Letter: Squaw should honor $1 pass
To the community,
Not sure if you’re already aware of this, but (Oct. 1) Squaw Valley Resort had a glitch in their online season pass system that allowed ~500+ patrons to purchase gold level season passes for $1. Normally, this pass costs $809, however it was significantly discounted to a low, low price of a single dollar.
Like any other incredible opportunity that comes my way, I purchased two gold passes for a total of $2. It’s been brought to my attention that Squaw will likely not honor the advertised price and is in the process of refunding the 500+ passes purchased. However there seems to be some conflicting issues that has arisen that I feel needs to be brought into the light of the media/news:
1. A few people have already successfully received their gold passes and confirmed they only paid $1. They went to the pass office (Oct. 1), took their photo, and received their passes — with no hassle or questions asked.
2. One person has received a rejection email stating that Squaw will immediately reject and refund the $1 pass purchase for their order, however no one else who purchased their tickets (that day) has received this email. 
Since no one else has been notified, the rest of the consumers, like myself — who purchased these passes are under false pretenses that they have in fact, a real season pass.
3. If they honored the pass price for the select few people who received their season passes yesterday — isn’t there some sort of consumer protection law that justifies Squaw to honor all season passes that were purchased for $1?
My concern is that Squaw will quickly brush their mistake under the rug with little to no negative impact on their brand loyalty from other customers – simply because no one is aware of this situation.
Although I might have spent only $1 on this pass, if Squaw honored it — I would likely spend close to $500 throughout the season on food, merchandise, cocktails, etc. I don’t believe that granting the ~500+ passes will significantly impact their bottom line revenue considering most of these folks will spend money when they’re at the resort since they can justify their spending with, “I only paid $1 for this pass.”
I’ve never snowboarded at Squaw nor visited it simply because it was always out of my budget to get a season pass. I purchased this $1 pass because it was a phenomenal deal and I intend to visit Squaw often this season. I live in Incline Village and have many friends that come up to visit during the winter specifically to snowboard and ski. Normally we go to Northstar, however with this Squaw pass I have incentive to take my friends to Squaw instead. My friends of course would have to purchase a daily pass for themselves, and rental gear, and food, and drinks – so if Squaw just honored my $1 pass – they would still make money off this error since I’m bringing in new revenue from customers who usually go elsewhere to snowboard.
This isn’t the first time a glitch in the system has occurred for a major company. Take for instance United Airlines back in 2013, they had a system glitch for two hours where flight prices were advertised and purchased at $0! With the help of the news/media outlets bringing this mistake to light and potentially damaging their brand, United inevitably honored those prices and acknowledged that they made an error on their part, but to keep customer satisfaction high and to keep their brand in tact — they granted those folks who purchased flights at the advertised $0 price.
Please help us to demand Squaw to do what is right, and honor the $1 season passes before it is too late and they simply decline all of our passes today!
Sincerely,
Jessica Perez, Incline Village
Seriously?
i wouldn’t expect them to honor that pass. i like a good deal but even that should have sent off alarms to the buyers. they made a huge mistake but i don’t think they should honor those passes either. maybe they could offer those who bought them the lowest possible price that they do sell legitimately though. good luck.
Jessica, it looks like you have no idea between right and wrong. A mistake was made-you had no intention of buying a pass at the regular rate, you said so yourself. I seriously doubt you would spend $500 there over the course of a season. Unless you could get the $15 burger for 15 cents, or the $275 jacket for $2.75.
One last question, did you get the insurance offered when you ordered the $1 pass? Maybe you should have, because if they do honor it–you may have some serious karma to deal with. Happy boarding!
Wow. You seriously think you are entitled to a $1 pass? It was obviously a mistake, and I’m sure you knew that when you purchased. Wow.
I do expect them to honor the pass.
Yes, it was a mistake, but that is the way the cookie crumbles. Unless there is some kind of a disclaimer on the site saying they aren’t responsible for mistakes of this kind, they should honor the deal as they offered it.
