Some people refuse to listen until it’s way too late.

So, what would you do if you warned someone about serious damage and they ignored you just to prove a point?

Would you try to reason with them?

Or would you go ahead and play by their rules, no matter the consequences?

In today’s story, one delivery driver finds himself facing this very dilemma.

Here’s what he did.

standing water

I worked for a lumber company delivering everything from supplies for building a house to additions/decks.

This happened in a New England state that had experienced torrential rain for 3-4 days prior to my delivery.

At first, I knock on the door.

The homeowner is there.

I ask where they want the deck delivered.

A pallet of concrete to go in the garage and the lumber/decking material to the back of the house, where it will be built.

I walked to the area with the homeowner and saw standing water.

I point out that my forklift is very heavy and will sink where he asked for the material.

The homeowner was adamant about what he wanted.

At first, he seemed to understand that the machine would leave trenches on the property.

Told him I would drop the material parallel to the house.

He then started with the “I’m the customer and I want it delivered here.”

He then implied that I was lazy and didn’t want to do my job. Fair enough.

We had waivers that said that the lumber company was not responsible for damage to delivery spots.

Gladly signs and tells me to do my job.

“You got it.”

As soon as he got in the yard, the machine sank.

Due to the length of the material, I had to go sideways to deliver.

To go from sideways motion to standard movement meant the wheels changed from sideways to forward.

So I get to the area where he wants the lumber, and I turn the wheels.

The whole thing sinks to the point that the lumber is on the ground.

I tried to use the forks and turn the wheels to get out, but no luck; sinking deeper.

I’m about 8 feet by 4 feet stuck in the ground.

Try all the various ways to move the machine, but go deeper.

I point out to the homeowner that I’ll need help getting out.

What’s not on the waiver is their liability to tow.

So I called my home base for help getting out.

Owner is super mad at homeowner. Fair enough.

It’s a good thing he signed the paperwork.

Wait about an hour, and then another truck shows up to pull me out.

They pull onto the lawn and run chains to my forklift.

They are parallel to the garage.

We hook the forklift to the chain.

The driver of the truck goes really slowly.

Unfortunately, it pulls the forklift sideways before it catches solid ground.

Another roughly four feet before it catches solid ground.

It put a grade on the trench as i was pulled out.

The thing was a WW1 worthy trench.

Hand the homeowner the receipt and load up my machine.

The blank stare of the homeowner was a truly great thing.

He signed the waiver.

Yikes! That sounds like it was a nightmare!

Let’s see what the people over at Reddit have to say about the homeowner.

Here’s advice to live by.

This person wants to know what type of forklift goes sideways.

Those who are smart will listen.

As this person points out, waivers save people from lots of problems.

The customer is always right.

When someone is that persistent, you have no other option but to listen and hope they learn a lesson.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.