Delivery Drivers Had To Return A 350-Pound Order, And All Because The Customer Cared More About His Fresh Sod Than Actually Getting His Furniture

Heather Hall

1 month ago

Delivery Driver getting out of his white delivery van

Pexels/Reddit

Nothing says “good neighbor” like refusing to let delivery drivers on your grass and suggesting they drive over someone else’s instead.

So, what would you do if you were a delivery driver and the customer demanded that you stay off their new sod and go over the neighbors’ instead?

Would you follow their directions? Or would you take the item back to the store until the customer finds a better solution?

In the following story, a home improvement employee witnesses this exact situation happen, and their sympathy is limited.

Here’s what happened.

Don’t ruin my grass, ruin my neighbor’s!!!

I work as an assembler at a home improvement store in the US. I recently assembled a large outdoor bar and grill set, each weighs about 350lbs (semi-important later).

This morning, they were sent out for delivery, and I thought no more of it and went on with my shift.

But when I went to leave for the day, I saw the set was sitting back in the receiving area.

This is actually the second time this has happened with this customer. The first set we delivered was damaged during transport, so we had to build a second one.

He had laid new sod and didn’t want them on it.

Worried that history had repeated itself, I gave them a once-over, and they were perfectly fine.

Intrigued, I asked one of the receiving guys what had happened, and he immediately got a giant grin on his face.

When the delivery drivers arrived at the customer’s house, they realized that there was no path going around the side of the house, and being 350 lbs each, it was impossible to carry them.

The delivery driver asked the customer if they could drive the truck around back and drop them off directly, but they wouldn’t have any of it. They had just laid new sod and didn’t want us to ruin it. Instead, the customer told us to go through the neighbor’s yard!

The customer came up with a brilliant idea.

Since this is the second time they’ve tried delivering this, the guys actually went over and rang the neighbor’s doorbell.

No one answered, so since they didn’t have clear permission to drive over their lawn, they had to go back and tell the customer that it was impossible.

Still, the customer wouldn’t let them drive over the lawn, so instead, he figured that he could lay some sheets of plywood on the ground and they could use the pallet jacks in the truck to move them out back.

Again, the delivery guys really wanted to help this customer, so they figured it was worth a shot.

The customer then told them to wait here while he went and got his keys. The delivery guys asked what for and he said, “Well, I need to go to [competitor home improvement store] to get the plywood. I’ll be right back!.”

Unfortunately, the delivery men didn’t have time to wait.

This was too much for the delivery men, because they had other stops to make and couldn’t wait around for who knows how long just to try out a hairbrained idea that might not even work.

So they loaded the set back onto the truck and brought it back to the store.

On the one hand, I feel sorry for the customer; they probably had planned on the sod being laid after we brought all the stuff, and it’s not their fault the initial ones got damaged.

But at the same time, they knew the things were massive and that there wasn’t a good way to get them out back other than driving.

And the fact that his first idea was for the drivers to potentially tear up the neighbors yard (and they would still need to drive over part of his to get them to the patio anyways) means my sympathy is somewhat limited.

Wow! He was determined to save that grass.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit think they should’ve handled it.

For this reader, it reminds them of their own neighbor.