Just USE THE DOORBELL

[freespirit333]

Does anyone else have a doorbell (a Ring Doorbell no less) and people just don’t use it?! And use the knocker instead? It drives me nuts as 1. The knocker isn’t as loud and 2. If I’m unable to answer, if they use the ring doorbell, I can speak to them. Can’t do that if they knock!

Just missed a Royal Mail parcel, didn’t even hear anyone at the door. Checked my footage and no ring, just a half arsed tap with the knocker.

When at someone's door I feel free to choose the method of announcing my presence. I might ring, knock or shout. Or all three.

A member of my family will only ever knock and won’t ring the bell. She knows the bell is there because we bought out house from my late grandmother and this particular family member lived with her in the 6 months leading up to her death and it’s a glass door so you can easily hear the bell from the outside when you ring it.

Handily though it means that if the door knocks I know who it is and I don’t answer if I don’t want to (she can be a lot to deal with and sometimes I just don’t have the energy…)

I have three bells. Original mains one, loud, the presser can hear it, but it doesn't reach all the house or the garden. Two wi-fi bells needing new batteries for other areas.
They lift and drop the light plastic letter flap.

That’s fine, as long as you are happy it won’t get answered. You can’t hear a door knock 8n my living room unless you are actively listening for it.

The reason people do this is because people don't answer their doors (probably MNers!). So they assume the bells don't work and resort to knocking as the default, for speed, cos at least you can then be sure that people will hear something.

And then there's Evri, who drop your parcel, take a photo, tap the door with all the power of a half-dead sparrow, and then run.

One thing you can be fairly sure of if you knock my door is that I won’t hear it @ChristmasFluff. That’s why I bought a door bell.

Yeah they just bang on the door, I find it annoying.

I have a mental image of you high-kicking too! 😁

I have a doorbell AND a knocker and people STILL knock on the glass! Some delivery drivers don't even do that and just leave my parcels on the doorstep in full view of the road 😡

My 3 year olds favourite game at the moment is the Amazon game. I wait in the room whilst he knocks on the door, leaves a book and runs away. I rush to the door to find he's already gone and left the 'package'. He thinks it's hilarious, having watched me rush to the door many times to find the delivery driver already gone to my surprise! And yes they often use the knocker over the bell- but ours has a movement sensor so we get an alert- we have a reasonable front garden so don't get too many false alarms (and it has AI so can recognise cat/fix vs human).

Yes, it happens all the time which is why I've got mine set up to notify me that someone's at the door.

Having done thousands of door knocks over the years (for deliveries where I had to get an answer or return the item to base), I always prefer a knocker.

If I bang a knocker, I can hear how much noise I have made. If I ring a bell and hear nothing (not uncommon next to a busy road even if it has actually rung), I have no idea if it has done anything or not.

I imagine any seasoned delivery person does this if they have half a brain.

As for banging the door and not using an obvious knocker - I would suspect this is just a speed thing. If you are having to make 40+ drops per hour, you probably get used to not bothering to even look for a bell or knocker - saves you a couple of seconds per door.

EDIT: Of course quite a few delivery types get around the first problem by just banging and ringing, but that always felt rude to me, so preferred just to knock.

This might be a bit close to the bone here for you @freespirit333, seeing as how you were waiting in for a package -

Enjoy!

If you are a delivery driver and there is a bell, assuming you don't know the homeowner or their preference, in my opinion you should use the bell (in addition to knocking if you want) in case the owner is Deaf/hearing impaired

I don't want your doorbell to record me.

Can I ask why? Genuinely.

I have CCTV so you'd be recorded if you came to my door anyway, and I don't have a doorbell, but I'm curious as to why people don't want to be recorded.

We gave up and had a massive Victorian cast iron door knocker put on the front door.

Nearly, but not all, delivery drivers manage to work out how to use it.

Doorbell's still there for those that can be bothered to use their eyes.

Looks like I’m not the only one!

Only on Mumsnet would some posters say it’s my fault for having a door knocker. My lovely composite door came with one, I’m not going to remove it and make my door look shit because people decide to use that instead of the bell.

Like the idea of the pass agg “ring the doorbell please” signs, tempted to get one!

The door behaviour of people is insane though. I had a delivery driver or postman THROW a parcel through my open living room window once, without even knocking!9

Same

I'm semi deaf and don't always hear a Knock and have missed parcels

Or I may be upstairs and stick head out of window and say hi.

And then mention the bell. Is it not working as I didn't hear it. Lucky I heard your knock

No one said it was your fault for having a door knocker, that's a bit touchy. If you can't remove it then you can't, lots of people have doors where you can, me for example.

It's when people ring the doorbell and start hammering on the door as well that I get really annoyed. It just feels aggressive somehow.

Oh, and walking round the house peering into windows if the door isn't immediately answered. I know delivery people are on tight schedules but I still think looking into windows is rude.

Oh this drives me mad, I have a large house (shabby, cheap area, not fancy) and it's hard enough to hear the knocker when it's quiet - but it's almost never quiet as I have 5 young DC and DH who works from home and is like a bull in a china shop. The door bell is lovely and loud, chances are I will never hear a knock. Why not just press the doorbell?!

They all seem to do this waving thing at my doorbell instead of ringing it. Found it really odd, I did ask and said it’s since Covid so they didn’t touch the doorbell. It is annoying, just ring the damn thing

I used to have this problem when I lived in a house where the front door had large panes of glass. People wouldn't use the knocker, they would rap on the glass with their knuckles. Drove me crazy. My new door is just wood with a tiny glass window right at the top. They use the knocker now. Something about a door with glass perhaps. I'd remove the knocker and make sure you have a full wooden door with no panes of glass at rapping height.