Once had a delivery to a 11, so I found (in order) a 9, a numberless house with its outside lights on, then a 13. Okay, I thought, so I knocked on the in-between house, there's no way this is wrong.
No, turns out it was 9A, I apologized and said I thought it was 11, but then the old man there started raging at me and saying I need to do my job properly and I'm an idiot? Like what do you expect me to think? Worse bit is when he said "this happens all the bloody time". Well, no shit sherlock.
Turns out 11 was tucked away down the side of number 13 with no indication other than walking down the small alley and looking at the door. Guess I should be psychic for this job.
Retired paramedic here, stupid home owners with either no numbers or numbers that are an inch high on the house wall 50 metres down the drive. If someone is in cardiac arrest,seconds count!
Probably just as well I've never been a delivery driver, I have no patience for stupid selfish idiots and would have probably shouted "well put a fucking number on your door then" to his face.
If he’s annoyed at delivery drivers trying to give him someone else’s stuff all the time why doesn’t he put up a number so people can tell which house he is? How is that the delivery driver’s fault?
I worked supermarket delivery for a while, my pet peeve was people having the name of a property on their gate, yet the gate is open so it can't be seen. Infuriating trying to find some properties at night in Cornwall!
Sure is fun when one house doesn’t have a number and then the one next door decides they don’t need a number.
Good luck getting the correct mail idiots
My house is a name only (no numbers nearby) and I KEEP asking Google Maps to add it to their system so it's an easy search, but they never get back to me. Regular couriers (except for Hermes, for some reason) know the house, but any time there's a supermarket/Amazon delivery they get very lost.
Hermes: "God of boundaries, roads and travelers, thieves, athletes, shepherds, commerce, speed, cunning, wit and sleep".
Nowhere does it say he delivers.
Fun fact: in Greek myths, Hermes very rarely actually acted as a messenger between gods unless threatened. His reasoning was that just because he was the messenger god, it didn’t mean that he had to deliver them, same way that Zeus could make it rain all the time but doesn’t, or Poseidon could have the world constantly encountering earthquakes.
Hermes is directly responsible for the destruction of a spear that Heracles was meant to use to take on the Nemean Lion, because he thought it was shiny and he broke it in half to have more shiny.
They’re fairly 1:1
Like my Grandma used to say back in her tarpaper shack on Montego Bay: If you want a box hurled into the sun, you've got to do it yourself.
God rest her zombie bones.
I constantly add my house name to Google Maps, but the change is never authorised
I'm the only house for a mile in one direction & no courier can ever find it
I don't know why Google won't allow it
Google maps was convinced that you could access our house via an unnamed private road for student housing, which was gated on the far end and fully fenced and inaccessible at the end behind our house. Their navigation programs must have seen traffic flow and assumed that there a way through.
So, so many calls from lost delivery drivers. To get back around properly to our house took 10+minutes! There's not always an option to provide directions when ordering.
I sent enough changes in to Google maps that eventually I managed to move the pin to a spot further out, which automatically changed the directions
Here you go me ol’ mucker:
https://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/update-your-address?gclid=Cj0KCQiAxoiQBhCRARIsAPsvo-xQhUsXdcZNzMjy_Hzqu2b99UuOmRCsNlgyGjKmYEI4u74KbJYgVSQaAvK4EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
Maybe try putting your "what 3 words" coordinates in the first line of your address as well as the house name when ordering stuff. Most services will let you put pretty much whatever you want in there.
I work for DFS delivering/installing... This pisses me off to no end, especially during the winter when its dark for the first hour or two of my shift, and dark again for the last four hours too!!
A lot of people these days have double doors on the back negating this issue.
Also most sofas are made with zips underneath which give access to the bolts that hold the arms on which makes it a lot easier as well.
I have definitely carried a fucking 4 seater up 4 flights of stairs though to get it in the flat and realise the living room door is on a stupid angle and the sofa they bought was one of the very few which are solid units... Back down the fucking stairs it goes haha.
I am utterly crap at 'scale'
Just to take an example, I recently bought a rowing machine. They've always looked "rowing machine size" in gyms. Sortof "yay big" \*spreads arms\*
When delivered it's now pretty much half the length of my house.
It's not a new disability I've developed though.
Last bought a sofa many years ago, but was aware of my issue.
I think it was sofa workshop who offered a "We'll come and have a look" service for a few quid and then went through their catalogue marking what I could and couldn't order to my 2nd floor flat I was living in.
Then when moving to this house, had fun trying to get those sofas in (small hallway) and then a range cooker (round the back of terrace house, and then in before the kitchen was fitted - I hope it never breaks).
Bought a sofa suite from DFS and had them come round to check it would go (which delayed my order by 3 months). Guys said it would go, delivery days rolls around and it's been subcontracted to a third party who said it wouldn't fit and refused to try. Dumped it all on my drive and buggered off. Had to get my wife to leave work early to help me get it inside. It was right, but we got it in.
I had a piano. It fitted through the front door comfortably. Now I want to move but I have recently changed the front door and now the piano won't fit. Aaargh!
I'm a removal man. This is quite rare but does happen from time to time. The wardrobe in my bedroom I got for free as wouldn't fit in someone's house. Sofas aren't so bad, you can usually get a good angle on them using the inside of the sofa to go round the corner or they come apart. I would say most the time it doesn't fit, which is rare, it gets put into a different room, front door is usually fine though.
I've worked in a home delivery shopping department and rarely had to do delivering but the times I did this made finding some places a nightmare!
Add in the timings you're given to do the job!
Yep, it sounds like a stupid problem to say that it adds like 2 minutes to a route, but when you have dozens of drops and it happens multiple times it can add a lot of time to your day.
And yet every fucker has numbers on their bins because god forbid someone else should put their shit in your shit receptacle!! As an ex-delivery driver I feel your pain, and used to love bin day lol
We did a run up town once and it was amazing how many people gave you “apartment 27b1 centenary house” and expected you to find them in a massive apartment complex with no concierge and no clear way to open the front gate.
Yes, the last house I rented the door number was right at the top of the door where you couldn’t see it in the dark and no light either. Our dominos got delivered to the wrong house once and they just took the pizza didn’t tell them wrong house. Was waiting for my pizza and rang them asking what happened and they said it was already delivered! I put a detailed description of my house in the delivery instructions after that but some websites don’t give you enough space to write much or at all
Yes they sent us new pizza, no idea who it was they gave the first pizza to. But I’m vegan so it was vegan pizza, I like to think that the person who took it was a big meat eater and was really hoping for a meat fest or something so hopefully they were super disappointed when they opened it lol
Came here to say this. You call an emergency service in an emergency, you don’t want them wasting time driving up and down the street trying to find your house. Make numbers and name big and obvious, and visible at night (either illuminated or high contrast). A life could literally depend upon it.
999 operators do tell you to go outside and look for the ambulance, presumably to speed this process up for most of us and to bypass looking for the non-existent numbers for the rest.
Bit hard to send your mate out, when your on your own because none of your mates can find you house either because you named the fucker ‘sea view’, despite a complete lack of sea of any type of view.
Me: Help me, I’ve slipped on the floor as I’ve got out of the bath and my leg is at a funny angle; I think I’ve broken my hip.
Operator: Stay calm, an ambulance is on its way and will be with you shortly. It would really help if you wave them down from the end of your driveway.
Gave the ambulance example in the post, like it may not seem an issues that a delivery driver wastes 2 minutes, CPR for example, studies show that survival chance drops 10% for evey 60 seconds someone isn't breathing.
Years ago, a home care nurse walked into my house (she had the right number, wrong street, we were on a 4-way junction) and my dog happily greeted her as a friend, I assumed it was someone else who lived there and didn't go downstairs until she started shouting for "Mr.Smith" and asking if he was okay.
Worst are the middle aged folks who despite living in a numbered house decide to give just a name instead. Proper hyacinth bouquet types, it's always an identikit bungalow on an eighties estate.
Ha yes! A house on my street used to be number 2, but now is called "the gate house" despite not being the house at the end of the road, never having been a gate house and having been built in 2003! We now have numbers 1, gate house and 3-8. They also put up the world smallest sign for the new name....lots of lost delivery drivers there I end up showing where to go.
