Like something out of a Harry Potter film, my doorbell has become invisible.
My existing doorbell came with my house and since I moved into my house over 18 years ago it’s at least that age, although I think it’s a lot older than that. It’s a “standard” (i.e. old-fashioned) doorbell, it’s hard wired and mains powered.
When you push the button, it makes a round box sound a healthy “ding dong” inside the house. The push-button on the door looks just like the picture. It’s a standard ding dong doorbell.
The Cloak Of Invisibility
For some unknown reason however, it has become invisible to delivery people.
We all know that since lockdown, delivery men have evolved into “hit-and-run artists”. Leave the parcel at the door, ring the bell and bugger off. Gone are the days where the esteemed delivery person rings the bell, waits for you to answer and hands you your parcel with a cheery “hello” and a smile. No, that’s all but gone now (with the noted exception of Royal Mail who (despite going on strike) still deliver with a smile and wait for you to answer the door), with the slightly-less-esteemed delivery man dropping the parcel on the floor in front of the door, ringing (or knocking) and then legging it off the premises as soon as possible.
That’s all good, as long as a) you hear the doorbell\knock and b) it’s not raining or wet.
Born To Run
But even that now seems like a thing of the past. For the past few deliveries, the only way I know it’s arrived is via a notification from an app. Sometimes that can be hours later, which means that the parcel with whatever I’ve ordered in it, has been sat in full view of the road and in full sun for that length of time (south-facing front door).
It’s not that I mind a hit-and-run delivery. As long as the doorbell is rung to alert me it’s there (I’ll be aware that it’s on it’s way most of the time, due to the apps), but it’s nice to know for sure it’s arrived so I can retrieve it.
Now I’m wondering why this is. It’s not much extra time or effort just to press that bell push just once. It’s quite close to the door, but is it close enough, or recognisable as a bell-push, I ask myself?
The Look of… Confusion
I happened to stumble across a delivery man trying to shove a package through my letter box (which clearly didn’t fit!). I opened the door and said “oh you should have just run the bell” (and pointed to the bell push). He looked at it and said “oh that’s what it is”.
That raised a few questions. Is my style of bell push now so old that younger people don’t recognise it? Could it be that the greater majority of people’s doorbells are now the “Ring” style (a big black rectangle with a lit button) and if one of those isn’t plainly visible on the door, they assume the property doesn’t have a doorbell?
So what can I do to mititage against that? Is it going to be possible to mitigate it at all?
Mitigate\Alleviate\Moderate (or perhaps Exterminate)?
Even though it’s serviceable and works perfectly well, I looked at replacing the doorbell. If the old bell-push isn’t being recognised as a bell-push, perhaps replacing the bell-push for a “ring” lookalike one might cause a flash of recognition and a perfunctory press of the button.
Also – I thought maybe it could do with an upgrade and perhaps go for something that was battery operated (they all were back in the day).
Given that I can’t hear the existing ringer from the garden, I thought it might be useful to get something with a couple of ringers, so that I could take a ringer unit outside and hear it in the garden.
What to do?
Well, given that the old bell is mains-powered and only has one ringer, a wireless, battery-powered replacement with a couple of ringers (that can be turned off!) would be an upgrade from what I already have and would help when out in my (long) garden.
Although, it still does depend upon the delivery person actually pushing that button!
As the late Leslie Phillips used to say: ding dong.