Jessica,
If Squaw had mistakenly charged double, would you be cool with them keeping the extra money? You said yourself that you knew what the correct price was when you bought the pass, you should expect to pay that price.
Please remind me to never do business with you.
If it was advertised at double the price no one would buy it.
The price was $1; that is not a glitch, someone had to put that amout in. They should honor it.
Sad, sad, sad society we live in where people think they are entitled to something they know is wrong!
I wanted stuff for less than it costs to provide. Then I grew up, got a job and moved out of my parents house. Would she also expect the lifties and patrol to work all day for her in trade for snow cones? Or maybe her boss could pay her in monopoly money if they didn’t have enough real money: .”We said we would pay you money, but didn’t specify what TYPE of money “.
Next up lets sue because we get burned by hot coffee . A country of whiners.
To Jessica: No harm in asking. The worst you will hear is no.
To those that a ripping her a new one: Are you insinuating that you have NEVER, EVER tried to take advantage of a situation that you knew was too good to be true, or tried to “work the system” (parked in a questionable no parking zone or moved cones to accomadate your car, hid snacks when entering a venue prohibiting bringing your own refreshments, expect a discount or a free drink or appetizer at a restaurant that you consider yourself a regular at, etc, etc, etc)? And If you say no, you’re either a liar OR stupid.
Big Pic–sneaking in snacks, or expecting a free drink is way different than trying to get a $809 pass for $1–and if you say it is not, you are either a liar OR stupid. Maybe after she has lived a little bit more she might understand.
Jessica- if you had found a wedding ring on the street- would you not have turned it in to the authorities? Or a wallet, or keys, or anything else, really?
A person of strong ethical value would not waste time arguing against how they were “wronged” — they would have recognized their own wrong doing in the first place.
Herman Hesse coined: “If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.”
IE- you are angry because your conscience is telling you that you are WRONG.
Yeah Jessica, get a grip! If you lose your wallet, can the finder keep all the cash, credit cards, etc because you were negligent, distracted, etc?
Seriously….do the right thing Jessica and get over it.
Have you ever in your lifetime made a mistake and asked that the consequences of that mistake be reversed? My guess is the answer is “YES”
Squaw has the same right to say they made a mistake.
So Jessica, if you put money in your bank and write on the deposit slip you are depositing $1000 because you had a “glitch” and wrote $10.00, the bank should get to keep your money? What you are asking to do is frankly be a thief.
Wow. Can we please stick to the topic (whether the resort should honor the transactions that were completed) and cool it with the personal attacks against the writer?
This was a business transaction that was offered. People accepted the offer and paid their money. Done deal.
If a company advertises a price for something, I expect to pay the price advertised.
Squaw Valley should honor the $1.00 passes. If they sold 500+ passes at that rate and nobody working there caught the erreor , well so be it!
If Squaw allows the passes to be used they come out lookin’ like the good guy.If they rescind on their agreement with the purchaser and void them they look bad.
Do yourself a favor Squaw, play this right and come out lookin’ good.
Was this a publicity game? Old Long Skiis
I also bought a pass for $1…and Squaw has YET to email me, call me or say anything if I hadn’t come across this article sent by a friend I would have had no idea. Great service these people have. At LEAST email me within 24 hours…its now been over 2 days.
The bottom line here is that the transaction was completed. If a consumer wants to buy something, under the presumption that it is a certain price, but are made aware of that mistake prior to completing the transaction, they have been given fair warning and can then choose whether or not to complete the transaction.
If the transaction was completed, Squaw has a responsibility to honor the listed and agreed upon price, which was listed by Squaw and agreed upon by both Squaw and Jessica.
If you buy a jacket in Squaw’s brick and mortar store, and a new employee accidentally makes a mistake and charges you $50 for the jacket instead of $100, would they chase after you and invalidate your purchase and demand the jacket back?
No.
They honor their mistake, and the mutually agreed upon transaction, and move on. They don’t chase after the consumer to either 1.) return the jacket or 2.) demand more money from the consumer.
This is no different.