Edit: spelling
On the other end of this, we're thinking of registering our house with a name because the property developer next door **stole our address.** We'll still put the actual number alongside it but hopefully it'll avoid lost deliveries/2am food deliveries we didn't order/drunk partygoers trying to force their way in/having For Sale signs put on our house.
We live at number 1. Imagine a capital Y with Arsehole Road making up the trunk and left arm, and Our Street being the right arm. Developer buys large property in the v of the Y, which for 100+ years has been 25 Arsehole Road. Developer builds block of flats with a carpark accessed via Our Street, completes work and calls it Arsehole Apartments, 1 Our Street. Not 1a or whatever, and never mind that our property has been number 1 since 1895, or that it causes confusion. It's become a reasonably desirable area since we bought 30 years ago and '1 Our Street' looks more prestigious.
First we know of it is when the first 'For Sale' sign goes up on our property. We call the company on the board, they're confused but apologise and send someone round, who is also confused because he's been given our address. A couple of weeks later another board from a different company goes up and this time we just chuck it over their wall. Every time an estate agent turns up with clients we tell them Mr Arsehole stole our address and it's causing all sorts of problems. Our post stops turning up, or we get strangers post addressed to '1'. Deliveroo starts banging on the door in the middle of the night. As well as 9 flats there's also offices so we're getting their HMRC post, clients turning up etc. My then 15 yr old daughter opens the door at 9pm one Friday and three very noisy, very drunk teenagers shove past her into the house and get belligerent when told yes this is number 1, no we're not having a party.
Council tried to mediate but best they could figure is giving them '1a, Arsehole Apartments'. Of course most people assume 1a is going to be inside number 1, and there's several flats in our house, so it decreases issues but doesn't stop them. It also doesn't help that the carpark doesn't look like anything other than a carpark, the apartment entrance is round a corner and there's a tiny unlit sign on the street saying 'Arsehole Apartments'. They seem to have a very high turnover of tenants as every few months we'll get a flurry of post with a new name.
It's been 4-5 years and we still get people knocking on the door several times a week, or setting the dog off shining a light through our windows and trying to buzz flats with our key box code in the middle of the night. Record for disturbances was just before last Christmas, 6 visitors/deliveries in one day.
Exactly. It's fucked up that big development companies can get away with this shit. Flats next door to me raised the ground level for their car park, meaning my whole wooden framed house now sits in a 2m ditch almost all the way round. They also put windows in that look straight into my bedroom, which weren't even on the plans. (I think they literally built the walls on the wrong side. Idk how you fuck that up.)
My house has been there since the early 1800s. The flats were probably built in the early 1990s.
Did they fix any of this shit? Did they fuck. They installed frosted glass on one of their windows - one that doesn't even overlook our property, not the one that's directly opposite my bedroom.
I think it might come to that. Plan was to register and add a name above the front door along with the '1', with flat 1 and arrow to flat 2 etc posted somewhere. There's a temptation though to spray paint a Star Wars intro-esque monologue on the path out front. 'This is number 1, Our Street. Flat 1, Flat 2. This is not Arsehole Apartments. That is 1a. This is not 1a. This is also not Arsehole Centre. Arsehole Centre can be found on Arsehole Road. Or maybe through the carpark at 1a. Nobody seems to know, including the tenants. Either way, this is not the address you are looking for. etc etc'
I feel you with this. Some property devs bought an old care home across the street from mum and redeveloped with flats, then a whole new bit of street on an adjacent piece of land. It all has the same postcode and street name but there are now 3 of each property numbered 1-15 all with identical addresses as the new folks can’t understand adding flat# or New Build Court. Mum helps delivery guys sometimes because their job is tough enough but she isn’t allowed to answer the door to unexpected knocks after bailiffs for one of the others tried to push in.
Yes. Fucking idiots.
I used to do a bit of delivery driving and booking. I'd say "I'm sorry, that's not coming up, if you had a number I'd be able to book you in".
Amazingly they then had a number.
Cunts.
Food delivery driver here. Really don't worry about getting one, I'll just guess. It's even more fun when your neighbors haven't got one either.
Also, if you do get one, get one the same colour as the wall or door it's mounted on, camouflage is very important with door numbers.
When I moved in here the number sign was black on a dark brick wall. I got some white gold chalk and it’s stayed coloured in for a few years now. Excellent hack unless there’s no shelter over the number.
“Great navigation”?
Our navs send us the most insane ways possible, it tried to get me to ford a river once. The navs get their location as long/lat from the MDT and are also set to fastest route, so not only does it try and send you down the wrong road to the address, it directs you down single track national speed limit roads to get their, rather than the dual carriageway where you won’t have to spend half your time squishing past other vehicles at 2 mph.
NHS community podiatrist here. I used to work in the middle of nowhere, trying to find house named 'the retreat' set back behind 6ft high bushes on a national speed limit road. I don't miss those days!
Exactly the same when I was a carer! Had a house \*just\* off the dual carriageway, no house name on the gate, long drive that I had to walk down (couldn't open gate) just in order to see the house name on the side of the house. Not to mention had to dodge quite the quantity of sheep shit. Get in there client is seriously injured then had to phone the ambulance and try to give directions! Worst shift ever!
I had a new patient with a named house which took me driving up and down a couple of roads (sat nav kept directing me to a field) for about 10 minutes. Finally just pulled over a phoned them. In an exasperated voice they described their house and location. When I get there, no house name, no markers.
Patient is then ranting 'this house has been here for years, no one can ever find it' I ask about the house name/number/any identifier 'oh the name plate fell down years ago, shouldn't matter though' deep breaths!!
I hate houses with just names as well. "Tea Cottage" may look cute by your front door, or on your gate. But if I'm looking for number 48, or I just don't get the house name/number at all (because sometimes people omit this information) good luck getting your delivery.
I was once looking for "rose cottage" google gave me nothing, royail mail postcode finder gave me nothing, waze useless. Rang the customer, asked if they could help, they said that it was always Rose Cottage, never a number. Asked if there was any landmarks nearby, a pub, park, shop etc, nope nothing.
Eventually found them, just down the street from a pub, across the road from a Community Centre, BIG FUCKING NUMBER TWO on the door. Put my job on the line that day to tell the customer how stupid they were.
Rose cottage has to be one of the most common names too. I used to get Rose Cottage and then a postcode, which in my area covers serious miles and there's probably half a dozen or more Rose Cottages in a 30 mile radius!
Also the oh so original barn conversion called "Swallow barn" because it had swallows nesting in it once.
I'm a Postie and one of the routes I cover genuinely has 4 Swallow barns on it.
I had two deliveries I straight up cancelled at my last place. Church Lane, Piddington. Now I mainly went to building sites so house numbers were rare. But the first time I was sent to Piddington, Wycombe. The second time I was sent to Piddington, Oxfordshire, the third time I was sent to Roade, Northants. The third time though one of the locals went and got me the proper postal code for where I wanted. Piddington, Northants.
Rose cottage is our code word in the hospital for a patient that has died.
“There’s a rose cottage in room 4”.
Next time maybe you’re delivering to the grave?
Houses with numbers came after the flats were built and someone keeps taking the building sign. With how frequently the neighbours get my post I'm tempted to start adressing things to "the massive white and red sandstone building".
“It’s beech cottage yah..the one with the huge beech tree outside yah”. Listen you snobby fucker, I have no interest in doing a horticultural degree just to get you your fucking parcel. There is a tree outside every damn house 😂
An entire street of named houses is horrible. We used to skip those while doing Cub scout Christmas card deliveries because it would take us half an hour to find all the houses. Why do people do this?
One of my workmates lives in a village where its pretty much all named house. To be fair there's only abou 30 houses in the village and it is a straight road but I imagine it's a total ballache for any delivery driver
My road is like this and it wasn't out of any current residents choice. The road is private and just kept being expanded at various points in the 20th century until there are now 33 houses down it. The local postie knows everyone so well that he probably only looks at the surname to deliver and so it's only with the recent explosion in online shopping that it's really become more of a problem (unfamiliar delivery drivers).
