Freecle / freecycle and balloons on sticks

Angie74

gayleanne wrote: »

Last night I put 3 items on our local freecycle, 1} a 7 seater beige leather corner couch with matching pouffe.

2} Hotpoint washing machine still under warrenty

3} Beko Tumble dryer still under warrenty

I am having a new kitchen being fitted and all the appliances will be integrated.

I put these on the site using the Fair Offer Policy, so that everyone has a chance to apply it will not be given to the first email that I get. So far I have had over 200 emails, and everyone is a sob story, surely there cant be that many disasters, or ill luck stories, from such a small town.

I have also had the ones with the person demanding that I give them an answer straight away, and another one, who is asking for the 3 items, but she has forgotten what she has written first it was for her daughter, who is unmarried with 3 kids, then it was for her niece who has 3 children all disabled, then for her son who has just lost his job.

I think that I will just sell them next time

I'd put them on ebay with a low starting price and pick up only. Be prepared to be messed about with the pick up though, but I'd rather that than give it to the liars and p1ss takers on freecycle!

gayleanne

Angie74 wrote: »

I'd put them on ebay with a low starting price and pick up only. Be prepared to be messed about with the pick up though, but I'd rather that than give it to the liars and p1ss takers on freecycle!

I am seriously considering taking them off, it is amazing how many of them have cars and vans and can pick up straight away, yet they have no money for food or washing machines. I will not be doing this again, I practically know what every email is going to say.

mcculloch29

Do you have a furniture redistribution scheme in your area?
All three items would be picked up by them and distributed to people in need. Alternatively large charities like the British Heart Foundation may well be able to help you. I think yours is a wonderfully generous gesture, sorry that it's given you such hassle, Gayleanne.

gayleanne

I have had enough. and have taken the offers off the site, last night I offered a washing machine with warranty, a tumble drier with warranty, and a 7 seater corner suite, today I have had way over 200 requests for the items, some of them have sent a request practically every hour, with different sob stories. here is what I have put on the site, I expect the mods will delete it but it makes me feel better:-




I put an offer on this site last night for the above items, since the offer went on the site I have had over 200 replies from different people asking for either one or all of the above. Out of all the replies everyone of them has been a hardluck or sob story, for a town this size there are a lot of misfortunes happening to people, most of the women are from single parent families but there partner will pick the item up up. (Yeah)

There are a lot of people who have just lost there jobs or have just come out of a refuge after being beaten up by there ex. I have decided to take the above offers off the site, and sell them instead, for those of you that have really got a hard luck story that is true, I am sorry, but its the others that make a living out of doing this that have spoilt it for you. I have no intention of ever putting an offer on this site again. Its a pity that you don't put as much effort into finding work as you put into the hard luck stories, Oh and by the way, not one of the posts said PLEASE or THANK YOU.


I recon that my membership will be recinded, but to be quite truthful I dont give a damn.

chickywiggle

good for you gayleanne.

butdoineedit?

I've had more nightmares than not on freegle, including the bloke who picked up a PC desk from me & then had the cheek to email me saying "thank you for the PC desk, but we decided we did not want it after all, so have sold it & will put the money towards some other new furniture" :mad:

However my faith in human nature was restored when i gave away 2 of those folding type TV dinner tables to a lady who lived in a back to back with only a tiny living room (she had moved in a couple of doors down from where i used to live & i know shoe horning a dining table into one of those houses is impossible).
She didn't have a car, but collected & walked home with one under each arm, & then sent me the following lovely email

I don't know how to put a received on using my iPhone, but i just wanted to Say thank you for the tables, we had tea on them tonight and made it a great deal easier my little boy is so over the moon with his table he even took it to his bedroom with him tonight haha, thanks alot

Bought a little tear to my eye & made me very glad i had offered them!

luxor4t

A single mattress listed on Free-wheel.

So far 8 requests - just 2 using the magic formula of a coherent sentence + 'please'.

"ill take if of u" is a sample.

SpammyTheSpammer

for about 6 months now and must state that I am beginning to loathe a significant percentage of the FC membership.

As my fellow mod occasionally has to point out to them:

THIS IS FREECYCLE AND NOT THE SHOPPING CHANNEL!

In particular, some members seem incapable of understanding the simple rule that you should keep "Wanted" requests to a bare minimum, some were posting wanted one or more a day and got immensely hostile if you refused any. I was actually threatened by one that they would get their solicitor on to me for giving them stress for refusing their wanted posts.



Clearly deprived, as they could not afford a barrister...

We rapidly identified the specific "want-want-want" members and put them into moderation so that we could attempt to control their demands. This caused problems as we then got complaints from them that read something like this:-

"Why cant I have a wanted post? It's my right to ask for things!"

(but obv without the correct spelling or grammar)

We tried introducing a rule that other FC sites use - to prevent repeated wants being posted within a one calendar month period. This too was universally ignored. Such that, when one member attempted a repeat want for a freezer within a six hour period and was rejected, they sent me an email that read something like this:

"I had to resubmit the want as it got lost in all the other WANTED posts that day"


I had to carefully compose a reply that this was exactly why we did not permit this and to remind them that this kept the emails down.


I am now gradually terminating the membership of those members after I catch them out with the two strike ruling. They then move onto Freegle or whatever and make some other mod's life a misery.


However I am not happy about this as I dearly love FC and it's ilk and have given homes to much of my !!!! that others desired. I gave a big bag of lego transformer bits that we found in a bin in a lay-by (DONT ASK!) to a small boy. His parents then sent me a lovely picture of him with an assembled transformer - the look on his face cheered me up for almost a week. I also regularly offer the old kids toys and these are always well received by youngsters with their M&D when they collect.

Hezzawithkids

chickywiggle wrote: »

good for you gayleanne.

I second that

Eager_Elephant

Common sense at last :

Dear All,


As of today (23/10/2012) XXXXXXXXXXXX Freecycle is trialing a new rule for a fixed period of 3 monthsalong with several other groups around the Country. We will no longer be allowing WANTEDs for:

Computers/laptops/games consoles/LCD TVs/Cars/motorbikes/caravans/large white goods etc. Items like

this are rare on Freecycle. If someone OFFERs one of these items we will more than happily approve the post, as I say it is rare but it does happen sometimes, but anyone posting a WANTED for these items is going to find their post rejected and themselves back on moderation. This Group is *not* a wishlist. It's not a shopping list. We try to take a common sense approach to WANTEDs (is there a reasonable chance they'll be fulfilled?) but recently there has been a trend towards asking for comparatively high value items. It will no longer be allowed.Freecycle is all about keeping items out of the landfill the majority of posts should be offered not wanted items.



The mod team will welcome any feedback on this trial and if we get a

positive response it will become a fixed rule of the group.