To ask you...no, to BEG you...

[Yesitsbess]

Put your house numbers on your house people!

I lost my hospitality job during the lockdown and, as many people have had to, took up a delivery job to make ends meet. I have learned that delivery drivers are grumpy for a reason! Those reasons are numerous.

If you want to help us out for reasons that include: our safety, our being able to park safely, our being able to make the insane time targets we are set by our companies, our not wasting fuel looking for you (both environmentally and efficiency-wise) and you just getting your food/parcels/taxis on-time then please have a look at the following:

1. God tier - people with GIANT NUMBERS IN LIGHTS on their houses AND BINS ( we love you, especially if we deliver after dark) even if we're not delivering to your house, we use you as navigation because Googlemaps is shite.

1. Mid-tier - people who live somewhere hard-to-find but include directions on their order. Your street has 'odds and evens'. You have your number on your door in a colour that is discernible in the dark.

1. Poo-tier - people who live on a New build estate where the developer assigned house numbers by THROWING A CALCULATOR AT A CEILING FAN, and yet they think Google maps will see us right. It will not and we hate you.

1. Hell Tier - people who live on a main road, with long drives spanning off said main road, with NO indication of what house number/name they are at he end of their drive...

1. Seventh circle of Hell tier - you live very rurally and don't provide directions. Or in a very difficult to access place, or you have insane building works on the path, your dog is horrible (please stop your dogs humping and/or biting us - we're on minimum wage, we don't care if he "never does this usually!")

Anyway, if you've read this and think "We're golden!" on this issue, drive around your neighbouring roads at night and try to pick a random number to find - it's a fun game and might help you see what we see?

PUT NUMBERS ON YOUR HOUSES PEOPLE!

Google maps is not always entirely helpful. Take this example. There is
X Cross Road (where labelled)
X Close - where it's labelled isn't actually where it is. That's an alleyway.
Where X Close is is actually where the purple line is - a footpath running directly alongside (with only a picket fence to divide it) from the Main Road.

I know someone on 12 X Cross Road who ultimately resorted to putting up a big sign saying "This is not 12 X Close" because he was so fed up of receiving their parcels.

DH refuses to put bigger numbers up outside. We disagree about this all the time! We have this tiny, illegible house number which annoys even me. Our house is literally swimming pool blue though bit of an oh shit! moment when the painters left and we realised what we'd done I always put 'blue house' in the delivery notes. There are no other blue houses on our road... or within our postcode.

@cuppaandabiscuit

You'd loathe my inlaws - their road is all house names, not number, and they don't have the name displayed because...... they have front garden decor according to the name - think along the lines of 'cherry Blossom cottage ' with aforementioned cherry tree in the garden or 'fountain way' with a small fountain in the front. So you'd need to be capable of solving cryptic crosswords or walk the length of their street to figure out which house it is!

Your PIL deserve cold takeaways!

I've just ordered a house number for my house because I would certainly be a hell teir, I hope it helps! (been meaning to for a year, you just reminded me!)

@sashh my mum gives directions to any place in the country (possibly the world) via pubs. So when my auntie moved to a care home last year instead of the actual address and a postcode I could put in my sat nav what I actually got was - "it's off the A## at the Polish, turn right at the Grapes, you know where the Gurkha used to be? Well sort of opposite that and then past the Rifle. If you get to the Black Horse you've gone too far". I just googled the care home name and got the postcode; seemed easier somehow

I live on a very long road in a semi-rural area. If you miss my house it's a mile or so to the next. I always give directions as "if you've got to the garden centre you're gone too far" and leave my phone number. It's not helped that we are
Gardeners Farmhouse
Village Road
Village

and there is also a Gardener's Road, Village so I have had calls from delivery drivers who listened to the Siren's call and turned off into the road.

We don't have a number or a possessive apostrophe because the house is over 300 years old and the possessive apostrophe didn't exist then.

@Yesitsbess

I cannot tell you how much we appreciate lights left on and instructions (especially if you're rural). I work with kids who are my daughter's age, and I often worry about them, we deliver to very rural locations at night.

I never really thought about how scary the whole thing was until I was knocking on a door at eleven at night in the middle of nowhere with no lighting and no signal.