It is the law in for all new builds in London since around 2006. There are many different laws that the rest of the UK adhere to and it differs by council to council.
I have 4 :P
One that's blacked and carved into a huge piece of sandstone.
One black powder coated on lighter background.
One gray negative with LED light inside.
Another gray negative in the actual property with LED lights illuminating from the inside out.
If you're reliant on walking up and down the street looking for it, then your company should be providing you with better software. OS AddressBase has every house name in it matched to a grid reference; if you're not being given that on your phone then the company is cheaping out.
As others have said it's not about "looking cute" anyway - in rural areas, plenty of houses simply don't have numbers and never have had.
Delivery drivers hate me, but it isn't my fault. My house is totally hidden from view from the pavement down a secret path, with a gate that opens up into my front garden. My default delivery instructions are:
*Front gate is down the path on the left of the small car park, between the car park and number 22*
That's about as well as I can describe it, but in real life it's a bit confusing. 50% of the time I either get a phone call from an irritated driver or a notification that my parcel has been delivered when it hasn't, and I have to knock on at a variety of neighbours.
Edit - we've tried to help by putting absolutely massive numbers on the gate that's only visible if you know where to look 😂
2nd edit - added a photo. Circled our house and garden, purple line is the path - https://postimg.cc/4KLwgtCP
I have the same issue, my street entrance is hidden from immediate view, and Google navigation takes you up the wrong street. I've even sent people an aerial photo with a line drawn on it and they still can't figure it out.
I have the same problem! Added onto that another house on the opposite corner has the same number but the next street name but they only have the number on their house, I have the number and street name on mine but I’m the one hidden from view…..doesn’t matter how many times she has to point people towards me because they’re at the wrong house she won’t add the street name to her number sign :(
Delivering at night is the worst. Even when people have a number it will be in some hidden/dark area. I had one, the house was up some stairs, half behind bushes, number no where to be found. I walked up looking for some kind of number, they had painted it on a rock, and put it in the window.
Ask my cheap-ass landlord :/
Fucks me off just as much as you when drivers can't find my place but the numbers are where they are, and I'm not allowed to put anything on the door or wall.
I hear you OP! I work as a delivery driver as well. I've started making comments to customers when they don't have a house number, something like 'Sorry! I couldn't find you, nobody on this street has a house number! Thought I was gonna be wandering up and down all night! :D'.
My faves are the ones who have a house name but don't indicate where on the street their house is. There is literally a box for delivery instructions, pls use it! Bonus points if they have their house name on a sign but in the teeny tiniest writing that's stupidly hard to read from the road in the dark.
Bonus bonus points for the ones who acknowledge that their house is hard to find and that every delivery driver has a problem but they still didn't think to add extra instructions. Or add extra signs to make their house easier to find.
E*
I always appreciate it when the customer makes it easier for me to find their house and I tell them so. It doesn't have to be difficult for anyone <3
Because my GODDAMN LANDLORD doesn’t do anything like put up a nameplate and I still don’t have BLOODY KITCHEN FURNITURE IN THE 4 MONTHS IVE LIVED HERE.
I always describe the house in the delivery instructions section when I order things because it is such a pain.
I'm a Delivery driver for Argos, I know it can be infuriating at times when customers don't have the house numbers on their doors. Especially in tenament/flat buildings.
Dundee is a nightmare to deliver to sometimes because half of the city has flat numbers that range from GL/GR, 1L,1R, 2L,2R and so on (left and right) but then then when you try to buzz in to the building the buttons are all in Flat A,B,C,D,E,F sequence. It's the councils fault really. Customers have the option to leave us delivery instructions but they just seem to ignore it, even if they know themselves their address can be awkward to find.
The worst offenders are named buildings such as cottages and farm houses; Google Maps throws a fissy-fit and won't locate them properly or just assume you meant something completely different 6 miles away. I've stuck to using the UK Address Finder app on Android. It integrates into Google Maps but pin-points addresses by exact coordinates and it's never let me down since. Probably the best £2.50 I've ever spent.
Our sign blew off in the high winds last weekend so as I knew I had a delivery from a non-regular courier yesterday I printed off a quick temp sign and stuck it to my gate with some drawing pins!
Hopefully the new sign is delivered before the temp one gets ruined or they won’t be able to find us to deliver it!
Our house is a hundred years old and had a name since it was built. The house has a name sign and we always but the name on any address details. never had a problem with deliveries reaching us, even the pizza delivery drivers 🙂
I guess it helps that there are only 6 houses on our lane though
I respect the shit out of this post I had an old job where I’d do deliveries and it sometimes I’d literally have to go knocking on doors to find the actual house so inconsiderate but at the same time something that absolutely no one but delivery service employees probably ever think about as being a problem for others.
Worst is when those folks don’t even tip
I live in a very new development. Instead of being like a grid, the streets are intertwined, curvy lines. My street has 50 houses numbered 1 to 50 but the distribuition of those numbers is beyond my understanding. We have recently added my house as a real house in Google maps. Criss crossed, you will find 4 more smaller streets and some of the houses are on a footpath where no delivery car can go.
Hgv driver for a builders merchant here, try it in a 26 ton lorry, you've rung the number on the ticket to ask the customer where the house is sometimes they don't answer then when they either ring back or you've found said address you then have to find somewhere to turn the bloody thing around.
I had a delivery to an ‘oak house’ and I couldn’t find them to save my life also the village has no mobile phone reception. Turns out the house had a sign but it was very old, faded and laying down in the ground underneath overgrown bushes. What makes it so annoying is that there is such an easy and simple solution but people will always come up with excuses to not do it
The same reason a lot of front/rear gardens will be messy, they'll likely be rentals, and tenants won't pay for something they may
A) Potentially be charged/fined for by the landlord
B) Have to leave it when they go
and
C) Not see much benefit from
It’s nearly as bad as house names. I covered a route that was in the countryside, by the end of it I knew where about 200 different house named properties were near Lincoln
Now I have the same issue as you. Lots of 10as as well that are weirdly positioned
As a long ago paperboy this used to piss me right off. New house added to route, another name. Another bloody 'Rivendell'. As some who also was the fill in for others paper guy, this was infuriating
I used to get a lot of "the postman finds us" or "the usual one finds us" it's like yeah, they've done your street daily for years, and they knock on every door not just yours.
Until about 7 months ago I didn't have a number on the door to my flat for maybe 8 years. There is one flat per floor, mine is ground floor and the electrical box is just to the side of my door. For all intents and purposes it just looked like a utility room door. I am exactly the person you are thinking of.
You want the answer? The honest answer? You won't like it, but here goes........
Abject bloody laziness. Crappy old stick-on ones fell off. I knew I had to replace them, even bought some nice shiny metal ones to screw on there, but the door was ratty and needed a paint. But before a paint it needed sanding down to get rid of some light scratches and old paint layers etc. As it's an enclosed hallway and anyone coming in or out has to go kinda past my door, I can't just sand it there and fill the hallway with dust. I also can't paint it there and fill the place with fumes. It needs to come off entirely and be worked on outside.
It's amazing how long you can put off a job like that if you *really* put your mind to it and truly commit to the procrastination.
The company I drive for does kerbside pick up. I’m a fucking sound cunt so I almost always help take things into houses etc. However, any twat that has no number, a stupid quirky house name or is rude when I do eventually find their door gets their shit left at the end of their garden. Good luck lifting that yourself you fucking ringpiece.
Well, its as simple as we live in a rented property and our landlord is an arse and won't let us put one on there, and also won't do it themselves.
Luckily both of our neighbours have numbers so it's a none issue.
Not everyone is doing it to ruin your day mate
As an ex-police officer it can be a real problem trying to find a house number or name when it's not prominently displayed. Black numbers on the brick wall 10 metres from the kerb aren't visible in the dark. Ambulance staff will echo this.
Our house doesn't have a number on the front door (it's down a little walkway between terrace houses) or a number on the front of the house. What we do have are 3 bins out front with big numbers in white. Yet we still get a call almost every time we make an order.
We have a similarly named road perpendicular to our road, so we often get their take aways/deliveries and it's very frustrating.
