MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Janine profit from a Freecycle telly?

kevanf1

SWIND wrote: »

Give it back or give it away and tell her friend about Freecycle- the more people know about it the better for everybody

No!!!! Don't tell everybody about Freecycle. Tell them about Freegle and Freeworld. Both are UK specific. Did you know that the Freecycle owners in the US get a salary for running 'The Freecycle Network'? That's one of the many reasons that most UK Freecycle groups are getting out of it and going to either Freeworld or Freegle. Freeworld is affiliated with Freegle by the way

Take care.

Kevan

kevanf1

scarlets_knees wrote: »

Also at the risk of annoying freecycle/freegle/etc mods who've posted (I don't mean to) I also find it funny to think that Freecyle or any of the breakaway groups could really take the moral highground bearing in mind the mud slinging they have been involved in with accusations of dictatorial behaviour on freecycle's part and data theft by the breakaway groups.

It may be mud but it is real solid mud not made up stuff. The accusations amde against The Freecycle Network go back years right to the first year of founding in 2003. TFN is a dictatorial network, fact. The data theft is what many, many people suspect TFN is up to at this moment in time. The moderators felt so passionate about this and they are so concerned for their members that they have left TFN. Or, in my case, been kicked out after lies were posted about me by the founder of Freecycle Deron Beale. Yes, I can prove this and he did retract what he said. He did not allow me back into TFN though.

Take care.

Kevan

JimmyTheWig

kevanf1 wrote: »

No!!!! Don't tell everybody about Freecycle. Tell them about Freegle and Freeworld.

I think that it's the concept that people need to be told about. If their local group is still Freecycle then it would make sense for someone to join this.

hamzramz

Janine gets a TV free, then gets offered another, someone offers her money for the first TV, no problem!!!

1.Firstly Janine never intended to sell the TV, but has been offered money for it, so she should be able to have the money, no one is actually suffering as a result. There isn't really a moral issue, perhaps if someone deliberately got free items and kept selling them, then there would be a problem

2.There are probably going to be many other TV's on Freecycle too.

3.Remember this TV could have ended up on landfill, so it is good that it is actually making money for someone.

So I think there is no problem with taking the money.

PS why does this scenario remind me of Eastenders? (Janine and Archie:rotfl:)

thespiderspeed

Been reading some of the old MONEY MORAL DILEMMA's and came across this one. I know it's an older but but felt like commenting...

Can't believe no-one has mentioned taking the money for the Sony TV and splitting it with her friend who has given her the HD-TV. After all she won't be in the position to accept/decline the money in the first place if her friend hadn't given her the new tv.

matthewjs

This is interesting as it reveals the common perception that Freecycle is a very unequal process, i.e. the person receiving the free item is getting a lot more out of it than the person giving away the free item. Personally I think it's a lot more equal than that: the receiver gets something they want or need for free, and the giver is able to get rid of something they would otherwise have had the bother of throwing away, taking to a recycling centre or even paying the council or whoever to take away. Sure, there may be a few cases where generous Freecyclers offer something that's worth a substantial amount of money in anyone's book, but by and large I tend to find that the value of the stuff being offered on my local site would be more or less equal to the cost - in terms of time and effort - involved in selling it or getting rid of it. With that in mind, and as someone who has both given away and received things via Freecycle in the past, I would say that thanks are usually due on both sides, as both sides are doing each other a favour.

[Deleted User]

And this is why i'm donating my old furniture to the YMCA rather than giving it through freecycle (or equivalent)

Beetlemama

I guess I don't mind if things are sold on, I'd rather think I am helping someone as well as not chunking up the Earth with junk, but it's not realy in my control after a certain point, once it goes to it's new owner it's theirs and they can do what they want with it. And if you impose a rule, how long does the rule last? if she loves and uses the tele for 2 years then gets a new one, can she sell it on then? no, I think once it's hers it's hers.

The only regret I have was my car, I freecycled my car, it was in good condition but needed tax and an mot, it had sat in the garage for a year on a SORN, I still hadn't got around to taking my test and it was just costing money. We picked the person we really thought we were helping (said she was a young mother with two little kids and no job but her dad could help her get it on the road) but when they arrived, it was clear this was a trader, not any daughter, that was collecting it.

What can you do though? We made up our mantra and we repeat it when a freecycle or freegle doesn't go how we'd hoped. "Our goal was to re-home something we didn't want, to someone who did want it, without hurting the environment."

I think the tele belongs to Janine and if she wants to sell it, then that's her business.

abudabi

It makes me laugh some of the people here- holier than thou giving away their cast-offs, surely most of the stuff is not worth the petrol wastage to get it? also it is immoral to use petrol for such useless stuff, even worse than keeping it out of landfill imo.
Most people on freecycle don't give away stuff as benefactors, they give it away to declutter and can't be ar%%d to take it to the dump or list on ebay etc
I have a friend who lugged a massive crt tv home only to find it didn't work!! so much for the generous giver!!
if it is sold on then i say good luck to them if they are industrious enough to clean the object up, take pics then list it then that is work as well!
people should be more concerned with bankers and corrupt politicians etc than some making a few measly quid, they must be desperate for the extra cash in the first place so they are still USING the object and keeping it out of landfill, as for those who say they like to see it go to a good home then donate it to a rip-off charity shops who charge exorbitant prices for the tat then ?
, but more than likely they have tried this avenue and the charities don't want their item due to the poor resale value and don't want to clutter their shop space with unsaleable items so they fob it off on some unsuspecting mug who goes miles to collect it
i personally don't use freecycle as i have no need but looking through posts there i find strange anomalies - some use digest and wait for a lot of replies then 'pick' the one they find most deserving? how do they know who deserves it? it smacks of some dickensian workhouse era type mentality giving cast-offs to needier people whilst being judge and jury, wholly reprehensible to me.they think they are being charitable but they don't NEED their rubbish in the first place
Also reading other comments in the lines of- they had a newish car!! they were well-dressed! etc etc!!
who do these people think they are? landed gentry looking down on the hoi polloi or something?
the sole idea of freecycle is to keep stuff OUT of landfill not to act like great altruistic god
Also i don't understand all this talk about keeping it out of landfill, all white goods will be recycled anyway and not go in landfill metal is expensive and a valued commodity
, the donor invariably is richer so replaces the items causing even more global warming etc due to the manufacturing processes involved any wooden objects go to landfill but surely most wood objects these days are made with sustainable forest timber? so it is only going back to the earth where it came from? clothing also is reusable?
The problem now is over-population of the planet and excessive capitalism causing more products to be made to an ever greedy society

DKLS

I don't get the getting frowned upon aspect to giving away stuff.

I recently gave away some floor standing speakers on free cycle, I was more than happy that I didn't have to drive to the dump and deal with the officious council workers or have to deal with scamming ebay morons, all I wanted was the speakers gone, I couldn't care less if the chap sold it on or used them, or dismantled them.

It seems some people only like to give to the "deserving poor" who will tug their forelock at the generosity of the donator. Perhaps free cycle could devise some form of test to see who is truly worthy of unwanted goods.