My partner and I had a most frustrating day at Grouse Mountain due in large part to a staffing shortfall. I faxed this letter to them shortly after our visit and received no response. I then mailed the letter to them, registered mail, and still no response at all! Might as well post it here so that it actually gets read:

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January 20, 2007 

To whom it may concern,

This letter concerns the events of January 14th, 2007 – a collection of customer service disasters which added up to a most unsatisfactory visit to Grouse mountain.

[My partner] and I are passholders at Grouse, and brought with us four friends for a day of skiing and snowshoeing at the “peak of Vancouver.” We arrived in the morning and, after a quick wait in line, were on top of the mountain by 10 am.

Considering the sunny weather, and the fact that it was a weekend, we were prepared for crowds and long lines. What we experienced on Grouse constituted more than a volume-related slowdown, it was a complete and total breakdown of the customer experience due to the mismanagement of your facilities and personnel.

[My partner] and I arrived in line at the rental chalet shortly after 10 am. I was absolutely amazed at the lack of sophistication of that facility. Traffic flow was so poorly designed that the people lining up for credit card pre-authorization completely blocked those trying to reach boots that had been prepared for them as part of an Internet pre-order. I thought it quaint, in this electronic age, that you were taking carbon copies of customers’ credit cards on pieces of paper – ones that you forced them to return to the chalet to claim at the end of their day. There was so little space in the chalet in general – people were squeezing by people in multiple directions due to a complete lack of thought to the layout of the rental stations, there was equipment all over the floor, there were people standing in line on the stairs while other people ascended and descended, and the lockers that you provide are so old that you still need coins to be able to operate them.

The sum of these inefficiencies, coupled with Grouse’s complete mismanagement of their staffing challenge, led to a wait time of 3 hours from the arrival at the rental chalet at 10 am, to the departure at 1pm with skiis, boots, and poles in hand.

[My partner] and I were able to do 2 runs of Cut, waiting around 30-45 minutes at the end of each run for a seat on the
Screaming Eagle, before we were too hungry to continue and had to check in for lunch. That’s almost 5 hours for a ski rental and 2 green runs after having arrived at the rental chalet!

Upon having returned to the rental chalet to return our rental gear, we discovered an almost unbelievable sight; a gagle of people still waiting in line for skiis and snowboards, with nobody working the counter! The customers were outraged, and the poor staff working the cash had to make excuses for the failure of your staffing plan.

I expect to be compensated for the poor experience that [my partner] and I had on Grouse this day, and would be interested to hear Grouse’s plans with respect to better managing your winter offering in the future so that this kind of day doesn’t happen again.

Thank you for your attention,

{Signed}