For safety’s sake, I used to go to the entrance to meet the pizza guy. I was living in a kind of dangerous part of town, and I figured better safe than sorry…
UNTIL…
Thanksgiving weekend 1999. My roomates were both out of town. I ordered a pizza, the delivery guy buzzed up to the apartment and I ran downstairs to meet him. The light was out on the landing and it was pitch black. I missed a step, fell, and heard a bone snap in my ankle.
I crawled to the door, told the guy I’d fallen and hurt myself asked him to take my pizza to the third floor. In denial and shock, and thinking it was only a flesh wound, I then walked up three flights of stairs, paid for my pizza (and gave the guy a big tip) before calling a friend to take me to the hospital.
I was in a cast for eight weeks.
It was a bad scene.
I learned that paranoia can be just as dangerous as naiveté.
I deliver Chinese, not pizza, but we always go to the apartment door. We hate waiting more than anything else (at traffic lights, train crossings, or doors).
Since Mr. Rilch and I can open the front gate without taking both feet out of the apartment, it’s a moot point. Never thought about it, though. We just push the door open, take the pizza, hand him the money, and adios. Oh, and once I trotted down the steps after the guy because I’d given him a dollar less than I’d meant to.
I’d say it would depend on the situation: is the apartment a secured building? In that case, I suspect it’s best to go downstairs and get it, rather than buzz them in. If it’s not a secured building, let 'em come to you.
But what do I know. We always have groceries delivered to our apartment through the secured door (but they do call so we can buzz them in first). Guess it depends on how ambitious one is.
The apartment building I live in has only 4 apartments (2 up and 2 down). The front door to the building is locked. There are doorbells outside for each apartment, but my apartment does not have a buzzer inside to unlock the front door!! WTF? Strange. So visitors or pizza deliverymen buzz my apartment, but I have to go to the front door to meet them. It’s o.k., though. The front door is half a flight down–I can handle it.
Lots of things enter in.
How close is the apt to the street? Can you see when the delivery guy shows up? No point in going down to wait 1/2 hour if you aren’t sure.
Some people are more anxious and/or polite than others. They go down without thinking of making the guy come up, even if it’s customary.
Some of the apartment complexes in my delivery areaare very nice, and some of them are, uh, [putting it politely]low-rent.
There are secure apartments (where you have to buzz the tenant and wait for him/her to meet you at the door) in both the nice complexes and the low-rent areas, and there are “open” apartments where I can just walk through the entrance and to the tenant’s door in both the nice complexes and the low-rent complexes.
Needless to say, I don’t particularly enjoy walking the halls of an apartment building, particularly in a low-rent complex. As a driver, I’m very sensitive to potential crimes against me, and when I’m walking the halls of an apartment building I’m basically a sitting duck. Our manual tells us never to enter a resident’s home; if I’m inside your apartment building it’s like I’m already inside before I even get to your door.
Also, a special note to all Dopers who live in secure buildings: although your friends and family may know which buzzer is yours, I don’t. Please put your name and your apartment number by whichever button buzzes your apartment. Thank you.
