The Postman Always Rings Twice

"The Postman Always Rings Twice" is a movie and an action that isn't practiced enough by enough people. I will say for the most part, when the postman delivers a package to our door, the doorbell does ring once. This is great, because it alerts us to the fact that a package is sitting outside, but for some reason other delivery services fail to ring.

UPS, FedEx, and other delivery services need to take a lesson from the postman. For whatever reason, they hardly ever knock or ring the doorbell when dropping a package at the door, unless a signature is required. We recently moved here and have ordered a LOT of accessories and furniture to finish outfitting our new house. We have had dozens of deliveries and the vast majority of them were simply left of the doorstep without a knock or a ring. On one case they even delivered two pieces of furniture to a vacant condo across the street from us while I was on a business trip. Fortunately a neighbor alerted my wife, but she had to drag the furniture across the street herself!

This is a major problem for a number of reasons, especially here in NH where the winter weather can get to the package, and where a new kind of Christmas shopping has emerged. Thieves have taken to following UPS and FedEx trucks. The watch them drop off the packages, wait a minute or two and then if no one comes to the door, they swoop in and do their "shopping".

This practice can easily be discouraged by simply taking an extra second or two and knocking or ringing a door bell. OK, I'll excuse the failure to knock. I don't want delivery men with bare bleeding knuckles. Nor do I want blood on my door, but some houses have knockers and I doubt that blisters would develop if they pressed the doorbell at each house.

Come on, guys. Ring that bell!