Freecycle- people asking for too much?

hollydays

I advertised pine furniture to give away and got a email mentioning illness ,I will pick it up before i go to the doctors,its for my son etc.second time i advertised a pine curtain rail i got the same people (didn't realise till they turned up as they used a different name).father gave me one story,mother gave me a different one..hmm..they won't be getting anything else,but I was glad to be rid of the stuff which was just clutter to me.

nexuss

People are having stuff off freecycle with the sole intent of selling it on ebay for profit hence defeating the whole object of the website.I have even seen posts on here from people saying that have things from freecycle to sell on ebay which disgusts me.

Elsewhere

Horace wrote: »

Also the amount of broken stuff that is being offered - if it is broken beyond repair wouldnt the tip be a better place to dispose of it?:rolleyes:

Well, broken stuff is sometimes useful for spare parts, so I think it's sometimes worth offering it before it's chucked. For instance, we have a very old but excellent petrol mower that's ot of action at the moment - and a new part would cost us £60. So if someone were to offer a similiar, but not working mower (not working for a different reason!) we'd be delighted.

bap98189

I gave up on our local Freecycle as it was ruined by greedy people. I think it depends where you are though. When I lived in Shrewsbury, the group was great, people seemed to be genuine. I even offered an old (ready for the scrapyard) car once and wasn't inundated with stupid requests. I remember a chap took it away as his son had started a mechanic course and wanted something to practice welding on. Really nice chap who gave me some bottles of wine as a thank-you.

But since we moved up to Cheshire though, it is a complete waste of time. I have tried offering stuff, if it's anything of value, you get the same 50 people replying instantly, no matter what you are offering. At the end of last year, we got a new fridge, so thought I would offer the old one as it still worked. I never knew there were so many people with handicapped children and no fridge, or mothers who were unable to keep their baby milk cool.

mustrum_ridcully

Some people are having a laugh with what they ask for. The most annoying thing is that you know some people are just looking for stuff to flog on ebay or at a car boot sale.

Oddly enough asking for a laptop isn't always going too far, a 10year old laptop that you could use for writing letters and maybe a bit of internet/email is probably only worth £20 on ebay.

sarahg1969

mustrum_ridcully wrote: »

Oddly enough asking for a laptop isn't always going too far, a 10year old laptop that you could use for writing letters and maybe a bit of internet/email is probably only worth £20 on ebay.

However, when they say it must have Windows XP or Vista, or must be suitable for gaming, or a 17" screen is preferred, perhaps they are taking it a little too far?

Wench

I'm one of those people who believes if you can't afford it then you don't need it.

I begrudge putting through messages on my group asking for silly items like widescreen flat tvs/Ds's ect. ( I'm a mod of my local group )
There's one woman - who every other week - will have some highly expensive item of hers blow up and now she needs a new one,Now there is a part of me that is just starting to doubt her, but the messages have to go through regardless of what you as a mod may think.
Or you get the ones with URGENT !!! - DESPERATLY NEEDED !! in the subject line, I delete those unnessesary words, and just edit it to the Wanted/offered/recieved - Item - Location.

I've had to delete one message this morning ( she posted on the wrong group ) from one woman asking for D/s games, as she'd just bought a DS but cant afford the games.. I don't understand that myself, why buy something you can't fully afford.

I think my group ( and others ) need to bring in stricter rules regarding what can be offered/wanted.

vikingaero

uktyler wrote: »

People on my local group were always asking for laptop computers, when I offered one I had three people asking me to post it (at my expense).

When I offered a few things at once we had lots of people saying they would take it all, computer equipment and furniture.

The amount of people we had saying 'I'll take that' and not even saying please was ridiculous. The other side of that coin was the stupidly long sob story, 'I need it for my disabled son/grandma/hamster'. I had one person give me three separate sob stories over six months for three different items, non of which I believed.

However there are lots of genuine people on freecycle, when we offered items we looked to see if there was anyone that had offered us an item requesting it, and it always went to them.

Our three seater leather sofa went to someone that gave us a rucksack, and the laptop went to someone that gave us a kids toy.

Wouldn't it be better if all reply messages where posted on the site so that everyone could see the rude gits, the posters who reply "I'll have that" 20 times a day and the ones that have 500 relatives that have died in the last month?

Wench

I just wanted to say that with my initial statement, I do mean with the luxury items ( like laptops/ps3's ect ) and I didnt mean to generalise, just incase anyone interpretated it as such.

jaxjax123

We have people asking for Wii & Ds games if you can afford to buy one you can afford the games.
Tbh if someone puts wanted I only look at the title the sob stories drive me nuts.