Distributors of free newspapers and flyers

I am fed up.
Weekends are a time when I can be with my wife without distractions, or so I thought.
Bell ringers come and ring all the bells on our apartment block on weekends to tout free advert papers instead of just leaving them outside the entrance. I caught the youth involved and told him to fuck off and stay away from my buzzer and just leave his crap on the outside and that ringing everyone’s bell is not cool.
Then he responded with a threat that I would be getting a call from his boss. I kicked his bicycle over and asked what his boss would say to that and if he wanted to take his threat further. Did I fuck up? What can they do to me and I them, legally?
Thanks in advance,
Take care,
space

well that wasn't a very pleasant thing for you to do. These guys are just doing a job and they don't get paid very much for it. You may not like getting the mail or having your bell rung but did the poor we guy really deserve your (over)reaction?

Good for you Space, these guys are a pain in the arse when you are trying to get a nap to recover from friday night's excesses

Space, go jump off a cliff.
You can get done for any damage to the bike. Better path of action would have been to contact the editor of the paper/advertising company/kid's employer and ask him to tell the kid not to ring your bell any more. It has to do with the protection of your private sphere.

The kid probably ran off crying and will be too scared to tell anyone. It's unlikely he'll have the guts to take this any further. Don't lose too much sleep over him; he sounds like a right little shit.

I have called every business on a flyer when the guys ring my bell and/or leave a flyer in my mailbox (which has a no advertising sticker on it).
Basically, I tell them that their advertising agency sucks and I will never be a customer and/or will no longer be their customer because of the shitty tactics used to distribute the flyers.
They don't ring my bell very much anymore - could just be a coincidence.
Oh yeah - I don't let them in either.

I think that just not answering your bell when you're not expecting anyone would be a better solution.

Unfortunately, you're never going to stop everyone who rings all the tenants' bells trying to get into the foyer.

Sorry, don't agree, Cinzia. It's more than awful if you've worked half the night on something, which one has every right to do, just to be woken up by some idiot ringing every single doorbell in the house in order to fill letterboxes with rubbish pretty well no-one will read. The best solution, if it's possible, is to disconnect the doorbell, if this is technically feasible, i.e. the wires won't break after a while. Some tips: Never open the door, if you once do, they will always ring your[b] bell. Tell them you don't want the stuff, nor do your neighbours and they should leave it outside in future. Sometimes this works.

He threatened me with retribution from his boss and then I kicked his bike. Not vice versa. IMHO I think he deserved my reaction. Isn't it all down to someone coming to your home ringing your bell and then threatening you because you didn't like it?
Who gives crap if the offender is not being paid much? The offense is the same.
take care,
space

It's not that I don't sympathize with space and anyone else who wants peace and quiet in their homes, for whatever reason.

But you can't assume that it's always the same people doing this, who then learn that yours is the bell to ring. My impression is that there is a great deal of turnover among people who do this kind of job, and anyway there are lots of different people distributing individual flyers, neighborhood free newspapers, etc.

Disconnecting the doorbell seems to create a bigger bother than the situation warrants. How would you know when you have a legitimate delivery or visitor?

We've just had new letter boxes fitted to the outside of the house so people don't need to come in to deliver advertising crap, yet there's still been people ringing bells today to get in.

They're a bunch of idiots - I just shouted out my window at them - scared the life out of the buggers.

Good lad Space!

You should have punched his fucking lights out!

I have a selection of stickers on my letter box "Kein Werbung" etc and the various coloured stickers that should stop them shoving free papers in there too...

I caught one lad pushing loads of crap in my letterbox.. I pointed out the stickers and in my bestest German asked.. "Sprechen sie Englisch?" to which the cocky bastard replied, "yes, of course I do.. I paid attention at school!"

To which I replied, "Ah good... now fuck off with your papers!"

Little shit.

@Grinner,
I am non violent towards people methinks. But I don't mind destroying their property when they irritate me. (less time in prison)
@cinzia
I think the issue is that I was threatened because I told someone not to ring the bell at my apartment. Of course I want peace and quiet at my place. Is it not my right to request the bell ringer to not ring my bell? And for the bell ringer to agree with this without threatening me with retribution.
Is this in my rights?
take care,
space

It could be worse:

I was extremely hungover and tired yesterday morning after a good night out when someone rang my bell. Went to the door only to find 2 religious nutters... ARGGGHH!!! Slammed the door in their face I did!

Where can I get a "no religious nutters" stickers?

Yea the bastards should be shot. It used to really piss me off when I was in bad with a screaming hangover off work with a pre booked holiday and they ring the bell and wake me up.

The fookers

Sure, I'd say it's a reasonable expectation that someone not ring your bell when they don't want you personally, but rather just access to your building. Whether we can talk about this in terms of "rights", I'm not so sure. Certainly the bell ringer's threatening you with retribution for complaining was going too far.

I'm just trying to point out the futility of trying to enforce this expectation. You can't easily prevent someone ringing your bell in advance, and by the time they have, you've already been disturbed. Having a fracas about it afterwards seems to me to just disturb the peace further, with no benefit to anyone. I'd be surprised if this fellow didn't decide to play "ding dong ditch" with your doorbell the next time he's in the neighborhood on personal, rather than professional, business. I hope not, but he seems the type.

I guess I'm approaching this in a pragmatic way, rather than talking about how things should be in a perfect Toytown.

Was it the Mormons Hartlepool Lad? Some of them ate HOT!
Should have invited them in and told em to gert on their knees...

Anyway, yeah, they are badly paid kids or pensioners earning a bit of cash.
But they get on my friggin nerves, particuarly if it has been a heavy night oe when my flatmet is working shifts and is asleep. One time they kept ringing so without buzzing them in I tore down the stair in my pyjamas and told them in no uncertain terms to fuck off. Scared the life out of the poor lad.

why are your PJ's that bad?

I got lush PJs: Palmers or Hugo Boss.

Let's see now...

Some schmuck is legally doing his job.
Your response was to yell at him.
His response was to tell you that he would have his boss contact you.
You then -- quite illegally -- damaged his property.

He did nothing wrong in the eyes of the law. You did.

Your recourse vis a vis the papers is the following:
* Post a notice on your mailbox: Keine Werbungen bzw. Werbezeitungen
* Post a notice by your buzzer: Nicht Stören!
* Call the paper and tell them that these notices are posted and that if your doorbell is rung again or your box is stuffed with their paper that the next person they'll hear from is your lawyer for whom they will pay.

You'll have to call each of the papers.

woof.