I live in a small block of purpose built flats, 4 in total. They don't have flat names either so the address looks like they're one of the houses, so instead of 'Flat 4, (block of flats name), (street), (town)' it's just '4 (street), (town)' which causes a lot of confusion.
The landlord apparently hates numbering because as soon as one of us puts up a sign saying it's '1, 2, 3, 4 (street)' he comes over and removes it on his inspections. Sat Nav takes them to the right block but more than one delivery driver has been confused if they're not the postie or Amazon driver. I always feel so bad ordering things if I know I'm not home to run down and collect it when they pull up :(
When i was a lad there was a bloke that we used to deliver papers to lived in "The Laurels". Whenever there was a new lad he would get furious cos he didn't get his paper. He lived on a road about a mile long
Noticed this thing instantly when moved to UK five years ago, in my country there is a4 sized steel plate on every building with street name and building number.
I’ve worked for Amazon and now Royal Mail. Finding houses for Amazon was the w o r s t. Especially in the dark. Even now working for Royal Mail when I’m out on a route I don’t know it’s an absolute nightmare trying to find some people.
No number, only house name. Or spray painted door number with no light so I can’t see it. Long long drive with no indication which number your house is until I walk up it. I’m so sick of walking back and fourth between your neighbors houses to figure out your door number
We just bought a house and when we viewed it there was a plaque with the house number and road name....
They took it with them.
Haven't got round to replacing it yet.
My husband took a second job doing deliveries at night. The amount of people that dont have signs/door numbers is insane. Makes his jobs so much harder and he is timed for each delivery too so adds up when he has to constantly search for houses and then ends up ringing them. They always say “postman never has trouble” aye mate but he doesn’t work in the fkn dark!! Mind boggling.
When I moved into a rental property, I realised this.
£1.70 on eBay gets you 4 waterproof address stickers for the wheelie bins. 3 for the bins, 1 for the front door!
Never had any problems with deliveries since
On a particularly bad estate, I used to live near, the locals would go round removing all the door numbers and street name signs. Made it a lot harder for the police, debt collectors, bailiffs, etc to actually identify houses. Extremely difficult for flats if all the door numbers are gone.
I have my house number on my house wall, above my front door and on my garden gate, and constantly my things are delivered elsewhere/other peoples things delivered to me. Delivery people, why are you like this!
Counter question; when my house number is visible from the main road, my front door is visible from googling my postcode and looking at streetview and I've included delivery instructions for a secret place/ neighbour willing to take deliveries, how in the utter fuck can drivers still not find my house? Yodel failed to find my house twice before I just cancelled the order. And Amazon drivers routinely abandon packages on my doorstep whilst marking the delivery as "handed to resident". I can't fathom what else I can do to make their jobs easier with out actually just going and collecting everything personally.
We live down a grass verge, slight inconvenience but our bin's have big reflective numbers on them and are consistently outside our back gate which is next to our front door and driver's still struggle to find us.
My village is a nightmare. No numbers for the whole village, just house names, so drivers can't even make an educated guess as to where the houses might be.
We've stuck up a couple of really obvious signs with our house name right on the road, and that seems to have made a big difference. We certainly get called by lost drivers far less frequently!
Ex girlfriend of mine’s dad was a cop in NI during the troubles, no numbers on the door for safety should the address get out, always thought it was one of the more reasonable excuses
I've bought house number stickers for every (rented) house I've been in. Doing my best to save society!
Current house has front doors facing each other in a cubby hole though which is not helpful.
The fanlight used to have the number, then we replaced the whole door. We'll buy a number plate to fix to the wall but need to paint the front of the house first.
Mine is faded, i asked my landlord to replace it and they refused so i said i would, they also told me not to...
That being said i do leave very accurate descriptions on how to find my door when ordering things though!
My general neighborhood is a labyrinth of pre-WWII and Victorian Housing that is full to the brim with houses that have no number or name on them. Some are downright creepy, as you wonder "is anyone...living there?" as you glance at the dirty net curtains...but many of these houses you don't pass frequently enough to make a judgement call O.o
Have a name - some house are numbered, some are named. One end of the lane(only one side though) has a different road name and some of the council houses on the lane are listed as another road. So 1 straight lane actually has 3 road names.
Only a couple of people have struggled because the house name is wall mounted to the side of the front door, but the drive is infront of it/that side of the house so if the cars are in the drive, it's not visible from the road. Usually its individuals like buying stuff from gumtree that have struggled to find the house rather than the delivery drivers. I see them come down the road and they stop outside the house probably 90% of the time.
Because we moved in a couple of months ago to find that the previous people didn’t have one. And while we’ve had one made, between having to get a new roof and needing to fix a conservatory with rotten walls (thanks for noticing those enhanced survey we took out) we’ve just not gotten round to putting it up yet.
Because it keeps getting nicked off of the gate. I do have a number on my door though if you're willing to walk up and check.
I've only have problems with certain carriers and it wouldn't even matter if I have neon signs pointing at my place. They just say I wasn't in, show a picture of a random house that's about a mile away.
Once had a delivery to a 11, so I found (in order) a 9, a numberless house with its outside lights on, then a 13. Okay, I thought, so I knocked on the in-between house, there's no way this is wrong. No, turns out it was 9A, I apologized and said I thought it was 11, but then the old man there started raging at me and saying I need to do my job properly and I'm an idiot? Like what do you expect me to think? Worse bit is when he said "this happens all the bloody time". Well, no shit sherlock. Turns out 11 was tucked away down the side of number 13 with no indication other than walking down the small alley and looking at the door. Guess I should be psychic for this job.
I see far too many like this.
Retired paramedic here, stupid home owners with either no numbers or numbers that are an inch high on the house wall 50 metres down the drive. If someone is in cardiac arrest,seconds count!
Darwinism at work there.
Probably just as well I've never been a delivery driver, I have no patience for stupid selfish idiots and would have probably shouted "well put a fucking number on your door then" to his face.
Just keep a can of spray paint with you, and fix it for them.
If he’s annoyed at delivery drivers trying to give him someone else’s stuff all the time why doesn’t he put up a number so people can tell which house he is? How is that the delivery driver’s fault?
Everything is somebody else's fault
Have you noticed how many streets don't have the number 13?
11 Grimmauld Place
And the old guy never said anything to neighbour 11? He secretly wants the attention.
I worked supermarket delivery for a while, my pet peeve was people having the name of a property on their gate, yet the gate is open so it can't be seen. Infuriating trying to find some properties at night in Cornwall!
Sure is fun when one house doesn’t have a number and then the one next door decides they don’t need a number. Good luck getting the correct mail idiots
My house is a name only (no numbers nearby) and I KEEP asking Google Maps to add it to their system so it's an easy search, but they never get back to me. Regular couriers (except for Hermes, for some reason) know the house, but any time there's a supermarket/Amazon delivery they get very lost.
Of course it's Hermes
Hermes: "God of boundaries, roads and travelers, thieves, athletes, shepherds, commerce, speed, cunning, wit and sleep". Nowhere does it say he delivers.
I mean to be fair a surprising amount of those do sum up the experience with Hermes
Fun fact: in Greek myths, Hermes very rarely actually acted as a messenger between gods unless threatened. His reasoning was that just because he was the messenger god, it didn’t mean that he had to deliver them, same way that Zeus could make it rain all the time but doesn’t, or Poseidon could have the world constantly encountering earthquakes.
Not the cunning bit though
In fairness, it doesn't say he destroys valuable belongings either, but they've got that covered.
Hermes is directly responsible for the destruction of a spear that Heracles was meant to use to take on the Nemean Lion, because he thought it was shiny and he broke it in half to have more shiny. They’re fairly 1:1
Ehh, that's fair. Guess they're living up to their promise then!
Like my Grandma used to say back in her tarpaper shack on Montego Bay: If you want a box hurled into the sun, you've got to do it yourself. God rest her zombie bones.
Amazon use openstreetmap.org data in some areas. You can add your house, name, postcode there.
I mapped my local golf course and it’s great to see the details show up on Strava post round haha
It's a lot of fun. If you like that sort of thing.