Jessica, how did you find out about this 1$ pass?
Hello all negative commenters above, judging and saying rude things to the writer of this article.
1-Read what Old Long Skis said.
2-Did you miss this deal, are extremely jealous if they honor the charge?
3-If you judge people based on one article, you are stupid.
4-Hell yes, they should honor this. I alone bring in over $2000 to the resort a season by purchasing food and drinks alone. (I ride over 60 days a sesión, and spend at least $30 a day…more like $50 on weekends…do the math)
5- Happy Friday! Smile! Stop being so negative! and eat a rainbow
I would go for it. United airlines did.
Squaw is a large enough company to take the blow of their mistake. That’s part of doing business.
It’s also the law.
Let’s be real, not many people who purchased the $1 passes would have been purchasing passes if it weren’t for the glitch… That being said, wouldn’t it be to Squaws benefit to attempt to remedy the situation in a way that gets these 500 people to the mountain? Perhaps by giving each person involved a few Day Passes? There are California laws that protect consumers with this type of thing error or not. I’d imagine it would be amazing PR for them to reach out and just hand over some free passes. Squaw won’t be out too much $, the 500 people will be up there buying food and drinks and will likely return if they have a good experience… Everybody wins.
And for all the people attacking Jessica… Way to shoot the messenger you jerks.
Shoot the messenger who feels entitled to something she knows is wrong? This whole generation of people feeling entitled is sickening and a sad display of what the future of our society holds! I hope she is not the one that finds my wallet if I make a mistake and drop it because I know I’ll never see it again!
Squaw has every right to legally cancel the sales made in error. Sometimes companies honor these types of sales to avoid bad PR (e.g, United Airlines), but most of the time they don’t (this happens on Stubhub all of the time, and they don’t honor the sales made in error).
What I don’t understand is those arguing that Squaw should honor the passes because they would spend hundreds of dollars at the slopes and make Squaw money. If the amount of money each skier spent when they were on the slopes was more than it costs Squaw to maintain the slopes, passes would ALWAYS be free!
Get over it Jessica. You would’ve had much better luck with your argument if you had framed it as bad PR rather than something to which you are entitled. If this is the greatest injustice you suffer in life, consider yourself a very blessed person.
I agree with old long skis
If Squaw is smart, this could be the best $40,000 ad campaign anybody ever thought of.
Or a PR disaster.
They should, on a random basis sell a few 10 dollar on line passes to anybody who sees it every year.Their web traffic would go through the roof.
So glad to read that the great majority of readers have a decent moral compass.
Jessica would you also take candy from a baby?
so if they give them to these 500 people why should the other people pay full price that already paid. Maybe throw them some refunds and everyone is happy. Even better yet just stop charging they are a large enough company
So you got a $1 dollar pass and they do not want to honor it. Have you ever made a mistake? It is so sad to see people trying to take advantage of what was obviously a mistake. Our culture of jumping on someone else when they make a mistake or do something wrong.
I purchased a ticket to the boathouse theater this summer the computer charged me half price. When I got to the door they graciously apologized about the computer error and I had no problem making up the difference as I had not noticed it myself. Stuff happens in life get over it!
For all of you that have a problem with them not honoring the $1 pass price take a good look in the mirror I am sure we have all made a mistake or too in our lives a little more compassion and understanding in our society would make for a better experience for all of us.
It’s laughable that in 2014, a legitimate business within driving distance to the Silicon Valley is penalizing consumers because of a fundamental coding error on their website. If I fall off my bicycle and suffer a head injury specifically because I wasn’t wearing a helmet, people would look back and tell me that I should have worn a helmet. Since I didn’t wear a helmet, I have to deal with the consequences.
It looks like Squaw Valley should have had a more robust testing process before going live with their e-store. Since they chose not to establish the proper testing processes in to catch this type of error (for financial reasons or otherwise), they should own the consequences. It’s not personal (like making a decision whether or not to return a lost wallet), it’s just business. Squaw Valley knew that when they incorporated.
Own up to it and honor the “glitched” transactions.