I'm lucky to count myself a Whistlerite.
I fell in love with Whistler around 2000. I've owned a small property there for a couple of decades. So I visited regularly pre COVID-19, supported local businesses, contributed to local charities, and made enough good friends that maybe a couple of runs each ski day, I get to catch up with one in the lift queue.
Hell, there's even a Chili Thom artwork that I was honoured to collect from him in Squamish, in pride of place in my living room at home in England.
I'm also British. Since March 2020, the Canadian government has prohibited me from entering Canada. Not guidance, not Dr.Bonnie Henry-style suggestions.
Prohibited.
Which makes it kind of curious, that Vail Resorts (or rather, American Claims Management—ACM) informed me on 29 April that I wasn't eligible for any credit on the 2020-21 season pass I bought, nor the credits from 2019-20 which I'd applied for.
I immediately appealed. I am still waiting for any reaction to that appeal.
I can take the ACM claim form that didn't accept a non-North American telephone number, so I had to call in my claim. I can take the 20- to 30-minute wait times the half-dozen times I've called (international) since February to find out whether my claim had been assigned to an adjustor. I can even take the fact there has not been a single email received confirming my application and the information on file.
But outright lying—or perhaps, just incompetence? Yeah, that's not right.
Whistler Blackcomb, this is your reputation that's being trashed, not corporate's. Please fix it and get me my refund, so I can buy next season's pass and hopefully see you all on the hill again in a few months.
Julian Macedo // Isleworth, England
