Postman trying to open the door

girl_withno_name

So... I missed a parcel delivery last week and due to the lack of opening hours, etc. at the collection office I opted to have the item redelivered today as I'm studying at home.

About 3.30pm there's a knock on the door, which I go to answer and as I'm halfway down the stairs the postman is busy trying the front door handle!

Luckily our door locks from the outside when closed, but this surely isn't normal practice?

Buzby

Reasonable - especially if it was (or there appeared to be an inner door/vestibule) the parcel could be left safely. I'd say he was using his initiative!

Looksguywalker

girl_withno_name wrote: »

So... I missed a parcel delivery last week and due to the lack of opening hours, etc. at the collection office I opted to have the item redelivered today as I'm studying at home.

About 3.30pm there's a knock on the door, which I go to answer and as I'm halfway down the stairs the postman is busy trying the front door handle!

Luckily our door locks from the outside when closed, but this surely isn't normal practice?

Depends on the setup of the building. Mother-in-laws outside door has a porch that leads to two flats. The outside door has a letter box and if the door is unlocked the postie delivers to each flat, if it's not he delivers to the porch. Obviously he has to try the door handle to do so. Maybe he was unfamiliar with your building/door setup. I'd give him the benefit of the doubt as he was trying to deliver!

girl_withno_name

I live in a semi-detached in a street of houses, the address doesn't say Flat (or even 1A, 6.3 or similar) and there's no inner door so he'd have been straight into the hall/passage. The front looks similar to this one, so there's no reason he would think there's a porch (although I'd question whether he should be trying to gain access to even a porch!)


If he's not familiar with the setup then shouldn't he err on the side of caution and not attempt to access people's homes?

And either way - give people chance to get to the door first!!

neonlights

Our postman often opens the front door and leaves parcels and packages inside the porch. But saying that, we know him quite well and one of us runs a little business so we get at least a parcel a day delivered if not more.

I would be tempted to say he meant well and may have just left it inside the door but you can never be too careful.

zaksmum

I hope our postman never does this. The dogs would be on him like a shot!

System

Yeah very weird! I wouldn't be happy about this happening. It would have been interesting if your door was unlocked and he just wandered in!

The chances are he was just operating on autopilot (it must be mind numbing delivering mail) and he didn't realise what he was doing!

davehughes182

What was he actually trying to open as looking at the door pictured, the only thing he could try is a simple push. Hardly enough to make a man busy IMO. Unless he has a key maybe?

System

i'm sure thats a different door to the one displayed earlier!

custardy

I'll be honest
I did it a couple of times on delivery without thinking
One memorable one was in a set of flats
2 flats per floor,with a central door to the hall. doors either side to the flats
except on the top floor there was just one single 'penthouse' flat
So i just opened the door as I had done on every floor before
big fat guy in a towel nearly jumped out if his skin

girl_withno_name

That was just to demonstrate the layout of the house... the front door actually looks more like this (and does have a handle to try!)