The off-campus apartment complexes Hamilton Court and The Radian have been experiencing package delivery issues — primarily with Amazon.
Delivery issues included lost or missing packages, delivery to the wrong location, and package locker overcapacity. Hamilton Court and The Radian residents both retrieve their packages through their respective building's package locker systems. Management from both apartment complexes said that their properties have not experienced any significant issues with other delivery or mail services including the United States Postal Service, FedEx, and UPS — just Amazon.
Joshua Guelbart, asset manager for Post Brothers — the company that manages HamCo — told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the package lockers generally work well, but problems arise from the disorganization of Amazon’s delivery drivers.
“Amazon comes eighteen times a day; they’re always different people. Sometimes they can’t be bothered to put [the packages] in the lockers, sometimes they don’t bring them into the building at all, sometimes they leave them in another building,” he said. “The biggest problem is from Amazon. They seem very unorganized.”
Guelbart added that HamCo has “extensive signage” and staff to collect packages delivered to the wrong locations.
"Package delivery people will not follow the instructions we have on site and deposit the packages in the lockers that we provided. And that can lead to missing packages,” he said.
Dan Vassalotti, the general manager at The Scion Group — which runs The Radian — told the DP in an email on Nov. 8 that there have been some recent general delivery delays, but the package locker system works well overall. He added that, like HamCo, Amazon deliveries are the primary problem the apartment building is facing.
“The main issue we have noticed over the past few months is that some carriers, most notably Amazon, sometimes drop off a large number of packages and just leave without actually getting them where they are supposed to go. This seems to be an issue of volume and the reliability of specific drivers,” Vassalotti wrote.
He also wrote in the email that The Radian is working on upgrades to include expanded space for the package lockers.
In a statement sent to the DP on Nov. 19, Amazon spokesperson Loni Monroe wrote that students with package delivery issues can contact Amazon's customer service for help in identifying and tracking packages in real time.
Guelbart said that there has been an uptick in parcel deliveries after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but HamCo has the capacity to accept this increased volume of packages — the issue is mostly related to improper delivery.
He also expressed frustration with the situation, saying that he is unsure what else HamCo can do to remedy the issue as the problem largely stems from Amazon’s end.
“We call Amazon, their line just goes nowhere, their people are incredibly unhelpful. It’s been really frustrating for us because we’re trying to provide this service for people, but we are unable to because [Amazon is] not providing it,” he said. “We’ve offered all the solutions that we can.”
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