Freecycle (Merged Thread)

jamstaruk

I have been freecycling for about 6 months now and have given away a lot of stuff to others as well as picked up a couple of wonderful items which I wouldn't have been able to get hold of otherwise but something has been lacking on occasion from my Freecycle experience.

What I would like is for every email I receive in response to an offered advert in future to include the words "Please" and "Thank you " and go something along the lines of (And this is just modelled on my own responses so you may change the wording if you like) "Hello x I wonder if your Y and Z is still available please? If so, I would be very interested in the item as I have needed one for a while and been unable to find a suitable one. If you chpose to offer me this item I would be able to pick up any evening this week or at a time that is convenient for you should this not siut. I thank you in advance for your consideration, Many thanks M"


If only I had the courage to actually post the wanted advert

if i had 1 reply to my ads like this i would have given all my items to you

these items cost me hundreds of pounds surley if not asking for much ??

HugoSP

I have had noting but good experiences with Freecycle.

Recently I answered an offered ad featuring some mobile phone accessories that suited a mobile phone that my wife has.

The accessories were in a city some miles away and I asked if she could post them if I paid the postage. The donor agreed, but said not to worry, after she posted it (IIRC it cost her £1.39). Hence she has accepted my offer to donate the same to a charity of her choice. She has chosen the RSPCA.

I have some phone accessories. This kind lady has managed to recycle some perfectly good items, and the RSPCA will benefit from a small donation. s all round!

Morty_007

jamstaruk wrote:

if i had 1 reply to my ads like this i would have given all my items to you

these items cost me hundreds of pounds surley if not asking for much ??

Thank you
No, I agree that a please and thankyou is not much to ask! It took me 5 minutes to type that response. Who hasn't got the time to spend doing that?

I don't know how some people have the ba**s to send some of the emails they have.

Here are just a few I have received recently which might explain why I'm so irate about this! (These emails are complete as I received them...)

"Is the dining table still available and do you still have the seats?"

"Have these [duvet covers] gone? I'll probably be in **** on Thursday January 25th between 5pm and 6pm. Might you be at home then?"

and then 5 minutes later before I even had a chance to respond:

"Hi again. I just sent you a message to see if next Thursday would be possible. I'll be collecting another freecycle at about 5.30pm that day and could continue to yours after that, if the duvet covers are still available."

and finally:

"Hi there

Is this [printer] still going? And will it work with a parallel port cable? If so, I can collect at the weekend, just call me on ***** ******.

***** ****** (Persons name)"

I got this email twice, timed 4 minutes apart and then I received a similar one 8 hours later.

Can you guess what I did with these emails?

Morty

Morty_007

HugoSP wrote:

I have had noting but good experiences with Freecycle.

Oh, don't get me wrong...I love freecycle and those people who I have ended up meeting (Because their emails passed muster :rotfl: ) have been wonderful!

NumboJumbo

Having read this thread thru again, I just posted an 'Offer' message on Freecycle inviting any replies to include a please and thankyou. I also stated that anybody that just said 'Give it to me now' or similar would not be considered. 2 replies so far to my Freecycle message and not a single please and thankyou. Don't get me wrong though, one of the messages was quite nicely written and will prolly get te item I'm offering. The other message, well that wasn't so eloquent.

That aside, I also believe in being courteous to all of the people that have reploed to my 'offer' messages, even if they haven't been that polite to me. I believe they have a right to know that I'm not considering giving them the item for whatever reason and hoping that my response will go an incy wincy way to making them understand that politeness helps sometimes in securing an item.

Anybody who 'wins' an item and then subsequently does not reply to my 'Congrats' email, gets reported to the Moderator. Obviously, there may be genuine circumstances as to why this person did not reply to my 'congrats' email and so I always send an email to the 'winner' explaining my action and including the caveat that I may be wrong in presupposing the reason for that person's non-reply to my email. Hopefully it gives this person a chance to realise that I'm not a total ....(insert rude word of your choice).

Mike

Morty_007

Good Job Mike! Shame they didn't actually take action on your requests i'm definately going to try that next and every tinme I offer something from now on.

I tend to wait 24 hours before deciding who to give the item to, to give everyone a chance. the difference is, I always tell someone immediuately if i'm not going to give them the item, and their emails go very swiftly into the bin after that!

debulition

I once offered a boxful of various stationery items (and stupidly listed its contents).

I got a reply from someone who stated the specific 6 items he wished, asked if I ever went into the city centre where he lived (7 miles away from me) and said I could deliver it to him on either Tuesday evening or Thursday evening.

I wish I was kidding. I wanted to tell him exactly what I thought of his email, but instead replied that he who accepts an offer collects, and I'd selected the first person who wanted the whole box and was prepared to collect it from me on a day and time that suited me.

msmicawber

My 10 yo son has recently discovered freecycle and has got a couple of things that he wanted from it. I think it's a wonderful idea to redistribute things that you no longer need/want without adding to landfill. He and I are also going to post some items soon when we've had a decluttering session.

I must admit I don't understand some of the posts on this thread about choosing who is deserving enough to get an item, etc. Surely, if you want rid, don't want to add to landfill and don't want payment, it doesn't matter who collects your stuff?

My DS never gave a reason for wanting anything on freecycle when he answered the ads, neither did the donors know that he was only 10 until he arrived by appointment to collect. His e-mails were courteous (he got me to check them for spelling and clarity before sending) and sent thank you e-mails afterwards of his own volition, so maybe his courtesy swung it for him, or maybe the donors didn't care as long as someone helped free up some garage/loft space.

eryn_kathleen

I love Freecycle too and I'm really grateful for it, but I've had two bad(ish) experiences...

The first, I went to pick up a chest of drawers. The giver had posted a link to Ikea and measurements, and when I went to pick it up the item was similar but at least twice as big as advertised. I felt that I couldn't say anything as the drawers were lovely and in very good condition, and free! We carried it (slowly) down three flights of stairs, spent an hour shoving it into the back of a Ford Focus, then carried it (even more slowly) up four flights of stairs. My OH was so annoyed about it I spent the next day moving furniture around in our bedroom so I could make room for it.

It ended just fine because the drawers were really nicer than we'd expected, but there were several hours of swearing involved.

The second, we had someone pick up an upright hoover. The head didn't work but the hose was fine, and I included that information in the post- we have lots of handy people in our group, so I thought someone would be able to give it a new life. The person who picked it up was quite pleased, until he got home. He called us and verbally abused me for several minutes, then posted a notice on Freecycle warning everyone about what a terrible Freecycler I am! We got it worked out in the end (the mods could see my original post and jumped to my defence) but it was fairly unpleasant.

gromituk

msmicawber wrote:

My 10 yo son has recently discovered freecycle and has got a couple of things that he wanted from it.

and

Surely, if you want rid, don't want to add to landfill and don't want payment, it doesn't matter who collects your stuff?

I'm sure I've said this before....

1) Maybe your ten year old son would not be nearly so happy if the professional Freecyclers, who jump on everything the moment it's posted, had got the items instead;

2) The professional Freecyclers who jump on everything without thinking are quite likely not to turn up, causing frustration to the giver;

3) The professional Freecyclers who do turn up are more than likely not to want the items they jumped on without thinking, and will be much less scrupulous about making sure they don't end up in landfill than the people who enter into the spirit of the operation.

I hope that explains it.