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Does anyone actually answer the door? Do you answer it blind?
- Thread starter Moze
- Start date
TheRedSnifit
Member
OP:
Sure, because it's almost always someone trying to give me items I've bought, or food when I'm hungry.
Those who avoid answering the door usually aren't weird, paranoid types sitting on piles of guns who don't know how to human, though. I know plenty of people who never answer their doors, and it's just because they're more used to time-wasters showing up. If most of the people who knocked on my door were trying to sell me lies or garbage products, I wouldn't bother answering either.
Edit: Also, I'm privileged enough never to have lived in a bad part of town. I know plenty of people who aren't so lucky, and for whom answering the door occasionally comes with significant risk. I'm also privileged enough not to suffer from anxiety, and prefer to sympathise with those who do rather than ridicule them.
Those who avoid answering the door usually aren't weird, paranoid types sitting on piles of guns who don't know how to human, though. I know plenty of people who never answer their doors, and it's just because they're more used to time-wasters showing up. If most of the people who knocked on my door were trying to sell me lies or garbage products, I wouldn't bother answering either.
Edit: Also, I'm privileged enough never to have lived in a bad part of town. I know plenty of people who aren't so lucky, and for whom answering the door occasionally comes with significant risk. I'm also privileged enough not to suffer from anxiety, and prefer to sympathise with those who do rather than ridicule them.
Gravy Boat
Member
I like adventure so I always answer the door. Why even have doors if you're not going to use them? Just wall yourself in and be done with it.
They tuck them on the patio behind masonry. Just check a few times per day.
If I'm expecting something expensive then I check frequently and keep the volume off so I can hear the delivery trucks.
In the 1990s many households had 5 landline phones. Neighbors would call my parents for random chatter or it would be sales people. I remember we couldn't get through a 2 hour movie without 5 breaks with the entire house blowing up ring ring ring.
I live in an Asian apartment so there's a big steel security door between the outside and my actual apartment door, so yeah I don't mind. It does help that most of the people in my neighborhood are elderly veterans, though, so the only unexpected visitors I really get are old people offering me leftover food.
And that is exactly why I don't answer the door when I'm not expecting someone/something. It has nothing to do with bring asocial or paranoid, I just don't want to waste my time with these people.
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
The only people that ever ring my doorbell is either kids selling something (or trick'or'treatin') or those creepy people checking to see if I pay me tv license. I don't answer to either.
Barberetti
Member
Depends. If I'm not particularly busy I'll answer. If I'm fighting zombies or playing my guitar, they can fuck off. No one I know would come round without phoning first anyway.
Also, it's in no way the same as not answering your phone if you don't recognise the number. We have a huge spam/cold calling problem in the UK, and until our shitty government starts actually sorting that out, my phone doesn't get answered unless it's someone I know calling, and everyone I know does the same.
Also, it's in no way the same as not answering your phone if you don't recognise the number. We have a huge spam/cold calling problem in the UK, and until our shitty government starts actually sorting that out, my phone doesn't get answered unless it's someone I know calling, and everyone I know does the same.
WTF is wrong with people. It could be an emergency, the house could be on fire, it could be a kind neighbour with a friendly request or a justified complaint. It could be a repair dude you forgot about or maybe someone forgot to give you the announcement that someones coming to check the electricity in every apartment. Would you make the repair dude come again another day just because someone else messed up and even though you're home and able to let him in because you're a lazy weirdo?
Just answer the door to see who's there at least. After that you can still send them away if necessary.
"Not my problem" people in here... ffs.
Just answer the door to see who's there at least. After that you can still send them away if necessary.
"Not my problem" people in here... ffs.
CarpeDeezNutz
Member
I do but it's usually people trying to sell me stuff.
Petrae
Member
I rarely answer the door, since 95% of the time it's a fucking salesperson or religious movement. I just sit quietly and wait for them to go away.
I don't answer my phone, either, unless it's one of three incoming numbers-- and two out of those three numbers get a reminder from me that text is better.
I don't answer my phone, either, unless it's one of three incoming numbers-- and two out of those three numbers get a reminder from me that text is better.
I read all these "95% of the time it's just salesmen and Jehova Witnesses" and I get it but what about the other legit 5%? What if some neighbors have lost their dog or someone is trying to organize a food drive or someone's car has overheated right in front of your house and just need some tap water to cool it? That very same thing happened to me like a year ago. Such an egotistical attitude.
For 5% you glance out of the window. For nearly all neighborhood things you use Facebook groups.
Facebook also let's you know all of the odd stuff, like a guy ringing doorbell as 2 am asking if they had his PlayStation. Or the demented lady that violently banged the door about back porch seedy lights keeping her awake at 3 am.
always crazy bacon
Banned
These are literally not my problem. My door isn't an invitation for me to solve some randos problems.
Haha your avatar is perfect with this.
I agree to. I've lent out and borrowed stuff from neighborhood facebook. This is probably one of the few useful things social media does. Reach 300 neighbors without ringing and waking up kids and disrupting movies
SillyEskimo
Member
Yes I answer the door. I'm in an upper middle class suburb so it's going to be a friend/neighbor/family member, delivery, or someone selling religion.
