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I order takeouts from these apps a lot e.g. Doordash, Skipthedishes, Uber Eats.

I wonder what is the most natural/idiomatic way to respond to the delivery guy on the phone to confirm his identity when he arrives?

Is this doordash?

are you from doordash?

do you work for doordash?

And what if I want to confirm he has arrived outside of my apartment, what should I say

Did/have you arrived?

Are you outside of my building?

Then I would like to ask him to use the buzzer, a device which connects to my phone so I can let him in and use the elevator to my floor. He just needs to type in my buzzer code into the device. What are some of the possible ways that I can make my point across?

And I know maybe all of the example sentences I provided above work, and I can just get by with them, but I am really curious about how a native speaker would phrase things in this kind of situation. Also are there any good resources that have these types of modern and close to life conversations so that I can learn from?

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  • Push [number] and I'll buzz you in. Watch TV sitcoms with closed captions on.
    – Lambie
    Commented Jul 12, 2020 at 18:28
  • It could be any delivery person or even friend..
    – Lambie
    Commented Jul 12, 2020 at 19:24
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    You say "Hello, who is this?" and they reply "This is Doordash with your food order." If they haven't been trained well enough to announce their mission, use another company. If you are not expecting a delivery from Doordash hang up. What you must not do is tell them who you are expecting, they can say "Errr... YES I am doordash."
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Jul 12, 2020 at 19:27

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If someone is calling you on the phone, simply say "Hello?" The burden is then on them to introduce themselves. They will probably say "Hi, this is ([name] from) Doordash." You can then just tell them to, for example, "push 123 at the buzzer by the door."

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  • And any burglar standing nearby hears your voice and remembers the code?
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jul 12, 2020 at 21:40
  • @MichaelHarvey - That is a possibility regardless of whether the person were from Doordash or simply a friend. There is no way to guard against that happening. Conversely, most places in the US don’t have doors that require the person on the outside of the door to type in a code. The person on the outside will use a code to telephone the resident. The person on the inside types in a code on their phone the door will recognize. If the resident is on the outside of the door, the code will work to let them in. But, they do not have to reveal the code to a stranger.
    – Dean F.
    Commented Jul 12, 2020 at 21:55
  • @MichaelHarvey OP said the initial contact was a phone call, so there should be little danger of eavesdropping unless they're on speakerphone. Also, the OP's description of the buzzer suggests they still have to push a button on the phone when the visitor calls them from the buzzer. In any case the security aspect is a bit tangential to the answer.
    – TypeIA
    Commented Jul 13, 2020 at 8:02

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