To think people these days no longer understand door numbers or seem to be willing to ring the doorbell?

[Gotosleepeveryeffingone]

Every now and then I sell an item on FB marketplace or via a whatsapp group or something and someone is on their way to mine to collect said item and it's at that point I quickly learn if they are significantly younger than me and lack what I thought were common skills.
To give a little more context I have not so recently had a new door fitted and haven't got round to putting my door number on the front so when I tell people my door number I describe what the colour of the front door and assume they will look at my neighbours door numbers (which are all in tact) and understand that 29 is after 27 and before 31 (not my actual door number but you get the idea. However, more times than I can count I get missed calls and texts saying "I'm on your road, I'm outside" and then I open my door and there's no one there and then I find out they are at the total wrong end standing outside a door with the same colour as mine.

One said, the door numbers are really confusing, the don't go in order! I said to her you are standing on the side of the road with even numbers, you need to cross the road - to which she was shocked, do people really not know that on one side of the road you have even numbers and the other is odd?

And why does no one ring the bloody door bell anymore?

Our house growing up had the odd/even numbers presenting the "yard" the houses were located but the actual houses were just in number order so 1 2 3 and 4 were next to each other.

Agree with @bluesatin re: What3Words which narrows it down to a 3m x 3m square area. For example this is the address to Blackheath Station https://what3words.com/wounds.ample.quite (What3Words is also available as an app but you can use the browser version). If you click on the little circle (with an aerial view of roads on it) to the right of the little yellow person icon you can see a satellite view of the area and can zoom around until you find the right bit.

(Obviously don't share your real W3Words address publicly as it would literally give away your actual address).

Just type your own address in the search bar at the top and pick the closest square to your front door.

Jo

Make a temporary number or stick up sticky numbers - B & M or Amazon. New builds nearby have temp diy style up until plaque comes.

It amazes me how anyone can be so stupid that they can't figure out a simple numbering system. Do they really think 19, 21, 23, 25 is some kind of random pattern?

Yes, I sell things online too, and people come to the house fairly often to collect things. I really don't know why people can't knock, but they will stand outside the gate instead, and send a message on the marketplace app saying they're outside. I don't always have my phone in my hand to see these messages come in, then they get annoyed that I haven't come out to them!

Just knock on the door!!!

My apartment seems to be invisible to people

I leave instructions as sat nav has updated so I'll say "off X road, not Y road"

It's a block of apartments in between 2 houses, and the houses are clearly numbered either side as 1 and 6
So 2-5 are the apartments, and if you actually walk up to the door, the buzzers are labelled

People just stand in the road looking lost as if they can't even see the main apartment door!

Oh and don't get me started on the trade button. USE IT, it opens the door!
Instead they buzz me, I answer and say "come in" and they carry on standing outside. The point of the buzzer is it opens the door..

I once found myself trying to communicate with office receptionists, who I could see and they could see me (glass doors), via the building's air brick as I was pressing away and nothing was happening to let me open the door.

Head hocho was very cross that they had to get up and walk 4 or 5 yards to let me in.

I felt very silly as I was really quite an important visitor - in my head! 🤣

Yes I have people saying they’re outside number 17 saying they can’t find mine. I’m number 18, other side of the road but quite far up, can’t even see them. And I have a large visible number on my door.
ring doorbell, people knock, or just stand there thinking I’ll get a notification 🙄

I also have a large glow in the dark #2 because it's like the black hole of calcutta around my door.

Do you eat a lot of fish from the river right next to the nuclear power station?

Maybe people don't knock because they've seen all the MNetters who can't stand their door being knocked 🤣

I find this, people on FB marketplace and delivery people. We tell them we live at the bus stop and they call from the bus stop for further directions (there are only 3 houses at the bus stop).

I work as a community nurse- if it's not obvious I just search on Google maps and it'll take you to the exact house (use street view if it's really confusing). The only time that doesn't work is when it's really rural.

This. My road is hell for delivery drivers, emergency services etc. Not just that it’s long and has a lot of old houses behind high walls in big gardens that are entire hidden from the road, but also many of those only have names half-hidden under ivy, and numbering, where there is numbering, is in individual terraces, which are themselves often way off the road, so you’ll have 1, 2 and 3 Janefield, then a stretch of detached named houses, then 1, 2 and 3 Empress Villas etc.

The doorbell thing drives me crazy.

I had someone come to pick something up the other day and text me to say she was at the door. Standing right by the doorbell. I asked her why she hadn't just rung the doorbell, and she say "some people don't like that"! Well if some people don't like the doorbell rung, they need to remove their doorbell. I've also had people say "it might not have batteries in" or "you might not hear it"????

I'm a middle aged woman, and am not surgically attached to my phone. I'm very likely to miss a text message or WhatsApp. If you want my attention when I'm inside the house and you are outside the house, ring the doorbell which literally exists for this purpose.

Drives me nuts when people refuse to use the bell & do the quietest knock in the world instead. Sometimes if I'm feeling arsey I'll just refuse to answer until they ring the bell.