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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask you to put your house number where I can see it?

107 replies

Duvetdweller · 08/12/2020 19:00

I'm helping out a friend who is doing deliveries from his restaurant to try and keep afloat. It's dark and it's raining - google maps can only take me so far. Would it kill you to put a number on your house? Or even on your gate so I can see it from the road? Also, if you live at 100 Main Road, please don't just put your house name because it sounds posh, your dinner will be very cold.

OP posts:
DynamoKev · 08/12/2020 19:25

We have the number prominently displayed in two places though.

StartingGrid · 08/12/2020 19:26

@Watto1

My house only has a name so I give detailed directions in the ‘information for driver’ box if there is one. I do the same when ordering by phone. However, the drivers clearly don’t get the instructions as 99% of the time I get a call saying “I can’t find you. I’m by the post office.” If they had read my instructions they’d be nowhere near the sodding post office!
I had this the other day, a driver berating me for "not giving any address" yet he got to within a few hundred metres of my workplace before he needed my help! I checked the label and the full address was there, plain as day...

As an aside @Duvetdweller I hope your efforts help your friend stay afloat, and that you're at least getting some nice food from it? When we had just moved in together years back DP and I did a few months delivering for an Indian restaurant to help with bills... despite how cold and difficult it was, I always look back fondly at learning the wonders of deep fried aubergine Smile

Original poster
Duvetdweller · 08/12/2020 19:26

Omg yes! The wreaths!!! And also people who answer the door after about 10 minutes looking confused - do they not remember ordering dinner?

OP posts:
Moonflower12 · 08/12/2020 19:28

DP is a paramedic. They spend so much time hunting house numbers. They love a ' windmill' - a person outside the relevant house waving them in!

Our house is the only one on our postcode but Google maps and a sat nav still take you 500 yards down the road to an old barn!

WitchQueenofDarkness · 08/12/2020 19:31

We have no number just a name which is very clearly displayed by the roadside and I also give detailed instructions often mentioning that my very distinctive car is parked on the driveway.

How then do I frequently find myself with the mobile clamped to my ear waving at the "lost" delivery driver who is parked 10 yds away?

Celandines · 08/12/2020 19:31

I've got a plaque with brass numbers on a blue background. The brass has faded a bit but I've got large white numbers on wheelie bins facing the front, which hopefully helps.

MotherPiglet · 08/12/2020 19:36

I dont use my house name because 'it sounds posh'.. I use my house name because I dont have a house number. We also give clear instructions including the google maps coordinates so you can just copy and paste them into maps.

Original poster
Duvetdweller · 08/12/2020 19:39

Bin night makes life a lot easier @Celandines.

It’s people who do have a house number @MotherPiglet that live in a very long road but would rather give you the name of the house because they have a plaque with it on in tiny writing 🙄

OP posts:
MotherPiglet · 08/12/2020 19:39

Also SO annoying when the delivery driver rings to say they cant find us. Yet are parked across the road with their headlights FACING MY HOUSE.

DominaShantotto · 08/12/2020 19:40

We made sure to refit the number when we got the house render re-done because very few in the street have them and it causes havoc when the postie is off sick and we get a random one who just delivers everything wrong and we have to sort it out among ourselves.

Still get stuff mis-delivered - there's another street with the same name (and it's not a "typical" common street name) in the next area across in both directions.

Celandines · 08/12/2020 19:42

We leave our bins on the drive all the time here so should help all week

Callipygion · 08/12/2020 19:43

Not all satnavs are equal! The one in my car doesn’t let you put a house number in, it only takes the postcode, so my ‘home’ on it is actually on another road! (A cul de sac off our road 😳).

I often wonder how emergency services get on with finding places. Must be a nightmare for them.

Burnthurst187 · 08/12/2020 19:44

I used to do home delivery and agree totally OP. I had a very powerful torch which was very useful, I could light up somebody's front door from behind the wheel

I think the reason a lot of ppl don't have a house number is because they know what number they live at and don't realise how awkward it can be for deliveries, esp at night if they have long driveways

Wheeliebins can help as they often have the house number on even if the front door doesn't

Twillow · 08/12/2020 19:45

@Roselilly36

Use sat nav, this strange wizardry will take you straight to the door if you enter postcode & street number.
Really doesn't. Have friends who are delivery drivers -

If your house is not clearly sequenced with a visible door number PLEASE add some clue like next to post box, big hedge etc. Each extra10 minutes of driving up and down, phoning customer, etc is a real nuisance.

hopeishere · 08/12/2020 19:47

I have detailed instructions on the app as to how to find my house. I still get calls because they can't find it.

Nunoftheother · 08/12/2020 19:49

@Meepmeeep

What’s the excuse for those delivery drivers who can’t find a very clearly numbered house. A house with a sign with both number and street name displayed in a prominent place!
Good question. Last time I had something delivered I was told my address (a clearly-marked number, not a name) didn't exist. Hmm
possumgoddess · 08/12/2020 19:49

Oh the wonders of sat nav!!!! I have a number on my house (clearly displayed) and there is a sign at the end of the shared drive so you would think it would be fairly easy to find! NO! For the simple reason that Google maps takes everyone to the next road down. We have had deliveries and takeaways go astray on numerous occasions. I even had a delivery driver ring me up and insist he was outside my door and demand I come and get my parcel, but he was outside somebody else's door in a different road. Even when I asked him what colour the front door was and told him the colour of my door he didn't believe me! And when they do actually find the right house why do they insist on knocking at the door with their knuckles when I have both a (working) doorbell and a door knocker????? If I can't hear you I won't be answering the door! So - lovely delivery drivers - please ring the doorbell or use the knocker. It's no use finding the right house if we don't know you are there.

FrankiesKnuckle · 08/12/2020 19:50

Every house should have a neon number/name.

Especially in winter.

I might be suffering a bit of PMT. Also a paramedic, tired after a long day trying to find shit.

FleeceNavidadToEwe · 08/12/2020 19:53

YANBU

Sat nav takes drives round the corner into the next street, which is a different postcode.

DuzzyFuck · 08/12/2020 19:54

Where we live (not UK) it's much more common to have a house name than a number unless you're in a very built up area. Must be a bloody nightmare for delivery drivers. I'm in an apartment now but always used to leave very detailed instructions inc make/colour of the car on the drive etc.

Witchend · 08/12/2020 19:54

We have a massive number on our door. We're on a corner, so we're number 2, first house down our close.

Despite that we often get post for 25 or 27, which are the houses on the main road.
When ordering a delivery I often write instructions "Between 25 and 27 Main road." They still can't find our house. Lost count of the number of times I've run up the road after a delivery van, or spoken to the manager when the delivery company reports us "not in" aka "couldn't find them" for the third time (including when I've been outside gardening all day).

I'm not sure having a easily visible number makes that much difference.

ClareBlue · 08/12/2020 19:55

Our house is shocking pink with outside lights that are brighter than Wembley Stadium floodlights. We never seem to have a problemGrin Apart from that we live in the middle of nowhere and nobody delivers food here.

ClareBlue · 08/12/2020 19:58

But there is a serious point that as we move to online deliveries we need to have clear and identifiable houses for drivers. Some housing estates are mad for numbering.

OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow · 08/12/2020 20:00

@Roselilly36

Use sat nav, this strange wizardry will take you straight to the door if you enter postcode & street number.
Many supply teachers to our school who use sat nav end up at the sports centre directly behind us and a five minute walk away.
Runmybathforme · 08/12/2020 20:01

@Roselilly36

Use sat nav, this strange wizardry will take you straight to the door if you enter postcode & street number.
No it doesn’t, mine takes me to usually, somewhere close, but not to the actual address. I think, if you ever expect an ambulance or District nurse to visit you, have your number clearly displayed, at the end of your drive , and lit up at night. If you only have a house name, don’t ask us to visit.