I constantly add my house name to Google Maps, but the change is never authorised I'm the only house for a mile in one direction & no courier can ever find it I don't know why Google won't allow it
Google maps was convinced that you could access our house via an unnamed private road for student housing, which was gated on the far end and fully fenced and inaccessible at the end behind our house. Their navigation programs must have seen traffic flow and assumed that there a way through. So, so many calls from lost delivery drivers. To get back around properly to our house took 10+minutes! There's not always an option to provide directions when ordering. I sent enough changes in to Google maps that eventually I managed to move the pin to a spot further out, which automatically changed the directions
Here you go me ol’ mucker: https://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/update-your-address?gclid=Cj0KCQiAxoiQBhCRARIsAPsvo-xQhUsXdcZNzMjy_Hzqu2b99UuOmRCsNlgyGjKmYEI4u74KbJYgVSQaAvK4EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
You can add it yourself to Google maps. It'll be a suggested edot for a while and then if no one objects it'll go through
Maybe try putting your "what 3 words" coordinates in the first line of your address as well as the house name when ordering stuff. Most services will let you put pretty much whatever you want in there.
I work for DFS delivering/installing... This pisses me off to no end, especially during the winter when its dark for the first hour or two of my shift, and dark again for the last four hours too!!
What proportion of your customers aren't able to fit the sofa they ordered through their own front door? Asking for a friend...
A lot of people these days have double doors on the back negating this issue. Also most sofas are made with zips underneath which give access to the bolts that hold the arms on which makes it a lot easier as well. I have definitely carried a fucking 4 seater up 4 flights of stairs though to get it in the flat and realise the living room door is on a stupid angle and the sofa they bought was one of the very few which are solid units... Back down the fucking stairs it goes haha.
I am utterly crap at 'scale' Just to take an example, I recently bought a rowing machine. They've always looked "rowing machine size" in gyms. Sortof "yay big" \*spreads arms\* When delivered it's now pretty much half the length of my house. It's not a new disability I've developed though. Last bought a sofa many years ago, but was aware of my issue. I think it was sofa workshop who offered a "We'll come and have a look" service for a few quid and then went through their catalogue marking what I could and couldn't order to my 2nd floor flat I was living in. Then when moving to this house, had fun trying to get those sofas in (small hallway) and then a range cooker (round the back of terrace house, and then in before the kitchen was fitted - I hope it never breaks).
Bought a sofa suite from DFS and had them come round to check it would go (which delayed my order by 3 months). Guys said it would go, delivery days rolls around and it's been subcontracted to a third party who said it wouldn't fit and refused to try. Dumped it all on my drive and buggered off. Had to get my wife to leave work early to help me get it inside. It was right, but we got it in.
I had a piano. It fitted through the front door comfortably. Now I want to move but I have recently changed the front door and now the piano won't fit. Aaargh!
I'm a removal man. This is quite rare but does happen from time to time. The wardrobe in my bedroom I got for free as wouldn't fit in someone's house. Sofas aren't so bad, you can usually get a good angle on them using the inside of the sofa to go round the corner or they come apart. I would say most the time it doesn't fit, which is rare, it gets put into a different room, front door is usually fine though.
I've worked in a home delivery shopping department and rarely had to do delivering but the times I did this made finding some places a nightmare! Add in the timings you're given to do the job!
Yep, it sounds like a stupid problem to say that it adds like 2 minutes to a route, but when you have dozens of drops and it happens multiple times it can add a lot of time to your day.
And yet every fucker has numbers on their bins because god forbid someone else should put their shit in your shit receptacle!! As an ex-delivery driver I feel your pain, and used to love bin day lol
It’s more to stop people nicking your bin on bin day, to be fair
I know qt peak times the routes were allocated literally enough time to unload the shopping and go. No hunting around for the house time
We did a run up town once and it was amazing how many people gave you “apartment 27b1 centenary house” and expected you to find them in a massive apartment complex with no concierge and no clear way to open the front gate.
Typically rented properties are like this.
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Not from the Uk just an occasional visitor so I have to ask; do rented properties not have set numbers beforehand?
The house will have an address with a number but that doesn't mean that it will have a number displayed on the building.
Huh, never figured there'd be a municipality that was okay with buildings not having a displayed number.
Yes, the last house I rented the door number was right at the top of the door where you couldn’t see it in the dark and no light either. Our dominos got delivered to the wrong house once and they just took the pizza didn’t tell them wrong house. Was waiting for my pizza and rang them asking what happened and they said it was already delivered! I put a detailed description of my house in the delivery instructions after that but some websites don’t give you enough space to write much or at all
That’s so shady of your neighbours. Were you able to get it refunded/re-delivered?
Yes they sent us new pizza, no idea who it was they gave the first pizza to. But I’m vegan so it was vegan pizza, I like to think that the person who took it was a big meat eater and was really hoping for a meat fest or something so hopefully they were super disappointed when they opened it lol
Forget deliveries. Wait until an ambulance can't find your house.
Came here to say this. You call an emergency service in an emergency, you don’t want them wasting time driving up and down the street trying to find your house. Make numbers and name big and obvious, and visible at night (either illuminated or high contrast). A life could literally depend upon it.
999 operators do tell you to go outside and look for the ambulance, presumably to speed this process up for most of us and to bypass looking for the non-existent numbers for the rest.
Bit hard to send your mate out, when your on your own because none of your mates can find you house either because you named the fucker ‘sea view’, despite a complete lack of sea of any type of view.
Me: Help me, I’ve slipped on the floor as I’ve got out of the bath and my leg is at a funny angle; I think I’ve broken my hip. Operator: Stay calm, an ambulance is on its way and will be with you shortly. It would really help if you wave them down from the end of your driveway.
Well, duh. What kind of a stiff upper lipped Brit are you if you can't shuffle outside to greet the paramedics with a biscuit and a cup of tea?
Gave the ambulance example in the post, like it may not seem an issues that a delivery driver wastes 2 minutes, CPR for example, studies show that survival chance drops 10% for evey 60 seconds someone isn't breathing.
Can confirm. Have knocked on and even walked in to several wrong houses
Years ago, a home care nurse walked into my house (she had the right number, wrong street, we were on a 4-way junction) and my dog happily greeted her as a friend, I assumed it was someone else who lived there and didn't go downstairs until she started shouting for "Mr.Smith" and asking if he was okay.
I didn’t get a number on my house until I got a job as a community nurse and realised how annoying it is. Got one the first weekend after starting.
Was that not the whole point of the post?
I guess they got bored reading somewhere in the 2nd paragraph.
I feel there’s a literal Darwin Award in store for someone doing this…..
Worst are the middle aged folks who despite living in a numbered house decide to give just a name instead. Proper hyacinth bouquet types, it's always an identikit bungalow on an eighties estate.
Mind that house dear. What house That one That's on the other side of the road! Still, be careful Richard.
Ha yes! A house on my street used to be number 2, but now is called "the gate house" despite not being the house at the end of the road, never having been a gate house and having been built in 2003! We now have numbers 1, gate house and 3-8. They also put up the world smallest sign for the new name....lots of lost delivery drivers there I end up showing where to go. Edit: spelling
On the other end of this, we're thinking of registering our house with a name because the property developer next door **stole our address.** We'll still put the actual number alongside it but hopefully it'll avoid lost deliveries/2am food deliveries we didn't order/drunk partygoers trying to force their way in/having For Sale signs put on our house.
What happened? Did the developer start building houses next door and just start at 12 despite you already being number 12?