YANBU I work as a Health care professional in the community, so many visits require me to take equipment which I carry and Iv'e sometimes been almost in tears trying to find poorly signposted houses and flats. when its cold or wet and my hands get numb it makes the visit longer as struggle to set up equipment. plus wondering around a rough estate looking lost is never good. It's horrible

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

YANBU OP I hear you Loud And Clear And I Try So Hard

Imagine my street is called Appletree Road.

I live in a New Build called Appletree Gardens, which is ON Appletree Road.

I live for example at 8 Appletree Gardens on Appletree Road, and yes, of course, there is also an 8 Appletree Road.

I have EXTENSIVE delivery instructions on anything I use regularly (Amazon etc)

Occasionally I buy things from sites and I don't know who their courier is.

If its DPD they reset my address to 8 Appletree Road EVERY single damn time. I leave instructions and they still drive the fuck off, after bothering the neighbours, who have complained, it's an elderly couple they keep bothering, and its mortifying, I've even bought them flowers.

Living in a New Build is frustrating as fuck. BT fucked me about so much during the move, going to the wrong address repeatedly, that I left them, everytime I rang them, they sent me a follow up email STILL with the wrong address and then I had to apparently wait another 48 hours to reset the appointment which was of course still wrong as their system wouldn't recognise the new build

So yes New Builds ARE Poo Tier but its just as bad living in one.

I have a similar but even worse problem. Using your naming scheme I live in a small block of flats we'll call Appletree House, but it's on Orchard Road. Appletree Road is the turning off Orchard Road before you reach Appletree House. This means I get stuff going to 8 Appletree Road if they don't read the address properly, or 8 Orchard Road if DPD screw up. And even if they don't make either of those errors, the building has a brass name plate that it's bloody difficult to read in the dark, and we're not allowed to change it as we live in a conservation area.

I always put detailed directions when I can, but even then three quarters of the time they end up phoning me cos they've got lost and I have to work out exactly where they are so I can guide them in.

I've never lived in a house with a number in my life. Delivery drivers always claim they are unable to find us despite us providing detailed instructions every single time.

@dappledsunshine

I had a takeaway delivery driver thank me for having my outside light on in the past when he delivered one night. Ever since then I make a post of turning it on if I'm expecting a delivery, it's such a small thing that can make a difference.

I do this and I watch for them too if possible, opening the gate and door so it's pretty obvious it's for me.

I have a long(ish) drive and my house number is not visible from the road so I have a number plate on the wall at the bottom of the drive [polishes halo]

Isn’t there an estate somewhere where every road has the same name. So they are all called Park View but Park View Place, Park View Road, Park View Street, Park View Terrace etc.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit

I love the way that utilities will only register a recognised address.

But it isn't only new builds.

We are doing up an old building, it has been a church hall for over 50 years.
the official address is (it turns out) the house next door.
We asked the water board to come as there was a problem.
They came and checked the house next door, which was fine. Phoned up the person dealing with it for us and fortunately he realised from something the water man said that he had been to a house, not a church hall. He then turned up unannouced at the hall (not much good as no-one lives there). By chance I was there doing some painting.

The water man could not find our water access from the street, and the whole building etc didn't exists on his data base.

50 years and built at the same time as the houses.

He was good though, found it in the end, created us on the water boards app, and got the problem fixed.

I'm No.5 on your list - sorry. I will change my ways

I feel your pain OP, my pet hate as a paramedic is people who only have a name on their house (not necessarily their fault I know) and then choose to have it on a teeny tiny copperplate writing wrought iron sign about 3 inches off the ground. The number of times I’ve driven around in my response car in the dark, screeching fuck fuck fuck as I try desperately to find the house where the person is on their last legs whilst also having half my mind full of what drugs I might need etc. And don’t get me started on new estates, it’s no wonder I’m grey

I'm with you OP.
Social worker who has spent hours looking for rural properties that have no visible clues which house it is- then when you finally find it and mention it they say 'it's there in the window' - the ivy covered bit visible from the road window etc etc.

We bought our house as a new build 20 years ago, and for about 15 of those years were the only ones in the street with a number on the house! We’re moving soon and I was already planning on putting the number on the glass above the front door

I got told off by our community management for putting a BIG NUMBER on my door.

