Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Doorbell be knocking......

88 replies

TransplantedScouser · 07/12/2020 23:41

I have a ring doorbell - it’s obvious and in your face. It also detects motion.

So why the hell do people knock on the glass rather than press the fucking obvious door bell! Not wanting to be seen is not the answer because you are picked up on motion!

Why? Are door bells a strange thing!

OP posts:
Bookworming · 08/12/2020 11:55

I can also ignore it if i wish

Which is why they knock instead, they don't want to be seen and then you "decide" if you will answer.

TransplantedScouser · 08/12/2020 12:05

@Bookworming

But I get alerted by a motion sensor that they are there! So I’m not going to answer the door if I hear a knock without checking.

A simple “Alexa show the front door” gives me a view in seconds

Problem is I don’t always hear the bloody knock

OP posts:
igotdemons · 08/12/2020 12:28

I don’t understand this either, OP! I’ve had a Ring doorbell for the last 4 years where we live and yet there will always be a handful of people that never use it?! Confused It’s not a ‘silent’ bell and lights up blue when pressed so you know it’s working. I have hearing issues so I got it for that reason as I don’t hear when people knock! It’s so frustrating.

D4rwin · 08/12/2020 12:32

I have a sign ACROSS the doorbell button saying it's out of order, please knock.

They are still using it and putting no answer on delivery notes.

Occaisionally one will knock after no answer and then tell me the bell isn't working Hmm

user1495884620 · 08/12/2020 12:46

Why do you have a ring door bell? I don't know anyone who has one to ask why people have one!

One of my colleagues has one and judging by their running commentary. they seem to use it while they are at work to ensure their teenagers have gone to school/come home from school/aren't throwing an impromptu party.

Sparklingbrook · 08/12/2020 12:48

@user1495884620

Why do you have a ring door bell? I don't know anyone who has one to ask why people have one!

One of my colleagues has one and judging by their running commentary. they seem to use it while they are at work to ensure their teenagers have gone to school/come home from school/aren't throwing an impromptu party.

Oooh surveillance-that's more like it isn't it? Nowt to do with parcels.
D4rwin · 08/12/2020 13:01

We have one because there are many days when it takes me longer to get to the door than delivery drivers apparently think is acceptable (My knee randomly doesn't work properly)

Bookworming · 08/12/2020 13:05

*But I get alerted by a motion sensor that they are there! So I’m not going to answer the door if I hear a knock without checking.

A simple “Alexa show the front door” gives me a view in seconds

Problem is I don’t always hear the bloody knock*

If you're alerted by the motion sensor, why do they then need to ring and not knock? You already know they're at the door?

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 08/12/2020 13:36

Although the worst so far was the delivery driver that neither knocked nor rang but banged on the window of the front room (could see me working there) - I jumped out of my skin!

I hate it when people bang on the window, when there's a perfectly well-known, long-established custom of ringing or knocking at the door to request somebody's attention. It's as if they think they're private detectives (also appropriately known as 'dicks') who want to shame you into knowing that they've caught you red-handed in the act of being inside your own house. If it were somebody who needed to come in to the house (meter reader or whatever), I'd be half-tempted to insist that they have to clamber in through the window rather than use the door which they were clearly unable to find.

It's also scary how many people are driving vans and cars through busy traffic, but do not have adequate eyesight to be able to see a bell and/or signs saying 'out of order', 'please knock' or 'please ring bell'.

We have similar issues with people at the door, delivering things. We have a letter box and a parcel safe on the wall. Just in case it isn't instantly obvious that you use the letter box as a letter box or use the parcel safe instead for items that are too big to fit through the letter box, there are clear instructions on the parcel safe to this effect and telling you how to lock it.

The number of times people put letters in the parcel safe and leave it unlocked is annoying enough, but we still get small parcels just left outside on the step. On a number of occasions, the postman has put a bunch of letters in the parcel safe, left it unlocked, and then immediately knocked on the door with a parcel (not tracked or sign-for) that could very easily have gone in with the letters.

The most baffling are the delivery people who see the parcel safe, follow the instructions and manage to lock it, but don't think to put the parcel in first - or don't have a parcel in the first place, but had such an easy schedule that they had spare time to randomly play with parcel boxes that they didn't actually need. I see it locked, unlock it to get the contents and just find it empty.

I hate to patronise the reasonable amount of people who do understand basic house-visiting procedure, but I often wonder if I should print out an idiot's guide/flow-chart, detailing every single tiny little step they need to follow. Problem is, as we've already read here, the only people who ever would bother/be able to read it would be the ones with basic common sense who didn't need it in the first place.

I'm loving the dingbat recounted upthread who peeled the black tape off the non-functioning doorbell, rang it and, I'm guessing, was utterly bewildered to discover that it didn't actually work! What's the betting that it's the same kind of person who sees a huge 'wet paint' sign and feels the need to smoosh their hand into it to check if it's true or whether the householder simply had nothing better to do than put it up next to the clean, shiny, obviously newly-painted surface for a giggle?!

CustardySergeant · 08/12/2020 13:52

@Simplyunacceptable

Doorbells often don’t work so it’s easier to knock.
But knocks won't be heard all over the house whereas doorbells will. I only live in a bungalow, but we have a gadget (wi-fi thingy) which means the doorbell can be heard very loudly at the back as much as the front.
BigCityLife · 08/12/2020 14:08

@TransplantedScouser

Because I wanted one.

I was sick pre covid of having to go to pick up parcels because I wasn’t in when they were delivered.

Because if I’m in the back of the house by the time I lower the foot rest on the recliner and get to the door, people have often gone so I can answer it more quickly.

I also wanted security when the previous people who owned the house opposite us lived there because they were rather rough.

I have security cameras on the back garden for the koi pond - the ring cameras and ring door bell are on the same platform so it’s one app to check rather than the old cctv one and the door bell.

But most of all because I like gadgets and I wanted one.

Thanks for your answers!
Popcornismandatory · 08/12/2020 16:00

I have a doorbell AND a lovely brass door knocker shaped in a stag's head and people still bang on the glass bit of the door. Sometimes I wonder it hasn't been put through they bang so hard Hmm
Oh and this has been happening long before the plague arrived!

TwinklyLightsandBaubles · 08/12/2020 16:13

I can understand your frustration OP. We have an ordinary doorbell but a CCTV camera at the front. Loads of times the delivery driver has knocked on the door and not rung the doorbell. There is no chance we can hear a knock on the door unless we are right next to the door! Then they just dump the parcel by the door and it’s left to the elements or any chancers passing by to pick up. They don’t even know if we are home before dumping the parcel! It’s so irritating.
I know delivery drivers are under time pressure and it’s not an easy job especially at this time of year but I can’t understand not at least pressing the doorbell in front of them 🙄

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread