When Petty Revenge Climbs Higher: The Tale of DHL, Broken Elevators, and Six Flights of Justice
If you’ve ever waited by the door, hair dripping, heart thumping, for a long-anticipated package, only to get that dreaded “Delivery Attempted – Not Home” notification—this story is for you.
One Redditor, u/DeusIntus, recently shared a tale on r/PettyRevenge that struck a nerve with thousands of readers. It’s a story of dashed hopes, a broken elevator, a gift for a wife in need of a lift (emotionally and sartorially), and a delivery driver whose stair aversion led to a little creative escalation.
But as the Reddit comment section proved, when it comes to delivery drama, everyone’s got a flight—or six—of stairs to climb.
The Delivery Debacle: When “Not Home” Means “Not Up for Stairs”
The saga begins with a DHL package: a surprise gift for the OP’s wife, delivered to their third-floor apartment (that’s two flights up, for those counting the lobby as the ground floor). The elevator, as luck would have it, was out of commission. Still, OP was ready. He buzzed the driver in, scrambled out of the shower in a sopping bathrobe, and waited expectantly.
But no knock came. Ten awkward, chilly minutes later, OP’s phone buzzed with a lie: “couldn’t deliver package because you weren’t home.” By the time he sprinted downstairs, the DHL truck was a memory. As u/CoderJoe1 observed, “delivery drivers are being tracked too tightly so they will regularly choose a few deliveries to claim wasn’t home.” But as OP pointed out, this time the driver actually got into the building—only to bail at the sight of two flights of stairs, thanks to the elevator repair crew.
Let’s face it: climbing stairs with a heavy bag isn’t fun. But all OP wanted was honesty. As he clarified later, “If you can't come up for whatever reason, say so at the intercom, I'll be right down with a bottle of water too. The bait and switch? Not cool.”
Petty Revenge Served at Altitude
Here’s where the petty magic happens. When DHL offered to redeliver and leave the parcel with a neighbor, OP chose a helpful friend—all the way up on the 8th floor. With the elevator still out, that meant six glorious flights of stairs for whoever got the job.
“Enjoy the stairs, asshole,” OP wrote, to the applause of nearly three thousand upvotes.
But Reddit, ever the peanut gallery, had thoughts. Some cheered the move (“The not home excuse drives me crazy,” said u/Brilliant_Zombie3118, echoing a universal frustration). Others doubted the effectiveness: “If they're not doing 2 flights what makes you think they're going to the 8th floor?” asked u/will822 (with a side-eye from the practical crowd). And several, like u/Soccer_Ref127, pointed out the sad but likely reality: “it’s probable that another person is doing the next day’s route.” Would the right driver get their just deserts, or was this just stair-based karma roulette?
Stairs, Sympathy, and the Service Industry Struggle
As the debate unfolded, empathy for delivery drivers came pouring in. u/illeriya delivered a passionate defense: “The salary is shit, the working conditions are shit… sometimes you can't go home until you've delivered everything… Maybe the guy has bad knees, a bad back or whatsoever, do you guys not have empathy anymore?” Others, like u/poundlandSidBassett, shared harrowing tales of burnout from the delivery trenches: “If you are not driving above the speed limit or getting parcels dumped in seconds, we were too slow. I lasted about a month and was exhausted.”
On the other hand, some commenters—channeling their inner “Karen,” as OP joked—argued that honesty and basic customer service shouldn’t be casualties of a tough job. u/wanderinginger countered: “The driver could have been polite and thoughtful too by buzzing back up and explaining why he couldn't come up to do the delivery.”
A former FedEx contractor, u/ITsunayoshiI, weighed in with inside knowledge: “This stunt blows up in a drivers face immediately when a customer calls in after a package is coded for the customer not home. Any driver pulling that stunt would be sent back if they liked it or not, or risk being fired...”
The Stairwell Soap Opera: No Easy Answers
Perhaps the true genius of this Reddit post is how it became an impromptu town square for the modern delivery experience. Tales of soggy packages left in the rain, mysterious “undeliverable” notes, and drivers who disappear like ghosts abound. From u/HaroldWeigh’s snowy DHL mishap to u/Certain_Story_173’s ruined furniture, everyone’s got a delivery story—and an opinion on who’s to blame.
Was the OP’s revenge truly “petty,” or just a harmless bit of poetic justice? “What will prevent the delivery person from doing the same thing the next day?” asked u/completely_apathetic. “If they do that, I'm channeling my inner Karen and lodging a complaint about it,” OP shot back.
And as several pointed out, the real villain might be the system itself: low pay, impossible quotas, and a corporate structure that leaves both drivers and customers frustrated.
Conclusion: Whose Side Are You On?
In the end, the story of the six-flight package is more than just a stair-stepping stunt—it’s a snapshot of modern life, where convenience, empathy, and a little bit of pettiness all collide in the stairwell.
Have you ever caught a delivery driver in the act—or been the victim of the “not home” fib? Or maybe you’ve done a little sly revenge of your own? Drop your stories in the comments below, and join the debate: when it comes to delivery drama, is it better to climb higher—or just take the stairs yourself?
Let’s hear your stories—petty, practical, or just plain hilarious!
Original Reddit Post: Don't want to do two flights of stairs? Enjoy six.