Freecycle (merged)

jetty

I've given away a few things on freecycle, like my daughters' pram, which was highly sentimental but i didn't have room for it, so thought i would give it away to someone who needed it, it came with everything, including a buggy board, raincover, cosytoes etc, and the guy that picked it up didn't even say thank you :mad: i swore i wouldn't give anything else away, but then i had another child and decided to put some clothes on there, i got a reply from a wonderful lady and i decided to offer her some more bits, she actually bought me a bunch of flowers to say thank you! So sometimes it really is worthwhile helping others out, i just wish you could tell who they are through emails!

Maybeanotherday

I have to sa I've got on quite well with freecycle I've managed to re-home some things I wasn't sure would be any use to people but still turned out to be so

Unfortunatly you do seem to get a few rude emails stating things like "leave it outside I'll pick up now???"
And I have had personally quite a few people who have requested items off me then when I have agreed they have never got back in contact...makes me wonder why these people ask in the first place?

I suppose it's like everything...always going to have little niggles but still worth it

tired_mum

I would just like to point out that freecycle does work and has worked for me
I always say thank you and email the gifter after collecting to say thank you but my point is it is a NOT FOR PROFIT organisation and there are people who are making a living by using these forums as a buisness and not declaring it in their postings not a problem if they do
I gave away a high value 15ft pool last year waited a while had loads of enquires wanted someone elses kids to have the enjoyment now mine are older kids picked a number and let the person know when they came turned out they had driven over 40 miles to get the pool guess where i saw the pool next you guesed it e bay same user name what annoyed me was i unknowingly turned down local people who may have actually used the pool themselves I now put only residents of my borough when i post

Maybeanotherday

tired_mum wrote: »

I would just like to point out that freecycle does work and has worked for me
I always say thank you and email the gifter after collecting to say thank you but my point is it is a NOT FOR PROFIT organisation and there are people who are making a living by using these forums as a buisness and not declaring it in their postings not a problem if they do
I gave away a high value 15ft pool last year waited a while had loads of enquires wanted someone elses kids to have the enjoyment now mine are older kids picked a number and let the person know when they came turned out they had driven over 40 miles to get the pool guess where i saw the pool next you guesed it e bay same user name what annoyed me was i unknowingly turned down local people who may have actually used the pool themselves I now put only residents of my borough when i post

That's awful! Who would do something like that :eek:

Angelraesunshine

I recently put a wooden dolls house cost us £250 a few years ago on my freecycle we got over 50 replys most of which were inthe 1st 2 hours. I had th efair poilcy on it and in the end i just deleted all the rude ones and then let my children decide who it went to i spent nearly and hour reading out each email and any they liked the sound of we kept. Got it down to five and re read them all. they got it down to 2 incase the 1st person did not want it. The chose a little girl with special needs and there send choice was a family who would be doing it up as there easter project. i was very proud of them choosing so well. I have only been free cycling a few weeks but i have got a bike for my daughter ( found later looked great but wheel bent and no working brake so Dh has to fix that i don't mind but wish they had said cos she can not ride it yet) and i got rid of some books and got a bag of books back so i am happy. I just can not get rid of my armchair.

miss-coordinated

Snoopy_rules wrote: »

Has anyone noticed how if something of value or unusual gets offer such as telly, xbox, caravan, car etc. After it has gone there are always loads of posts asking for one. Do these people genuinely need one? Its as if they see something listed and then decide they want one.

I once asked for a graphics tablet after seeing someone elses post thanking people for the huge response they'd had after requesting one. I wanted one for ages but would never have dreamed of requesting suah a thing until I saw this post. I assumed that as the previous requester had a "huge response" there must be a bunch of people who had spare ones...

I too only offer for collection and I feel a bit miffed by those who request that you bring the item to them as I think it's rude. I couldn't do this anyway as I don't have my own transport- if I wanted something that's offered then I would find a way of getting there; public transport or the help of friends/family/whoever.

I once offered a whole bag of plastic hair bands/alice bands and a lovely man came to pick them up on behalf of his daughter- it's nice when something goes to a lovely new home though, as I'm broke at the moment, anything worth the effort goes on eBay.

I got my mum a tailors dummy from a very very lovely lady, my mum has wanted one for years but could never afford it. It's wonderful and she was very pleased with it. There are a lot of very nice and very generous Freecyclers in my area, amd the bad eggs are generally known and ignored!

Wish someone in my area would offer Prawn Cocktail crisps! Perhaps I could trade them with my MCoys flame grilled steak ones! lol

MORPH3US

I do think the Yahoo groups that Freecycle use are awful though.

They should make it more of a forum like this so people can reply to a thread if they want an item. That way you can keep an eye on who is requesting loads of stuff etc.

You could then also have some kind of feedback similar to ebay so people who are rude or abusive can be marked as such...

adecor

Nomini wrote: »

I must say I have never got anything from Freecycle simply because people are mostly inclined to sell anything that is still in usable condition rather than Freecycle it. That said, it's a perfectly good idea and if it helps some of the time, that's better than nothing. And to be honest, it's not like I expect people to be throwing out IPhones or brand new laptops or anything anyway - that isn't why I joined...but I don't think everyone who uses the service could say the same. There are too many poachers, looking for a good freebie.

I've met some really lovely genuine & generous people through freecycle. I just can't agree with you that most of it is rubbish as I've had some amazing stuff.

Just wish I knew about it before we dumped all the furniture from my mum's house as the charities didn't want it because it was teak!!

bundly

Our local freecycle group is unundated with people asking for laptops -- some even specify the spec of laptop and the operating system etc LOL

jockettuk

MORPH3US wrote: »

I do think the Yahoo groups that Freecycle use are awful though.

They should make it more of a forum like this so people can reply to a thread if they want an item. That way you can keep an eye on who is requesting loads of stuff etc.

You could then also have some kind of feedback similar to ebay so people who are rude or abusive can be marked as such...

have you thought about emailing them and letting them know your ideas.. it all started in the states and im sure they open to suggestions to make it better