Hoc

I just had the oddest thing happen a couple of minutes ago. I have been working at home today. My home office has a window that is next to my front door, and a "one-way" shade that enables me to see out without others seeing in.

So, here I am, sitting at my computer, working, and all of a sudden a white Econoline Van pulls up in front of my driveway. A Samoan guy gets out, throws a package on my doorstep and leaves. Now, mind you, this was not a U.S. Mail truck, or a FedEx or UPS Truck. Just a plain, unmarked, white passenger van.

With the dogs going absolutely bonkers, I opened the front door, and there lying on my doorstep was an Amazon.com package. In it was the Monty Python Set 7 from the "price test" fiasco last month, which I had been promised for several reasons, and which I finally got after all this time (for $4.97, shipped).

I'm certainly not complaining. I got the DVDs, at the promised price, and even if they just hired some guy to drive around the country and deliver them, they did get here intact. I just thought that the delivery method was odd. The invoice does say it was delivered by priority mail, so maybe my post office just has rules regarding priority mail delivery of which I'm unaware.

Just very odd. . . .

lordvdr

I had a weird Amazon thing happen last week too.

I work from home as well, and last week the doorbell rings at 7:49AM and it's a post office dude dropping off an Amazon package.

Our mail doesn't even get delivered to the house. We have a central mail pickup for everybody on our street, which includes lockers for when we receive packages via the USPS.

Furthermore, our regular mail dude won't even come to the door for things like registered mail, etc. He will just leave a slip in our mailbox and I have to do drag myself down to the post office.

Nevertheless, here was the USPS bringin an Amazon package right to my door.

------------------
lordvdr @ DVDTracker
lordvdr @ DVDProfiler
lordvdr @ lordvdr.com

Fhrx

You couldn't get a safer person to deliver than a Samoan dude could ya?

At least no-one would try and attack him!

------------------
Regards...

John 3:16

videoking

Weird!!

A plain black van pulled up to my house last week and a rather small man with white boots got out and threw a brown box onto my front step.

I got up to see and yep it was from Amazon and in it was a long forgotten about dvd set.

very strange!

CaptainMarvel

You people are braver than I am. If some strange man in an unmarked van pulled up and dropped off a brown, unmarked package, I'd throw the thing in the sink and call the local bomb squad.

Hoc

Naaw. I've ordered from buy.com. I think they sent the same Samoan guy out to my house to kick in the door and try to get their DVD back. One that drops off a package doesn't phaze me.

Lik Mearse

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Hoc:
...all of a sudden a white Econoline Van pulls up in front of my driveway. A Samoan guy gets out...<HR>

So how did you know he was Samoan? Was it tattooed on his forehead or did his shirt have the legend "I am a Samoan" imprinted upon it?

Yours racial-stereotypingly,
Lik.

Hoc

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Lik Mearse:
So how did you know he was Samoan? Was it tattooed on his forehead or did his shirt have the legend "I am a Samoan" imprinted upon it?

Yours racial-stereotypingly,
Lik.

<HR>

Because I grew up in Hawaii, and I don't need someone to have "I am Samoan" imprinted on him in order to recognize that he is Samoan, as opposed to Tongan or Fijiian. What makes you think it is a stereotype to see someone of a particular race and recognize him for that race?

Miser

Hoc, I'll take a guess at what happened. Whichever carrier Amazon used probably misdelivered your package to someone who lives nearby. Since Mr. Samoan is a nice guy, he decided to hand deliver it to the proper recipient rather than keep it for himself or return it to the carrier. I had some problems with UPS several years ago where they couldn't find my house if their lives depended on it. I forever had strangers bringing packages to my door.

DVDHound

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Hoc:
Because I grew up in Hawaii, and I don't need someone to have "I am Samoan" imprinted on him in order to recognize that he is Samoan, as opposed to Tongan or Fijiian. What makes you think it is a stereotype to see someone of a particular race and recognize him for that race?<HR>

Once again, Hoc, you totally miss the point. If the delivery guy was a white man would you have said and "a white guy gets out of the truck....."??? or how about a "Scandanavian guy"? or a "Russian guy"? NO. No way your would have. Why the difference? Somewhere in the inter recesses of your fears you thought it was significant that the guy was Samoan. Or maybe you made it up because thought that the image of a Samoan guy in truck delivering a package was funny. The stereotypical image of Samoan men is that they are these mean, burly short hunks of muscle who eat people for breakfast. So you thought the image of this Samoan guy delivering a tiny, little package was funny. For very good reasons people are going to question your motives here. For my own part, given all the misinformation you've spread on this forum - I have more than enough reason to question you. You should go back to your job as an "attorney" (hah!) and give us all a break here.