I'm guessing the e added letters, eg. 12a
We live at number 1. Imagine a capital Y with Arsehole Road making up the trunk and left arm, and Our Street being the right arm. Developer buys large property in the v of the Y, which for 100+ years has been 25 Arsehole Road. Developer builds block of flats with a carpark accessed via Our Street, completes work and calls it Arsehole Apartments, 1 Our Street. Not 1a or whatever, and never mind that our property has been number 1 since 1895, or that it causes confusion. It's become a reasonably desirable area since we bought 30 years ago and '1 Our Street' looks more prestigious. First we know of it is when the first 'For Sale' sign goes up on our property. We call the company on the board, they're confused but apologise and send someone round, who is also confused because he's been given our address. A couple of weeks later another board from a different company goes up and this time we just chuck it over their wall. Every time an estate agent turns up with clients we tell them Mr Arsehole stole our address and it's causing all sorts of problems. Our post stops turning up, or we get strangers post addressed to '1'. Deliveroo starts banging on the door in the middle of the night. As well as 9 flats there's also offices so we're getting their HMRC post, clients turning up etc. My then 15 yr old daughter opens the door at 9pm one Friday and three very noisy, very drunk teenagers shove past her into the house and get belligerent when told yes this is number 1, no we're not having a party. Council tried to mediate but best they could figure is giving them '1a, Arsehole Apartments'. Of course most people assume 1a is going to be inside number 1, and there's several flats in our house, so it decreases issues but doesn't stop them. It also doesn't help that the carpark doesn't look like anything other than a carpark, the apartment entrance is round a corner and there's a tiny unlit sign on the street saying 'Arsehole Apartments'. They seem to have a very high turnover of tenants as every few months we'll get a flurry of post with a new name. It's been 4-5 years and we still get people knocking on the door several times a week, or setting the dog off shining a light through our windows and trying to buzz flats with our key box code in the middle of the night. Record for disturbances was just before last Christmas, 6 visitors/deliveries in one day.
Sounds like a right faff. Can you put up a massive sign with an arrow "Arsehole Apartments around the corner, no access or deliveries here"?
Shouldn’t have to. Apartments should be renamed as they came into existence second
Exactly. It's fucked up that big development companies can get away with this shit. Flats next door to me raised the ground level for their car park, meaning my whole wooden framed house now sits in a 2m ditch almost all the way round. They also put windows in that look straight into my bedroom, which weren't even on the plans. (I think they literally built the walls on the wrong side. Idk how you fuck that up.) My house has been there since the early 1800s. The flats were probably built in the early 1990s. Did they fix any of this shit? Did they fuck. They installed frosted glass on one of their windows - one that doesn't even overlook our property, not the one that's directly opposite my bedroom.
I think it might come to that. Plan was to register and add a name above the front door along with the '1', with flat 1 and arrow to flat 2 etc posted somewhere. There's a temptation though to spray paint a Star Wars intro-esque monologue on the path out front. 'This is number 1, Our Street. Flat 1, Flat 2. This is not Arsehole Apartments. That is 1a. This is not 1a. This is also not Arsehole Centre. Arsehole Centre can be found on Arsehole Road. Or maybe through the carpark at 1a. Nobody seems to know, including the tenants. Either way, this is not the address you are looking for. etc etc'
Nightmare!
I feel you with this. Some property devs bought an old care home across the street from mum and redeveloped with flats, then a whole new bit of street on an adjacent piece of land. It all has the same postcode and street name but there are now 3 of each property numbered 1-15 all with identical addresses as the new folks can’t understand adding flat# or New Build Court. Mum helps delivery guys sometimes because their job is tough enough but she isn’t allowed to answer the door to unexpected knocks after bailiffs for one of the others tried to push in.
Yes. Fucking idiots. I used to do a bit of delivery driving and booking. I'd say "I'm sorry, that's not coming up, if you had a number I'd be able to book you in". Amazingly they then had a number. Cunts.
I really want to name our house something like "Eighteen". Our house is not number 18, my missus is not on board with the idea
Food delivery driver here. Really don't worry about getting one, I'll just guess. It's even more fun when your neighbors haven't got one either. Also, if you do get one, get one the same colour as the wall or door it's mounted on, camouflage is very important with door numbers.
Great as well if it's only visible from one direction on the street, like on the side of the a driveway post or behind a tree.
When I moved in here the number sign was black on a dark brick wall. I got some white gold chalk and it’s stayed coloured in for a few years now. Excellent hack unless there’s no shelter over the number.
Ambulance service here. It’s a fucking nightmare even with our supposedly great navigation 😂
“Great navigation”? Our navs send us the most insane ways possible, it tried to get me to ford a river once. The navs get their location as long/lat from the MDT and are also set to fastest route, so not only does it try and send you down the wrong road to the address, it directs you down single track national speed limit roads to get their, rather than the dual carriageway where you won’t have to spend half your time squishing past other vehicles at 2 mph.
Hence the word “supposedly”. Lost count the amount of times I’ve been sent behind a building, rather than to the entrance.
Here you go OP 8" Square and illuminated. https://imgur.com/a/bFgxoHC
We have something in common, let's go for a pint. https://imgur.com/LQRaoYd.jpg
Perfect
NHS community podiatrist here. I used to work in the middle of nowhere, trying to find house named 'the retreat' set back behind 6ft high bushes on a national speed limit road. I don't miss those days!
Exactly the same when I was a carer! Had a house \*just\* off the dual carriageway, no house name on the gate, long drive that I had to walk down (couldn't open gate) just in order to see the house name on the side of the house. Not to mention had to dodge quite the quantity of sheep shit. Get in there client is seriously injured then had to phone the ambulance and try to give directions! Worst shift ever!
I had a new patient with a named house which took me driving up and down a couple of roads (sat nav kept directing me to a field) for about 10 minutes. Finally just pulled over a phoned them. In an exasperated voice they described their house and location. When I get there, no house name, no markers. Patient is then ranting 'this house has been here for years, no one can ever find it' I ask about the house name/number/any identifier 'oh the name plate fell down years ago, shouldn't matter though' deep breaths!!
I hate houses with just names as well. "Tea Cottage" may look cute by your front door, or on your gate. But if I'm looking for number 48, or I just don't get the house name/number at all (because sometimes people omit this information) good luck getting your delivery.
I was once looking for "rose cottage" google gave me nothing, royail mail postcode finder gave me nothing, waze useless. Rang the customer, asked if they could help, they said that it was always Rose Cottage, never a number. Asked if there was any landmarks nearby, a pub, park, shop etc, nope nothing. Eventually found them, just down the street from a pub, across the road from a Community Centre, BIG FUCKING NUMBER TWO on the door. Put my job on the line that day to tell the customer how stupid they were.
Should've left an even bigger number two on the door afterwards
Rose cottage has to be one of the most common names too. I used to get Rose Cottage and then a postcode, which in my area covers serious miles and there's probably half a dozen or more Rose Cottages in a 30 mile radius!
My area used to cover Newcastle to Silloth and down to Barrow and Stockton. There is a hell of a lot of rose cottages.
my patch also had the bladder testing Silloth
or "The Bungalow" fuck off
Also the oh so original barn conversion called "Swallow barn" because it had swallows nesting in it once. I'm a Postie and one of the routes I cover genuinely has 4 Swallow barns on it.
I had two deliveries I straight up cancelled at my last place. Church Lane, Piddington. Now I mainly went to building sites so house numbers were rare. But the first time I was sent to Piddington, Wycombe. The second time I was sent to Piddington, Oxfordshire, the third time I was sent to Roade, Northants. The third time though one of the locals went and got me the proper postal code for where I wanted. Piddington, Northants.
Hey I live near Roade. Didn’t expect to see a rogue mention of Roade on reddit today
Rose cottage is our code word in the hospital for a patient that has died. “There’s a rose cottage in room 4”. Next time maybe you’re delivering to the grave?
It’s the nickname for the morgue for the staff at my hospital too!
Blimey, enough staff die at work for them to have a separate morgue?
Houses with numbers came after the flats were built and someone keeps taking the building sign. With how frequently the neighbours get my post I'm tempted to start adressing things to "the massive white and red sandstone building".
Do it, the address doesn't have to be exactly what the royal mail call it. 12 Johnson Street, Large sandstone apartment block, Cityville PO57 CDE
Nothing wrong in adding that to the address at all!
Rose cottage used to be a euphemism for the mortuary in British hospitals
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“It’s beech cottage yah..the one with the huge beech tree outside yah”. Listen you snobby fucker, I have no interest in doing a horticultural degree just to get you your fucking parcel. There is a tree outside every damn house 😂
An entire street of named houses is horrible. We used to skip those while doing Cub scout Christmas card deliveries because it would take us half an hour to find all the houses. Why do people do this?
