FRAZIER PARK, Calif. (KERO) — Some mountain community residents claim door delivery services vanished overnight with no explanation.
- For many residents in rural areas, door deliveries are essential to getting what you need.
- But in the mountain communities, many say this crucial service has been taken away overnight from the people who need it most.
- I spoke with Sam Stephenson with Amazon, Meiko Patton with USPS, and Pine Mountain resident Nichole Gates about the mail impacts.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Nichole Gates, a resident of Pine Mountain Club, said she suddenly stopped receiving deliveries to her door– but it started slow.
“...We don’t get the services that everyone else gets,” said Gates. “One would be sent and diverted to the post office and they needed those box numbers… (2:38) We were not given an explanation why, other than it made sense for our post office to streamline things.”
Gates said it all started when she and other residents received a letter last October, requiring post office numbers be included in their address starting November first.
“There was no other background information on how shipping policies were being changed or updated or any of that,” Gates said. “So without notice, residents were faced almost overnight with a situation where our Amazon packages were no longer coming to our homes.”
And she said that was just the beginning.
Gates said not only was the community not receiving deliveries, but through their amazon account, individuals would get a message saying, “your package was handed to an agent for final delivery.”
But she claims the packages were nowhere to be found– either at the Pine Mountain Club or Frazier Park post offices.
“... A lot of times people had messages that their items were delivered, handed off to an agent, but they were just missing– just nowhere.”
Gates said for people who live in remote areas, delivery is vital.
“We all need these services and the people who live remotely need them more… and we have been the ones targeted with this change to cut costs, I suppose, on Amazon’s end,” said Gates. “But it’s created a system or the effects of it are just essentially unfair targeting small communities, rural communities, targeting senior citizens.”
I reached out to both amazon and the US postal service for a response.
In an email, Amazon spokesperson, Sam Stephenson, released a statement regarding partnerships with other carriers for deliveries, stating:
“The USPS is one of several carriers we work with to get customers’ orders to them as quickly as possible. And like all our partnerships, our work with the USPS is collaborative—meaning they review and approve our forecasts prior to launching a site with Amazon. When the USPS agreed to handle our orders in the Frazier Park community, we weren't made aware that customers would have to pick up their packages at the post office. We're working to address this and encourage our customers to reach out to our customer service team on Amazon.com or through the Amazon app if they have questions."
However, Gates said, “We’ve called Amazon, we’ve been on the phone with them, we have explained to them that we don’t get delivery to our door, and nothing has changed.”
As for the postal service, Meiko Patton said that all logistic contracts and agreements are proprietary, and that they attempt delivery of all mail and packages in Pine Mountain Club.
But when it comes to people who live on roads that are harder to access, Patton wrote:
“The safety of our employees is our number one priority. If the employee can safely deliver, then they do so. If it is not safe, they will attempt delivery the next day or the next, until it is safe to deliver.”
Gates said, “I understand that we’re remote. I understand that we’re rural. I understand all that. This is a problem to me because of the unfairness of the situation, the inequity, and the fact that this policy change has been given only to communities like ours, to my knowledge, by a multi-billion-dollar corporation. That is my problem.”
We will keep you posted if any more information comes forward.
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