If you don’t have a key, it’s actually very hard to get into our building. It’s not that the security is tight, it’s just totally confusing.
When someone rings our doorbell, we have it set up so that the system calls a Grand Central (now Google Voice) number, which rings through to my cell phone.
When I get a call from “door?” (I labeled it back when I was only 85% sure that the number spamming my cell phone was the door) I pick up, and am asked if I want to accept the call. I press the button for yes, and am connected to whatever anonymous jerk is ringing my doorbell.
To explain the animosity: it’s never for us – we live in apartment 12, and our door system isn’t very intuitive, so people dial 1-2 all the time and just hope for the best. Not the best deductive reasoning there, but hey, it takes all sorts of people to run a world.
Consequently, I am usually irate, and after saying, “hello? hello?” and waiting about 4 additional seconds, I generally hang up. Lately, the calls have been more frequent, so I just hang up.
Even if I wanted to let this person in (which I don’t, because I don’t know them, and what if they are an axe-murderer?), I would hold down 9 until the door released. This works about half of the time. If I am actually expecting someone, I just go down and let them in.
So, while I appreciate most high tech things, and certainly support electronic systems that make it easier for me to control things from my couch, our doorbell system needs work. Manual systems are a pain, but automated systems that are broken are even worse because they are a tease.
Boo, apartment complex. Although, while you fail at doors, you are kind of accidentally spectacular at security – you can’t automatically let someone in even if you want to. So, good job, I guess.
Image credit: Invisible doorbell and security.
3 comments ↓
At my friend's old loft on the lower east side of manhattan, their doorbell was often broken, so when I arrived I used to have to cross the street and call her from the pay phone on the corner, and she'd come down and let me in. And the building's elevator was hand-operated, too, so she'd have to call one of her neighbors in the building and have them bring her the elevator to come down. Basically, it was the coolest loft ever.
We’re thinking of getting our friends those batman guns, so they can shoot our balcony and zoom up the zip line.
Ooh! 2 words: Dumb Waiter!
Man I want a dumb waiter.
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