I get 2-3 deliveries per DAY for the same number but in a different block. I think he mustn’t ever cook - at least one Deliveroo per day comes to my house instead of his so I’ve no idea how many go straight to his house.

Instead I got a ring door bell to tell his delivery man to fuck off (ok, maybe a bit nicer) from my sofa instead of getting off my arse for his sushi.

I live on an unmarked dirt track off an unnamed road off a bigger unnamed road going through a forest with no discernible features. The house has a name, and rather unfortunately, although our house has been here over 450 years, another house in the village built about 50 years ago also has the same name. The lord of the manor owns the forest, and he has a several hundred year old rule saying nothing to be put up by commoners without his permission. The current LotM has decided this includes name signs anywhere except on your own property. You have to cross 400m of his property to get from the road to mine, so delivery drivers have to read the very detailed instructions I always leave. We have 5 doors on the house, and only one has a safe place to leave anything, it also has the letter box and door bell, so I mention that too in any instructions. You’d be amazed how many delivery drivers don’t read the instructions. And Amazon - give us more options to write better instructions, because your drivers frankly need all the help they can get!

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Ok, cancel what I’ve just written. I’ve just had a parcel delivered even while I was typing. As I was standing there being given an earful by the driver about how hard my house was to find, my lovely postman turned up with a parcel too, and proceeded to tell the delivery driver to wind his neck in, it’s not hard to find if you have half a brain! And then pointed to the perfectly visible porch. Thank you Mr Postie! 😊

Just read this thread, and thanked the stars that I put up a second plaque with my house number on the fence/wall at the bottom of my driveway, only the other week! It's been bugging me for ages. Particularly after I actually took note of how the houses are numbered on my road (NB these house were all built in the 1930s) when taking a walk last year. There's a house number on my actual house, but who the hell (apart from an owl or an eagle) can see that from the road when they're driving? I have always added very clear delivery instructions/directions to orders but still, not cool.

Sooooo, I ordered a nice large, easy to read in the dark, plaque with house number on it....and (finally!) learned how to use the cordless drill/screwdriver that I inherited of my Dad! Having read this thread, I plan to search out some glow in the dark stickers/paint for my wheelie bin...

We have our house number on our gatepost. It's pretty clear. Barely a day goes by without a delivery driver asking what number we are as they think they have a parcel for us (no it's for our neighbour).

I do deliveries on foot. No car, no sat nav.

Most of the delivery instructions assume I’m coming by car, and don’t mention alleyways, public footpaths or access routes, eg taking you the long way round up long culdesac when there is a little path that’s a tenth of the distance.

They also write things like ‘just off the main road’ when they mean half a mile off the main road - so adds over a mile to my route.

BESSPOINTS FOR ALL OF YOU who are having a really good look at your house from the road and being lovely and helpful to us, the social workers, the GPs, the paramedics, the posties, the parcel people and the takeaways drivers!

and @cuppaandabiscuit there is now a sub-level of Hell! Whooda thunk it?

Anything that requires me to become Agatha bleedin Christie to find out what the house is actually called is...well...I don't have a polite enough swear really.

YANBU

I feel sorry for people trying to find our house. Our address is something like (but this is a made up example) 37 Yewtree Close, Village. Except our house isn't IN Yewtree Close, it's one of several houses outside the turning to Yewtree Close on Outskirts Road. I have to explain to everyone that even though our address is Yewtree Close, we don't live in Yewtree Close.

Even worse, the houses next to our little row are named 37a and 37b Outskirts Road so the poor delivery people don't stand a chance

@Yesitsbess
Thank you
I’m gold plus tier😂
My husband got the sign made up telling the delivery drivers to Chuck the parcels over the wall 😂
I thought he was nuts - but the drivers I’ve spoken to have all said they wish other people had something like this as well as they know what to do with the parcels so they never go missing

Plus I have ring doorbell so can see when parcels are being left

Our door numbers came off and we tried putting them back on but that didn't work. This was 2 years ago. After seeing neighbours put up nice modern perspex type number plaques we went down that route. Ordered off the internet and is now on our front wall.

The man delivering our new house number plaque actually tried to deliver it to next door