I am regular rider on the Kern Transit buses. I am from Frazier Park and unfortunately between my husband I we do not have a car, I have no other choice but to use the buses to and from work (at the outlets in Tejon). Living in a mountain town, everything is pretty spaced out, and walking anywhere can take hours, especially when you have a two year old daughter like we do, her legs get tired easily. Today I had the worst experience of my life using Kern Transits "Dial a Ride". The buses come between 2 to 4 hours of each other, sometimes longer depending on the day, so we have to plan our outings very careful to line up with the times we can get a ride. I called two days in advance to schedule a "Dial a Ride" back from the clinic after our appointment to get our daughter her last few vaccinations. The operator I spoke to got my name and number and assured me that a ride was scheduled for us from Lebec Clinica Sierra back to Frazier Park at 1:30 pm.
When we came out of the clinic my daughter was exhausted from her long day out as well as the vaccines and it had started to rain, a storm was coming in. The advice from the doctor was to get my daughter home and let her rest as she might not be feeling well for a couple days; a weakened immune system is to be expected.
Our "Dial a Ride" service did not show up. When I called the operator told me my name wasn't even registered for the service and that no rides had been scheduled for me. They told me there was no way my daughter and my husband and I could get a ride scheduled for us back at such short notice. I was told a manager would call me and register my name for future rides but would by no means be scheduling me for one today. I explained to them that I had scheduled a ride two days earlier and would not have taken a trip out if I had not been assured of our ride home. I also explained to them that I had a baby with me in a vulnerable state of health who was in no condition to be out in a storm. None of us were dressed warm enough to be walking 6 miles home in the freezing cold. The operator said there was nothing he could do and nothing his manager would be able to do either. I called back numerous times trying to speak to a manger and was informed my number had been given to her and she would call me back. Which never happened. My husband and I took off the sweatshirts that we had on and wrapped our daughter in everything we could (leaving ourselves with nothing but t shirts on) and began the long journey home along a dirt road with no side walks. Kern Transit put the health and safety of my daughter in jeopardy knowingly and did not care to repair the damage done by their operators who lack the simple ability to communicate properly and who are obviously not trained well enough to know the routes, times, and procedures, of their own bus system.
This is not the first time I have been inconvenienced by Kern Transit and their incompetent operators. Several times I have been informed that the bus does not go to one location or another or run on a certain day of the week only to see them go there the next day. As soon as I "call them out" on their blatant lie then the operators change their mind and say I can take the bus to that area. This exact situation also happened to my brother who works in Gorman.
I am exhausted with being treated like my business does not matter to Kern Transit. I think it is ridiculous that their customers have to "bust" them in order to get the truth on routes and schedules. The timing of buses is so limited that those who work outside of their own towns have to take less hours in their jobs (to avoid getting stranded at night), which prevents them from being able to save money for a car, keeping them forced to rely on an unreliable transportation company. And above all I am appalled that a company would care so little about their customers that they would treat the well being of a child in storm weather so flippantly. I have never had to deal with a company of poorer quality. I will be informing my family and friends of this experience and posting this review on as many sites as I can so that perhaps I can prevent other families from relying on Kern Transit; A company that puts its costumers needs and the training of their employees on the lowest of priorities. read more
