday.

Glad I bought the full season pass for Gore.  Don't even have to think about things like this!

Buy a full boat pass or (horrors!) buy an occasional ticket during the blackout  periods.  There are a lot of moving parts in pricing those passes; their blackout periods don't have to line up with your notion of when a holiday period begins and ends.  

So funny that people that publicly proclaim themselves to be "Gore supporters" would start and participate in a thread that bashes the mountain over a pretty inconsequential matter.  Passholders, especially multi-year passholders, get this entitlement mentality that must drive management nuts.  They owe us nothing; the contract was complete and fully executed when we plunked down our cash and they gave us a pass.

It seems odd that the friday is included in the holiday period and the sunday isn't. I wonder why that would be.  As x10003q showed the blocked out dates were originally stated so I guess the mountain is covered.  Maybe it should say please read the dates, by signing you are accepting terms of this agreement.

Snowhunter wrote

Those of us who invest in season passes (full season or non-holiday) are people who are committed to the mountain.  We are ambassadors for Gore Mtn.

W/ ambassadors like you, who needs critics!  

And What NOAH said!!!!  

Yeah friday stinks, same deal at WF. One thing I did notice that is different from some past years is that the Non Holiday pass is good on Sunday, 2/26/11 so at least were not out for 2 full weekends. Seeing how most people have to work fridays anyway the 2nd sunday being skiable is a better deal (for me anyway). If all you can ski is weekends at least we only miss one completely. Personally I think they should offer Non Holiday pass holders an option to ski during holiday periods at a reduced price, like half price or less, and keep MLK to just Sat & Sun and allow us to ski on Monday. Just my opinion.

Wasn't THIS fact known when you bought the season pass ?  If so ? what's the problem ?

warp daddy wrote

Wasn't THIS fact known when you bought the season pass ?  If so ? what's the problem ?

What a concept!!!

warp daddy wrote

Wasn't THIS fact known when you bought the season pass ?  If so ? what's the problem ?

Hold on just one second....I thought MY job was to point out the obvious

endoftheline wrote

One thing I did notice that is different from some past years is that the Non Holiday pass is good on Sunday, 2/26/11 so at least were not out for 2 full weekends. Seeing how most people have to work fridays anyway the 2nd sunday being skiable is a better deal (for me anyway).

Whoa!  What's this little factoid?  You mean after all of this nonsense, you don't actually lose a day, they've just blacked out a weekday and added a weekend day (which, as you point out, is better for most people anyway)?  That's interesting if true.

endoftheline wrote

If all you can ski is weekends at least we only miss one completely. Personally I think they should offer Non Holiday pass holders an option to ski during holiday periods at a reduced price, like half price or less, and keep MLK to just Sat & Sun and allow us to ski on Monday. Just my opinion.

They could but you could then expect to pay more for the pass in the first place.  These pricing decisions aren't made by just pulling numbers out of thin air.  

warp daddy wrote

Wasn't THIS fact known when you bought the season pass ?  If so ? what's the problem ?

Gore/WF/ORDA certainly covered themselves.

The problem is when presented with a 9 day stretch of dates for Feb break/Presidents' Week one could infer that it is a Saturday on the first weekend to Sunday on the 2nd weekend. This is a standard that it seems every other ski area that has holiday periods follows. The fact that they presented the dates without defining the start as a Friday was sleazy. They defined it on there recent snow report. Its not like ORDA was unaware. Since Friday before Presidents week is not a holiday they should have been clear about this Friday being cut out of the midweek pass. Adding in the Sunday might be considered a balance for the non-holiday season pass, but it does not help the midweek only pass holder. How hard would it have been to type in Friday on the site to define the Feb holiday period? This made up holiday will also shock anybody who shows up on Friday to buy a single day pass.

For those of us that have kids - does anybody have Friday, Feb 17 off? My kids' days off start Monday, Feb 20. In my 30 years of working, the Friday before Presidents day/week has never been a holiday.

Welcome to ORDA - the only place where Presidents' week is a Friday to a Saturday.

x10003q wrote

warp daddy wrote

Wasn't THIS fact known when you bought the season pass ?  If so ? what's the problem ?

Gore/WF/ORDA certainly covered themselves.

The problem is when presented with a 9 day stretch of dates for Feb break/Presidents' Week one could infer that it is a Saturday on the first weekend to Sunday on the 2nd weekend. This is a standard that it seems every other ski area that has holiday periods follows. The fact that they presented the dates without defining the start as a Friday was sleazy. They defined it on there recent snow report. Its not like ORDA was unaware. Since Friday before Presidents week is not a holiday they should have been clear about this Friday being cut out of the midweek pass. Adding in the Sunday might be considered a balance for the non-holiday season pass, but it does not help the midweek only pass holder. How hard would it have been to type in Friday on the site to define the Feb holiday period? This made up holiday will also shock anybody who shows up on Friday to buy a single day pass.

