Freecycle wants

shar46y

I Freecycled my old fridge-freezer when we moved house. Usually I am very choosy and pick someone who is both polite and has immaculate grammar and spelling but because we were moving, the priority was to get rid of it so I chose a bloke who gave his mobile number and said he could collect at the time I suggested (his punctuation was a bit erratic, in retrospect).

I provided the dimensions of the fridge-freezer (a full-height one) and he assured me he had an appropriate car.

Moving day arrives, and (slightly early, so we hadn't got round to moving the fridge-freezer from the kitchen) so does my new Freecycling mate and his buddy - stinking of beer and in a battered old Nissan Micra!:eek: We had all these big burly moving guys around, who kept offering to help, but him and his pal insisted they could move it themselves. So they struggled with it all the way from the back of the house to the front door, where the drunken friend trapped Freecycler's hand between the FF and the doorframe resulting in some colourful language. Then they dragged it out into the road and somehow they got it (mostly) into the Micra, thanked us profusely, apologised for the swearing and drove off with the guy sort of lying alongside the FF to hold the boot hatch down:eek:

The removals guys couldn't believe their eyes and neither could we - gave us all a great laugh!:rotfl:

Never had a Freecycling experience like that before or since.

ceebeeby

We've given away a car, a bathroom, a tv, shop fittings on freecycle, and received a fridge freezer / sat nav / camping equipment / clothes / strawberry plants in pots ... all sorts!

I'm a huge fan of it!

lincroft1710

1jim wrote: »

Can you deliver and install them for me please,,, thinking about it I would also need the wardrobe to go with these so you might as well give me yours as well

They come complete with runners and formed a floor to ceiling wardrobe against a corner wall, with 3 doors to front and one (non opening) at side.

Delivery and installation is possible at an extremely exorbitant price.

dispossessed

Freecycle is a great idea but some people are just takers. Some groups seem to be moderated more closely than others. Although most of our dealings have been O.K. we have experienced some very dodgy characters.

However, I have discovered that if ever you are feeeling lonely, and want to have a posse of new friends beating a path to your door, then just include the word "laptop" somewhere in the heading.

We will be offering a fridge next week and I am not looking forward to all of the sob stories and tales of woe that will be coming my way via e-mail.

mttylad

When I give something away on Freecycle or Freegle I always check the people who respond to me and see if they have ever offered anything or perhaps have just joined.

I look for a polite response that meets my requirements such as:
No mobile numbers (why should I pay to give something away), what is their location (I want to ensure it goes to someone local), they have offered before, they have not used txt talk and so on.

I also take my time at choosing who gets my junk, if they are not willing to collect it within a set timescale and I cannot store it then I offer it to someone else (after telling them).

I keep ALL freecycle mails, they dont take up much room, this makes searching on people easier.

But then I'm a mod on several recycling groups in this area so I get to know a little bit more about people than basic members.

I spend a few hours a day moderating groups, ensure people post correctly, following the rules, the format etc.
Approving memberships is not just a case of clicking "approve" there are basic checks to do to try and keep the troublemakers & spammers/traders away.

Going back to the wanteds, I hear every year about "too many wanteds" but in reality if you look at the statistics they are 50:50 with offers.

Many of the wanteds are what you may think of as asking for too much (not referring to the number of them) but whatever has been asked for has also been offered, from cars to conservatories. Flat screen tv's too - I have seen it all offered.
I tend to let people ask, if they are asking for the latest ipad - delivered & setup then I let them, because we limit the wanteds to 3 per month unless they offer stuff - so they have wasted a wanted on something they are not going to get.

Now they just need to ask for a jumbo jet and a speedboat - that might see the end of them for the rest of the month.

mttylad

OK - hands up time - I take it back.

I went on my local Freecycle site that is run on the freecycle.org website (a site that IMO is the biggest piece of crap ever written) and lo and behold - for the 3 pages I viewed there were only 3 offers, the rest were all wanteds.

So I take it back.

The biggest problem is that other websites (this one included) advertise Freecycle only as a site where you can get free stuff, so people join it with the intention of only getting free stuff. This is not the intention of Freecycle, the intention is that it is a place where people can have their junk taken away and reused by someone else and in return they are able to also ask for stuff. Too many are now joining that only ask and never give back.

Having badly moderated groups and severely restricted moderators does not help either.

Pity.

IMO Freegle is run just a tad better - at least we can restrict the number of wanteds people make.

Barneysmom

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Sort of like a funny looking TV with lots of knobs and buttons and it only shows squiggly wavy lines.

That's a brilliant description Shaun! :rotfl:

LisaB1970

We had this beauty recentl....mind you this person posts some class adverts which always make us smile! :rotfl:

OFFER
Subject A very Noisy Woman
Location ...........
Description Please can someone - anyone - persuade this woman to stay quiet. Every morning I take this train and every morning she is on it - talking away and laughing out loud without any shame at 7am. Some people are still asleep at this time!! Absolutely no manners... hmmm...
Date Thu Jun 23 21:46:47 2011

paddedjohn

In the past few years ive had trailers, bikes, a tandem, loads of white goods a church pew, furniture, paving flags, cars, etc etc etc, ive missed out on boats, caravans, more cars and even a phone box.
there is a bloke on our local site that repairs old computers and offers these to people and hes given away about 250 up to now.

GreyQueen

Our group's moderator had to post a message out about not putting sob stories in your Wanteds or in your response to other people's Offereds.

There was one particular individual who was utterly shameless in what they were posting who has since moderated their tone somewhat but I'm still astonished at how many games consoles her needy kids seem to require. :rotfl:Think they must eat them for breakfast or something.

I've seen a working, taxed MOT'd car as a Wanted but don't know if anyone was able to assist.

I have to say, if a responder to one of my Offereds can't be bothered to say "please" they won't get the item, even if it means hanging onto it for a few months and re-posting it.

I have met lovely people and I have been greatly inconvenienced by others, so if it's good enough and portable enough to get it to a charity shop, I will, just to avoid the aggro which can ensue.