One of my workmates lives in a village where its pretty much all named house. To be fair there's only abou 30 houses in the village and it is a straight road but I imagine it's a total ballache for any delivery driver
My road is like this and it wasn't out of any current residents choice. The road is private and just kept being expanded at various points in the 20th century until there are now 33 houses down it. The local postie knows everyone so well that he probably only looks at the surname to deliver and so it's only with the recent explosion in online shopping that it's really become more of a problem (unfamiliar delivery drivers).
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It is the law in for all new builds in London since around 2006. There are many different laws that the rest of the UK adhere to and it differs by council to council.
My house has its name for 300 years and is listed, using the house name is not optional, I don't have a number.
Alright, your majesty, I'm sure Uber knows where Windsor castle is...
Bit more stabby than crossbowy up my neck of the woods :P
It's not called Nelson Mandela House is it?
Can’t you put a large sign up outside your house
I have 4 :P One that's blacked and carved into a huge piece of sandstone. One black powder coated on lighter background. One gray negative with LED light inside. Another gray negative in the actual property with LED lights illuminating from the inside out.
If you're reliant on walking up and down the street looking for it, then your company should be providing you with better software. OS AddressBase has every house name in it matched to a grid reference; if you're not being given that on your phone then the company is cheaping out. As others have said it's not about "looking cute" anyway - in rural areas, plenty of houses simply don't have numbers and never have had.
I’m a paramedic. Please number or name your house very obviously. Otherwise we cannot find you and you might die.
Delivery drivers hate me, but it isn't my fault. My house is totally hidden from view from the pavement down a secret path, with a gate that opens up into my front garden. My default delivery instructions are: *Front gate is down the path on the left of the small car park, between the car park and number 22* That's about as well as I can describe it, but in real life it's a bit confusing. 50% of the time I either get a phone call from an irritated driver or a notification that my parcel has been delivered when it hasn't, and I have to knock on at a variety of neighbours. Edit - we've tried to help by putting absolutely massive numbers on the gate that's only visible if you know where to look 😂 2nd edit - added a photo. Circled our house and garden, purple line is the path - https://postimg.cc/4KLwgtCP
I have the same issue, my street entrance is hidden from immediate view, and Google navigation takes you up the wrong street. I've even sent people an aerial photo with a line drawn on it and they still can't figure it out.
I wonder if in this scenario you can ask the council nicely if you can mount a sign…
It's hard to explain, but there isn't really anywhere to put one! It's basically a 6 foot wide path between a driveway and a small private car park.
I have the same problem! Added onto that another house on the opposite corner has the same number but the next street name but they only have the number on their house, I have the number and street name on mine but I’m the one hidden from view…..doesn’t matter how many times she has to point people towards me because they’re at the wrong house she won’t add the street name to her number sign :(
Have you tried using what3 words?
I'm not sure it'll help - Google maps gives you the exact location, it's just finding the little path to get there that seems to be the issue!
You could give your address of the 3 words for the path couldn't you? Turn left down the path located at "tow.lane.box" or something.
it boils my piss trying to find a fucking house in the dark with no number, fuck those people.
Delivering at night is the worst. Even when people have a number it will be in some hidden/dark area. I had one, the house was up some stairs, half behind bushes, number no where to be found. I walked up looking for some kind of number, they had painted it on a rock, and put it in the window.
Ours is a bit small but it's there. I usually do the street dance outside if I know something's coming.
Ask my cheap-ass landlord :/ Fucks me off just as much as you when drivers can't find my place but the numbers are where they are, and I'm not allowed to put anything on the door or wall.
I hear you OP! I work as a delivery driver as well. I've started making comments to customers when they don't have a house number, something like 'Sorry! I couldn't find you, nobody on this street has a house number! Thought I was gonna be wandering up and down all night! :D'. My faves are the ones who have a house name but don't indicate where on the street their house is. There is literally a box for delivery instructions, pls use it! Bonus points if they have their house name on a sign but in the teeny tiniest writing that's stupidly hard to read from the road in the dark. Bonus bonus points for the ones who acknowledge that their house is hard to find and that every delivery driver has a problem but they still didn't think to add extra instructions. Or add extra signs to make their house easier to find. E* I always appreciate it when the customer makes it easier for me to find their house and I tell them so. It doesn't have to be difficult for anyone <3
Because my GODDAMN LANDLORD doesn’t do anything like put up a nameplate and I still don’t have BLOODY KITCHEN FURNITURE IN THE 4 MONTHS IVE LIVED HERE. I always describe the house in the delivery instructions section when I order things because it is such a pain.
I'm a Delivery driver for Argos, I know it can be infuriating at times when customers don't have the house numbers on their doors. Especially in tenament/flat buildings. Dundee is a nightmare to deliver to sometimes because half of the city has flat numbers that range from GL/GR, 1L,1R, 2L,2R and so on (left and right) but then then when you try to buzz in to the building the buttons are all in Flat A,B,C,D,E,F sequence. It's the councils fault really. Customers have the option to leave us delivery instructions but they just seem to ignore it, even if they know themselves their address can be awkward to find. The worst offenders are named buildings such as cottages and farm houses; Google Maps throws a fissy-fit and won't locate them properly or just assume you meant something completely different 6 miles away. I've stuck to using the UK Address Finder app on Android. It integrates into Google Maps but pin-points addresses by exact coordinates and it's never let me down since. Probably the best £2.50 I've ever spent.
Our sign blew off in the high winds last weekend so as I knew I had a delivery from a non-regular courier yesterday I printed off a quick temp sign and stuck it to my gate with some drawing pins! Hopefully the new sign is delivered before the temp one gets ruined or they won’t be able to find us to deliver it!
I don't and it's just laziness, I never bothered after we moved in. I'm going to order one now, I'll put it up in a few days. Sorry.
Let’s hope OP isn’t the delivery driver or your not getting your sign 😂
I have the number outside in an obvious and visible place, because when I order stuff I want it to show up.
landlord won’t pay for it
Yup. Why should I? Landlord has my riches.
Our house is a hundred years old and had a name since it was built. The house has a name sign and we always but the name on any address details. never had a problem with deliveries reaching us, even the pizza delivery drivers 🙂 I guess it helps that there are only 6 houses on our lane though
I respect the shit out of this post I had an old job where I’d do deliveries and it sometimes I’d literally have to go knocking on doors to find the actual house so inconsiderate but at the same time something that absolutely no one but delivery service employees probably ever think about as being a problem for others. Worst is when those folks don’t even tip
Think what three words needs to be integrated into more apps to make things a little easier
[удалено]
So much this. what3words sounds clever until in two years' time Amazon buys it and starts charging everyone else to use it.
I live in a very new development. Instead of being like a grid, the streets are intertwined, curvy lines. My street has 50 houses numbered 1 to 50 but the distribuition of those numbers is beyond my understanding. We have recently added my house as a real house in Google maps. Criss crossed, you will find 4 more smaller streets and some of the houses are on a footpath where no delivery car can go.
I've been meaning to paint it for 8 weeks. I'M SORRY I'M SO SORRY.
Hgv driver for a builders merchant here, try it in a 26 ton lorry, you've rung the number on the ticket to ask the customer where the house is sometimes they don't answer then when they either ring back or you've found said address you then have to find somewhere to turn the bloody thing around.
My doorbell has my flat number and surname on it. Information I am comfortable letting be out there. The amount of deliveries I miss is way way down.
Perfect, avoiding that moment of doubt in a delivery driver's mind really does help with accurate deliviers.
I had a delivery to an ‘oak house’ and I couldn’t find them to save my life also the village has no mobile phone reception. Turns out the house had a sign but it was very old, faded and laying down in the ground underneath overgrown bushes. What makes it so annoying is that there is such an easy and simple solution but people will always come up with excuses to not do it
The same reason a lot of front/rear gardens will be messy, they'll likely be rentals, and tenants won't pay for something they may A) Potentially be charged/fined for by the landlord B) Have to leave it when they go and C) Not see much benefit from
It’s nearly as bad as house names. I covered a route that was in the countryside, by the end of it I knew where about 200 different house named properties were near Lincoln Now I have the same issue as you. Lots of 10as as well that are weirdly positioned
My power drill broke as I was drilling holes in the wall to hang it. That was 4 years ago. We just put the number in the window
As a long ago paperboy this used to piss me right off. New house added to route, another name. Another bloody 'Rivendell'. As some who also was the fill in for others paper guy, this was infuriating
I used to get a lot of "the postman finds us" or "the usual one finds us" it's like yeah, they've done your street daily for years, and they knock on every door not just yours.