For those of us that have kids - does anybody have Friday, Feb 17 off? My kids' days off start Monday, Feb 20. In my 30 years of working, the Friday before Presidents day/week has never been a holiday.

Welcome to ORDA - the only place where Presidents' week is a Friday to a Saturday.

You're insane.  

All the nuts roll down hill and wind up in these ski forums.  And more often than not they come from the same general location.

Noah John wrote

You're insane.  

All the nuts roll down hill and wind up in these ski forums.  And more often than not they come from the same general location.

Hilarious from you. Do you work for ORDA? You would fit in quite well.

I appreciate hearing from those who understand what I am saying and I also enjoy hearing the opposing points of view.  This helps give us a look at the big picture.  Unfortunately some of the comments have been uncalled for and contribute nothing to the conversation.  To those guilty of that why must you waste our time?

To restate my original complaints:

1)  I felt that it was cowardly of Gore to remove a post that addressed an issue that they don't like or don't want to talk about.  I stand by my opinion that if they are going to chose to be involved in a social network and are going to allow for open conversation then they should be willing to take the bad and the good.  I made a point of stating my case in a mature, civilized manner and they decided to delete it because they don't like criticism.  It's their right to do that but it doesn't score a lot of points with people.

2)  It was kind of sneaky of them to switch the dates from Friday to the following Saturday without pointing the change out to people.  As others here have pointed out it is highly unlikely that people pulled out their 2012 calenders to check the dates.  I am sure that the vast majority just assumed that it was Saturday to Sunday just as it has always been and just like all the other mountains do.  I can see how it benefits some pass holders by not making them miss out on two consecutive weekends but then why didn't they promote this???  And for what it's worth, again as others has pointed out, since when is that Friday part of the holiday?  Who is actually off that day via a company or school holiday?

3)  I added in my feelings regarding mid-week operations.  While other mountains are pushing to open everything possible Gore cuts their services (good times and bad) Monday - Friday.  I understand operating costs and all that stuff but they're in the skiing business, these should be anticipated costs and if they need to the prices should be adjusted to accommodate those costs.  People here are talking about reading the "contract"....I've never seen it stated anywhere that as a pass holder or even individual ticket holder that we should be aware that during the week the mountain will not be operating at full capacity even if the trails are in skiable condition.  

To those who suggested buying a full season pass or extra individual tickets, thank you for stating the obvious.  Did it ever occur to you that there may be a reason that some of us don't purchase those plans or tickets?  It's not a matter of being cheap, it's a fact that some of us don't have the fortune of having as much disposable income to invest in our love of skiing as you do.  Rather than criticizing why not just be thankful for what you have?

As to my being a poor ambassador or supporter of the mountain you are entitled to your opinion.  As a whole I think very highly of the mountain and the staff working there.  I give the mountain my business, I spend extra money there and I generally promote it to family, friends and fellow skiers that I encounter elsewhere.  BUT just because I like the place doesn't mean that I'm not going to tell the truth and express my dissatisfaction with things that I feel are wrong.  It's not an entitlement mentality, I'm not asking for anything free, I'm asking the mountain to provide the service that they are capable of and to show some respect for their loyal customers.  Even though pass holders make a large financial commitment to the mountain it often feels as though we're taken for granted.  Here's an example for you:  I have two children in the Mountain Adventure program on Sundays.  This year they decided to hold classes on MLK weekend.  They did this with no thought to the fact that many parents like myself have Non-Holiday passes (my apologies for mis-stating this in my original post, I am a non-holiday pass holder not a mid-week pass holder).  As such many of us (yes, I spoke with other parents in the same predicament) were forced to either come up with more money (as if buying a non-holiday pass and paying for two kids lessons wasn't enough) if we wanted to ski while they were in class or we just had to sit around and twiddle our thumbs.  This was a very non-customer friendly decision by Gore and I let people at the ski school know that.  They of course said that it wasn't their decision.

All said and done I will be continuing to ski at Gore but I hope that someone from there sees this and puts some thought into what has been said.  (I will also be sharing my opinions with them directly at the end of the season.

ORDA should probably put the abbreviation for the day associated with the blackout dates in print. (Fri. 2/17- Sat. 2/25) They should probably also print these right on the back of the season pass itself to prevent any confusion. Killington (Cue Whiteface guys in 3, 2, 1...) used to do this with that awesome $349 Bronze Blackout Pass they sold a few years back.

When dealing with the G.P. it's always best to have any and all information out in front and in as many places as possible. The frustration and backlash comes from the confusion, IMO.

If my memory serves me correctly Gore/Whiteface blacked out the Friday last year as well...