Rural blog

The Village is a Daily News blog about life and politics in rural Alaska. Its main author is ADN reporter Kyle Hopkins. Come here for breaking news on village issues, plus interviews, videos and photos. But that's just part of the story. We want to feature your pictures, videos and stories, too. Think of The Village as your bulletin board. E-mail us anything you’d like to share with the rest of Alaska -- your letters to the editor, the photos of your latest hunt or video of your latest potlatch. (We love video.)

Kyle Hopkins

I was born in Sitka, have lived in Kake, Skagway and Fairbanks and joined the ADN in 2005 after writing for the Anchorage Press and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. I started blogging for the paper in 2006 with The Trail, our blog about the governor's race. Then came the Alaska Politics blog. Now I'm covering government and rural affairs and live in Anchorage with my wife, Rebecca. (Update: Our daughter Alice was born May 31. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.) E-mail me at khopkins@adn.com and find me on Twitter at twitter.com/ADNVillage.

SECTION

2011 AFN

Follow the progress and see the scenes from this year's Alaska Federation of Natives conference in Anchorage.

PHOTOS

2011 WEIO

The World Eskimo Indian Olympics took place at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks.

PHOTOS

Summer in Barrow

Take a photo tour of the northernmost U.S. city during the summer when the sun is out almost the entire day.

READER-SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Life in Rural Alaska (PT 2)

Post your photos from the Bush and check out what others are sending in.

FWS video: Wolf versus salmon - 12/2/2011 11:41 am

Tribe bills Native corporation for $500,000 in 'taxes' - 12/1/2011 6:38 pm

Grade the state's new suicide prevention plan - 10/26/2011 2:38 pm

Quinhagak woman launching supply shop for Native artists - 10/21/2011 10:11 am

AFN proposals: Should Columbus Day be abolished? - 10/20/2011 10:10 am

Iditarod champion Baker: "I won’t pretend that living in rural Alaska isn’t difficult at times" - 10/19/2011 1:52 pm

Kids these days: Meet the teens of the Elders & Youth conference - 10/18/2011 6:36 pm

Murkowski to hold Senate hearing on suicide at AFN - 10/14/2011 4:13 pm

Dear Microsoft: 'We exist.' Sincerely, Nome. (UPDATED)

NOTE: I just added some other people's shipping stories to the bottom of this post.

The Seattle Times describes the nightmare of a Nome mother trying to get Microsoft to acknowledge that she can, in fact, receive shipping.

At issue: Trying to get the company to replace her son's broken Xbox 360 after it died from the infamous "red ring of death." (I just had to do the same thing this winter.)

From the Times:

"Here comes the apparent insurmountable obstacle that's facing Microsoft," Galleher (the mother) wrote. She explained Nome's post-office-box-only practice for postal mail. To which, she was told the service center can't send to post-office boxes.

After a reporter called the company, Microsoft fixed the problem.

Anyone have similar tales of shipping woes to the Bush? E-mail me: khopkins@adn.com


OK, here's the update. I'm getting lots of e-mails, including many from people having the same Xbox problem described in the Seattle Times story. For those of you who aren't familiar, Xbox 360s tend to crap out at some point and you have to send them in to the company. They fix it and send it back. I'm on my second and it's already flashing red every once in awhile.

Here are excerpts from a few of your e-mails about how tough it is to deal with shipping:

Wow, my family has the same problem with this and we are on our third console. It took about 6 months of fighting and trying to get someone to ship a box here, but we just kept being told our address could not be verified. Finally I contacted the Better Business Bureau in Washington and reported them and got a very quick response and finally they shipped out box through fed-ex and we finally received the empty box. I am just glad to know that my family is not the only ones here having problems with x-box.
-- Kristen Pettit

When I lived in Bethel I encountered a company that would ship to my PO box but wanted my street address as well. My address was Trailer 58. They didn't get it. They kept asking for a street. I said there isn't one. I am in the trailer park, number 58. I had to speak to a manager before they would agree to ship to me.
-- Rebecca Luczycki

My Son shipped his out yesterday due to the same problem with his an they had recieved it an they had called here to let us know that they do not ship to post office boxes. That is crazy!
-- Dolly Patterson

I ordered a Singing Machine for my daughter for Christmas. It did not work when it arrived. I e-mailed them several times and they have said countless times that they will send a shipping label to me through e-mail and through regular mail and up to this day since January 2009 I have not received anything. They also said they would send a new singing machine and I have not received it yet. I am very careful with my e-mail and my mail. I finally told them I do not have confidence in their companies. This problem has frustrated me. I live in Kotzebue, Alaska.
-- Wynona Wilson

Since moving to Nome several years ago, my family and I have had a variety of "shipping woes" with companies who can't seem to find Alaska on the map. Some companies -- even companies that have stores or locations in Alaska -- can't figure out how to mail something to Nome; for example, I tried to order some boxes and other supplies from U-Haul some years back, and they couldn't send to Nome, even though they have locations in Fairbanks and Anchorage. Other companies won't send via the postal service, and will only send via UPS, FedEx, etc. So a 10 dollar item may cost $50 by the time shipping is added. I'm not talking about heavy items either; The Company Store wanted $20-25 to ship a pillow. A childs pillow. It weighs maybe half a pound, if that.
-- Rick P.

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