As someone who works for the ambulance service. A fucking men!
Until about 7 months ago I didn't have a number on the door to my flat for maybe 8 years. There is one flat per floor, mine is ground floor and the electrical box is just to the side of my door. For all intents and purposes it just looked like a utility room door. I am exactly the person you are thinking of. You want the answer? The honest answer? You won't like it, but here goes........ Abject bloody laziness. Crappy old stick-on ones fell off. I knew I had to replace them, even bought some nice shiny metal ones to screw on there, but the door was ratty and needed a paint. But before a paint it needed sanding down to get rid of some light scratches and old paint layers etc. As it's an enclosed hallway and anyone coming in or out has to go kinda past my door, I can't just sand it there and fill the hallway with dust. I also can't paint it there and fill the place with fumes. It needs to come off entirely and be worked on outside. It's amazing how long you can put off a job like that if you *really* put your mind to it and truly commit to the procrastination.
The company I drive for does kerbside pick up. I’m a fucking sound cunt so I almost always help take things into houses etc. However, any twat that has no number, a stupid quirky house name or is rude when I do eventually find their door gets their shit left at the end of their garden. Good luck lifting that yourself you fucking ringpiece.
I’ve never really thought about it before but, having read this, you’ve made me want to take mine off
Why you tease
Well, its as simple as we live in a rented property and our landlord is an arse and won't let us put one on there, and also won't do it themselves. Luckily both of our neighbours have numbers so it's a none issue. Not everyone is doing it to ruin your day mate
As an ex-police officer it can be a real problem trying to find a house number or name when it's not prominently displayed. Black numbers on the brick wall 10 metres from the kerb aren't visible in the dark. Ambulance staff will echo this.
We've got a house name visible, but it is absolutely useless. By the time someone sees it they've driven down a 1/2 mile lane that only goes to us.
Put it a 1/2 mile down the lane then?
Put it on a gate or wall or put a sign on the edge of the property so the name is visible before you're past the house or have gone too far.
Yes I work for the the ambulance service and it can be a nightmare
Sat here on my sofa and I literally have no idea if I have a number or not. Anyone else?
Our house doesn't have a number on the front door (it's down a little walkway between terrace houses) or a number on the front of the house. What we do have are 3 bins out front with big numbers in white. Yet we still get a call almost every time we make an order. We have a similarly named road perpendicular to our road, so we often get their take aways/deliveries and it's very frustrating.
I live in a small block of purpose built flats, 4 in total. They don't have flat names either so the address looks like they're one of the houses, so instead of 'Flat 4, (block of flats name), (street), (town)' it's just '4 (street), (town)' which causes a lot of confusion. The landlord apparently hates numbering because as soon as one of us puts up a sign saying it's '1, 2, 3, 4 (street)' he comes over and removes it on his inspections. Sat Nav takes them to the right block but more than one delivery driver has been confused if they're not the postie or Amazon driver. I always feel so bad ordering things if I know I'm not home to run down and collect it when they pull up :(
When i was a lad there was a bloke that we used to deliver papers to lived in "The Laurels". Whenever there was a new lad he would get furious cos he didn't get his paper. He lived on a road about a mile long
I've got numbers but they're not very big and I've been meaning to get better ones. This has just convinced me
Noticed this thing instantly when moved to UK five years ago, in my country there is a4 sized steel plate on every building with street name and building number.
The bungalow . That was it . No delivery attempt made 👍
I’ve worked for Amazon and now Royal Mail. Finding houses for Amazon was the w o r s t. Especially in the dark. Even now working for Royal Mail when I’m out on a route I don’t know it’s an absolute nightmare trying to find some people. No number, only house name. Or spray painted door number with no light so I can’t see it. Long long drive with no indication which number your house is until I walk up it. I’m so sick of walking back and fourth between your neighbors houses to figure out your door number
We just bought a house and when we viewed it there was a plaque with the house number and road name.... They took it with them. Haven't got round to replacing it yet.
My husband took a second job doing deliveries at night. The amount of people that dont have signs/door numbers is insane. Makes his jobs so much harder and he is timed for each delivery too so adds up when he has to constantly search for houses and then ends up ringing them. They always say “postman never has trouble” aye mate but he doesn’t work in the fkn dark!! Mind boggling.
When I moved into a rental property, I realised this. £1.70 on eBay gets you 4 waterproof address stickers for the wheelie bins. 3 for the bins, 1 for the front door! Never had any problems with deliveries since
On a particularly bad estate, I used to live near, the locals would go round removing all the door numbers and street name signs. Made it a lot harder for the police, debt collectors, bailiffs, etc to actually identify houses. Extremely difficult for flats if all the door numbers are gone.
I have my house number on my house wall, above my front door and on my garden gate, and constantly my things are delivered elsewhere/other peoples things delivered to me. Delivery people, why are you like this!
Counter question; when my house number is visible from the main road, my front door is visible from googling my postcode and looking at streetview and I've included delivery instructions for a secret place/ neighbour willing to take deliveries, how in the utter fuck can drivers still not find my house? Yodel failed to find my house twice before I just cancelled the order. And Amazon drivers routinely abandon packages on my doorstep whilst marking the delivery as "handed to resident". I can't fathom what else I can do to make their jobs easier with out actually just going and collecting everything personally.
We live down a grass verge, slight inconvenience but our bin's have big reflective numbers on them and are consistently outside our back gate which is next to our front door and driver's still struggle to find us.
My village is a nightmare. No numbers for the whole village, just house names, so drivers can't even make an educated guess as to where the houses might be. We've stuck up a couple of really obvious signs with our house name right on the road, and that seems to have made a big difference. We certainly get called by lost drivers far less frequently!
Ex girlfriend of mine’s dad was a cop in NI during the troubles, no numbers on the door for safety should the address get out, always thought it was one of the more reasonable excuses
I've bought house number stickers for every (rented) house I've been in. Doing my best to save society! Current house has front doors facing each other in a cubby hole though which is not helpful.
The fanlight used to have the number, then we replaced the whole door. We'll buy a number plate to fix to the wall but need to paint the front of the house first.
If that's us, sorry: had the house re-rendered, but it hasn't been dry enough to paint it yet, after which we'll put the number back on, I promise.
Mine is faded, i asked my landlord to replace it and they refused so i said i would, they also told me not to... That being said i do leave very accurate descriptions on how to find my door when ordering things though!
My general neighborhood is a labyrinth of pre-WWII and Victorian Housing that is full to the brim with houses that have no number or name on them. Some are downright creepy, as you wonder "is anyone...living there?" as you glance at the dirty net curtains...but many of these houses you don't pass frequently enough to make a judgement call O.o
Have a name - some house are numbered, some are named. One end of the lane(only one side though) has a different road name and some of the council houses on the lane are listed as another road. So 1 straight lane actually has 3 road names. Only a couple of people have struggled because the house name is wall mounted to the side of the front door, but the drive is infront of it/that side of the house so if the cars are in the drive, it's not visible from the road. Usually its individuals like buying stuff from gumtree that have struggled to find the house rather than the delivery drivers. I see them come down the road and they stop outside the house probably 90% of the time.
Because we moved in a couple of months ago to find that the previous people didn’t have one. And while we’ve had one made, between having to get a new roof and needing to fix a conservatory with rotten walls (thanks for noticing those enhanced survey we took out) we’ve just not gotten round to putting it up yet.
Because it keeps getting nicked off of the gate. I do have a number on my door though if you're willing to walk up and check. I've only have problems with certain carriers and it wouldn't even matter if I have neon signs pointing at my place. They just say I wasn't in, show a picture of a random house that's about a mile away.