Freecycle Nusiance

dolly_day_dream

One of the regular poster of wanted ads on our local freecycle is the parent of a past pupil. She describes herself as disabled - which she isn't and very hard up - again untrue. It really bugs me to read her wanteds which are extreme - dishwasher etc I know that the mods did ask her to moderate her wants which were 'urgent' daily requests but I wish that I could find some way of letting others know that she is not what she seems.

On a more postive note I have got rid of things that I would not like to burden a charity shop with and which I would find too heavy to move. I have also received some fantastic items. Yes some people are rude - so I just don't bother with them - they lose out.

Fozz

I have only just started using freecycle, so have been reading this thread with great interest!
So far I have got rid of two items which were cluttering up my garage,( both went to nice polite people who turned up promptly).
I do give lots to my local charity shop which is just around the corner, and we are lucky in having two charity furniture shops in town which come and pick stuff up. I don't have a car so can't take big things to the tip, Freecycle is great for things which aren't good enough for the furniture shops and too bulky to take to the charity shop.
I use the fair offer policy, and wouldn't give anything away to anyone who sounded rude in their reply. Just hope the rest of my offers go as smoothly as the first two!

jackomdj

I recently got rid of some baby clothes & said it would suit a winter baby, I specifically asked the lady if she was pregnant in the e-mail & she said yes. I threw in some other bits & when she came to collect she was a large(ish) lady but did not look pregnant. I helped her to the car as it was 2 big boxes & she had a baby in the back & lots of other "things"... it did make me mad!

However I have had some good experiences! 1st offer was for pampers that my baby had grown out of, I swapped this with an offer of a buggy board. Another lady was offering some books, I said I was looking to get some for my holiday - she said she needed some for hers - so I took some with me for her, then whilst we were chatting our 2 children got on very well & I ended up staying for about an hour & we have said we will get together again.

I will continue to e-bay & car boot, but make sure that when I have finnished with the bits I get from freecycle I freecycle them on again.

Nicky

crutches

please don't judge people by their vehicles.
we have a fairly modern people carrier BUT we have 6 children to transport and the car was bought with a grant from a charity for children.
I've picked things up and been lectured about my carbon footprint,my large family and wanting their goods to go to a worthy cause!
I've also had goods i really needed from lovely people and given lots of old clothes/baby stuff etc to others.I LOVE freecycle

Zazen999

Hi
I've been using freecycle for a few years now, and have had various incidents but mostly nice people. What I find is that you get a huge swathe of people who ask for everything that come up with the same excuse [not going to get personal here, but i am sure others have had the same sort of thing].
What i now do is to put a load of bumpf in the first few lines/paragraphs about what it is, what condition and why i am wanting to get rid. The last line is always 'please put in your response a time and date suitable for collection. If this is not included then the response will be deleted'

This sorts out 2 things:
Firstly, those that just respond to everything very rarely read to the end so the email gets deleted as a matter of course.
Then, you can select those that can pick up when you are actually around, rather than have to wait in for people.
this way, if they don't show, you haven't actually wasted time. I do try and respond with something first and see if the response is fairly coherent, before i agree dates and times etc. eg 'i can't help with lifting' or something of that ilk [i can't anyway, so it's not lying].

grayme-m

The wife's just read out a wanted.

Harry Potter 7 as they are going on holiday and the husband would like to read it on the plane.... they can afford a holiday abroad but not £5 for a book...? :rolleyes2

jordylass

grayme-m wrote: »

The wife's just read out a wanted.

Harry Potter 7 as they are going on holiday and the husband would like to read it on the plane.... they can afford a holiday abroad but not £5 for a book...? :rolleyes2

Getting things off Freecycle is not about what people can/can't 'afford'. I could have 'afforded' to buy lots of the thing I have had from Freecycle but would rather take/use something that would otherwise go in rubbish/landfill then add to consumerism and buy everything new.

grayme-m

jordylass wrote: »

Getting things off Freecycle is not about what people can/can't 'afford'. I could have 'afforded' to buy lots of the thing I have had from Freecycle but would rather take/use something that would otherwise go in rubbish/landfill then add to consumerism and buy everything new.

True, but given that consensus is that people tend to try to give things to those that are most needy...

jordylass

I'm not sure how one would go about determining someone else's level of need.

Within the Freecyle guidelines it states

This is not a wish list designed to fulfill the needs of others. This is a recycling group with the goal of reducing items thrown into landfills by finding people who are willing and able to use items that would otherwise be discarded.

I use this all the time when moderating the group for posts with needed/urgent in the heading. Freecycle does not exist to meet peoples NEEDS whether real or imagined, but only to keep items out of landfill. No one should be allowed to use begging within their posts, they do not have to justify their want for an item merely state what it is they want or offer.

grayme-m

I stand corrected on the ethos as I have never read the Freecycle guidelines.

However, I believe that people weigh up many things in determining who to give things to, including the number of responses to an offer, the tone and content of the response, what people can determine from postings in the past from that person and also try to guage to would benefit most from an item (try to determine need).

True it is hard, but if someone appeared to be genuine in a request that has reasoning behind their need (such as setting up home from scratch) and then turns up at our house driving a brand new BMW 5 series (though I guess that could be from a 'wanted') then the item would probably go to someone else.

Similarly, if two people post a wanted for a book, I doubt someone going on holiday would be the one chosen over someone else who just politely asks for it.

You probably don't agree with me, but from reading this thread, I doubt I am alone in this view. <Stands back for the unanimous flaming >.