CaptDS9E

Lol you think thats scary. how about when a family memeber's luggage gets lost on a airline , and a guy in a regular car comes to return it from another airline 2 weeks later saying it ended up on a plane to another country. First thing i did was listen for ticking :-)

dgc

quote:<HR>Originally posted by CaptDS9E:
Lol you think thats scary. how about when a family memeber's luggage gets lost on a airline , and a guy in a regular car comes to return it from another airline 2 weeks later saying it ended up on a plane to another country. First thing i did was listen for ticking :-)

<HR>

Your story was boring. I need to know what the guy looked like. Was he short and burly? Did he eat people for breakfast? Was he White, Russian, Scandanavian or Samoan?

Please tell us.

Don't be afraid of the PC police.



------------------
"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." - I pray I'll hear these words on dvd some day (excluding "You've Got Mail", thanks chitowndvd).

DVDHound

quote:<HR>Originally posted by dgc:
Your story was boring. I need to know what the guy looked like. Was he short and burly? Did he eat people for breakfast? Was he White, Russian, Scandanavian or Samoan?

Please tell us.

Don't be afraid of the PC police.

<HR>

Thats' right. Never, ever be afraid of the PC police. They can't do anything other than speak their opinions and, hopefully, provide another view about something like HOC's ittle ditty. Who you should be afraid of is ignorant people, stupid people, people who refuse to acknowledge that racism still exists in this country and can be subtle at times.

DGC: It's easy to be ******* when nobody can see you.

Jericho

Racism does exist, I don't think that's the point of this debate. However, I think you're going after the wrong person. Hoc was just providing details to his story. Did it matter what ethnic background the guy was? No. But it's those little details that make the story. It makes it authentic.

The more blatant racism in this thread is the stereotyping by Fhrx of Somoans as big, tough guys. Of course, now I've dragged him into this debate and I had no problems with his comments.

------------------
I can't believe I ate the whole thing

QuAcKeR

Maybe Hoc was just trying to prove that Amazon.com is an equal opportunity employer.

Dude

Are you sure it was a Samoan? Maybe it was that dude who used to be on the Divx commercials for Circuit City. He probably needed the work.

Hoc

quote:<HR>Originally posted by DVDHound:
Once again, Hoc, you totally miss the point. If the delivery guy was a white man would you have said and "a white guy gets out of the truck....."??? or how about a "Scandanavian guy"? or a "Russian guy"? NO. <HR>

If I had recognized his race as Scandanavian or Russian, yes I would have said so. But you want to think whatever you want, so there's no use discussing it.

BTW, I won't justify your personal attack with a response-in-kind, though I could. Not worth it.

djones6746

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Hoc:
If I had recognized his race as Scandanavian or Russian, yes I would have said so. But you want to think whatever you want, so there's no use discussing it.

BTW, I won't justify your personal attack with a response-in-kind, though I could. Not worth it.<HR>

Don't worry Hoc...there is one in every thread anymore who brings race into the discussion!!!

------------------
http://www.dvdtracker.com/~djones6746.asp


"You know Andy...I never thought it would come to this....Mayberry....Gateway to danger."

Barney Fife

Hoc

quote:<HR>Originally posted by djones6746:

Don't worry Hoc...there is one in every thread anymore who brings race into the discussion!!!
<HR>

Doesn't bug me. Besides, I think the "stick-ectomy" is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Hoc

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Miser:
Hoc, I'll take a guess at what happened. Whichever carrier Amazon used probably misdelivered your package to someone who lives nearby. Since Mr. Samoan is a nice guy, he decided to hand deliver it to the proper recipient rather than keep it for himself or return it to the carrier. I had some problems with UPS several years ago where they couldn't find my house if their lives depended on it. I forever had strangers bringing packages to my door.<HR>

That's certainly possible, though I know most of my neighbors (yes, even the Samoan and Scandanavian ones ), and I didn't recognize this guy. Anyway, I'm happy to have a repeat of this scenario when my Hawking Set arrives for $3. As I said above, the point of the whole thing is, I got the DVDs, no matter how odd the delivery method.

Penny

Hey, every Samoan guy I've ever met has been a big cuddly teddy bear kind of guy (okay, one was about 5'10 and 175 lbs - boy, could he climb a palm tree - yes, he was definitely Samoan)! Nothing nasty about them. Just big sweeties with a great sense of humor.

I agree, you can usually tell if someone is a Samoan. Samoans generally have very distinctive features. Usually big burly guys ... real big.

Miser

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Hoc:
As I said above, the point of the whole thing is, I got the DVDs, no matter how odd the delivery method.<HR>

OK. Since you commented on its utter strangeness, I thought maybe you were looking for an explanation of why your package was delivered in such an unconventional fashion. So I thought I'd point out a possibility. BTW, I know most of my neighbors too. Yet, during the UPS fiasco, most of the misdelivered packages were brought to me by strangers. I talked briefly to a few and found that they lived as much as five miles away! It kind of surprised me how many people would go to that much trouble to get my package to me.

[This message has been edited by Miser (edited October 19, 2000).]

DVDHound

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Hoc:
Doesn't bug me. Besides, I think the "stick-ectomy" is scheduled for next Tuesday. <HR>

Get a life, Hoc. This is pitiful.