Although you may feel invincible now, some day you may need the help of a neighbor in a pinch. Being neighborly is a value that has been somewhat lost in our digital age, but as the world (climate) changes there is a chance we may need to participate more in our local communities/economies and support one another. Five minutes of your time might make the day/week of another human being.
always crazy bacon
Banned
I'm in my 40's so when do you think that will be? Next year or the one after that? If I already have a relationship with a neighbor that's mutually beneficial they have the ways to contact me already.
That is a fair question. Personally, I live in a pretty small neighborhood, so I know who my neighbors are (if not by name, then at least by face). As far as the example of a car overheating: highly unlikely in my neighborhood, due to its remote location relative to the rest of town. Food drive: also highly unlikely...we're a small enough neighborhood that most wouldn't waste their time here.
tonysidaway
Member
It might just be a community thing. It's a large community with lots of activity, so you get a wide range of responses.
I was very surprised by the original post, but clearly a lot of people here have good arguments for ignoring callers.
In my English city there aren't many god-botherers and I've found the few Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses who do call immediately get the message if I say "I'm not interested." It may be that in some parts of the world there are many more people proselytising their beliefs, and if so I can well imagine it would become wearying.
Similarly I seldom get salespeople at the door, just an occasional charity collector. If that happened more than once in a blue moon I can imagine feeling put-upon. It might make me less willing to answer the door.
Although I would like to think I live a normal life, I've been fortunate. I've never been mugged, seldom been attacked by a stranger, and never lived in a neighborhood where I feared for my personal safety, day or night. So although I'm not a very sociable person and barely know my neighbours, I'm never afraid to open the door.
This is my environment. A different person with different experiences in a different environment may have good reasons to avoid opening the door unless they know exactly who is behind it.
CarpeDeezNutz
Member
I would think someone in their 40s would know anything can happen at anytime. That kind of thing is not planned (needing help in a trying time).
CaviarMeths
Member
I'm having a good giggle at the image of all you fuckin weirdos shushing each other, turning down the TV, and peaking through the curtains hoping that the mailman will just go away soon.
always crazy bacon
Banned
and prepare for it and already have a social network of mutually beneficial support. I'm not carrying randos that don't have their shit together. Been there, done that, fuck that.
I remember one time where I had got off working a double shift and was trying to sleep and two kids knocked on my door to basically selling magazines so they can get a trip to Europe after college. They kept pressuring me into buying stuff, I had to eventuality just slam the door in their face. They just won't leave until they got money from me. Kinda of also annoys me that they want me to pay for their trip.
If it's my neighbors, I know who they are and open the door to them. Typically it's because our dog escaped our yard again.
If it's my neighbors, I know who they are and open the door to them. Typically it's because our dog escaped our yard again.
breadtruck
Member
Yeah. Its normally the UPS guy with goodies.
We almost never get random people knocking. When it is, its been a neighbor or something asking if we seen their dog or some shit. lol
We almost never get random people knocking. When it is, its been a neighbor or something asking if we seen their dog or some shit. lol
Shocked by everyone calling people weirdos for not answering the door. Y'all must have never lived in a rough area.
After being burglarized TWICE in the past month, I said fuck that and moved to a different neighborhood. I made the mistake of answering the door the other day, it's a guy who lives around the corner, seems sketchy as fuck. He said he needed a ride to get his spare key from his girlfriend cuz he locked himself out. I said yes and gave him a ride, thought that would be the end of it. He knocked on my door yesterday morning to ask me to borrow 43 dollars. I wish I had never answered the fucking door.
After being burglarized TWICE in the past month, I said fuck that and moved to a different neighborhood. I made the mistake of answering the door the other day, it's a guy who lives around the corner, seems sketchy as fuck. He said he needed a ride to get his spare key from his girlfriend cuz he locked himself out. I said yes and gave him a ride, thought that would be the end of it. He knocked on my door yesterday morning to ask me to borrow 43 dollars. I wish I had never answered the fucking door.
What's weird about not wanting to talk to salesmen/other random people you don't know showing up on your doorstep?
Do you roll down your car window and talk to panhandlers on the corner when they walk up at a red light? Because this is the same thing, just at your home instead
always crazy bacon
Banned
What most people in this topic are missing is that for many it's not fear or living in a rough area but people just wanting stuff from you and interrupting your personal time. I don't want to buy what you are selling, I'm an atheist, I'm not fixing your problems if you have not built up a relationship with me.
matrixman92
Member
I only open the door if I'm expecting packages to be delivered. I have a peephole so obviously if I know the person I answer as well
Alx
Member
I can understand the issue with sollicitors, but for "regular people" you're not going to build up many relationships if you shut them off at the first opportunity. Getting to know your neighbours and doing some kind gestures here and there are part of social interaction, and in that specific case the claims of antisocial behaviour are justified.
always crazy bacon
Banned
Alx
Member
And getting to know people is also part of social interaction. Were you born knowing the people in your social circle ? And is it that hard giving a hand to strangers ? I know I've offered and received help to/from people I didn't know, and everybody was happy about it in the end.
Darth Karja
Member
Last time I answered the door it was a guy selling home security systems. Now I have a doorbell camera so I can just look at my phone to see who it is.