Freecycle is it corrupt??

geordie_joe

Cardew wrote: »

I don’t know if you saw the programme on Sky News yesterday about organized gangs going around and taking(stealing) bags of clothes left out for charity; and also sending out flyers that imply that they are collecting for charity.(deception)

I wonder if this is the reason our charity shops have put big notices in their windows asking people not to leave bags outside out of hours.

They did this about a month ago, well that's when I noticed it.

Cardew

geordie_joe wrote: »

I wonder if this is the reason our charity shops have put big notices in their windows asking people not to leave bags outside out of hours.

They did this about a month ago, well that's when I noticed it.

Yes, this was on the BBC as well.

They put a tracker in a bag of clothes for charity and had a lot of secret cameras. The Van and lots of others finished up at an industrial site where a bunch of Lithuanians loaded the days 'takings' into containers and discarded the bags with the charity's name on them. It really is on a massive scale.

The charities now advise people not to leave any clothes outside for collection any more.

On the question of clothing collectors - you may be aware that even some of those "charities" that put a collection note and bag through your door are selling the clothes that they collect and making a profit so be careful!

Agreed, but I am quite happy for a genuine charity to sell my old clothes/curtains/bedding etc to raise money.

missyg_3

Mattogier, thank you for your interesting post.

About the cross-posting issue, I am on the border of 3 freecycle groups, and I belong to all 3 but I use one as my "main" one. If on a rare occasion something I offer gets no interest from the first group, I will offer it to the second one, and a couple of times it's gone on to the third one too. I don't post to them all at the same time, only when there has been no interest.

Once it's taken however, I do post a "taken" to each group it appeared on to let people know. Is this wrong? I can't find anything about this on the info that gets sent out. I hope you don't mind me asking, I would appreciate your advice.

misscomickat

I'm really quite shocked to find that people use freecycle as a way of making money and sell on items.

I joined my local group when it was quite small. I had recently moved into an unfurnished flat and was lucky enough to get a double bed frame, which a nice couple actually dropped off at my flat. I couldn't believe my luck.

Since then, the site has grown so large, that the emails are unmanagable, there are so many WANTED messages, especially for large items, and anything good is snapped up straight away. I can't be bothered with it anymore.

It's a good idea but I think it's a shame that is it used by some people to make a profit!

missyg_3

Misscomickat - if your email program allows it, maybe you could try setting up filters so that the freecycle mail is delivered into separate folders for offered, wanted, taken? Then you could keep an eye on the offered stuff and just browse the wanteds at your convenience without it taking over your usual inbox.

Mine would definitely be unmanageable if I wasn't doing that

misscomickat

Thanks, that is a good idea. What type of email allows you to do that?

I'm currently preparing to move house and put most of my things into storage as I'm working abroad for 4 months, so there may be things I want to get rid of.

missyg_3

I use Outlook rules and that works great, I think most email programmes allow some kind of filtering? I separate everything that comes from Freecycle, with subject line 'wanted' going into one sub folder and 'taken' into another.

Good luck with your house move!

scabbers

missyg wrote: »

Mattogier, thank you for your interesting post.

About the cross-posting issue, I am on the border of 3 freecycle groups, and I belong to all 3 but I use one as my "main" one. If on a rare occasion something I offer gets no interest from the first group, I will offer it to the second one, and a couple of times it's gone on to the third one too. I don't post to them all at the same time, only when there has been no interest.

Once it's taken however, I do post a "taken" to each group it appeared on to let people know. Is this wrong? I can't find anything about this on the info that gets sent out. I hope you don't mind me asking, I would appreciate your advice.

I think you are CORRECT in posting to all the groups.

mattogier

missyg wrote: »

Mattogier, thank you for your interesting post.

About the cross-posting issue, I am on the border of 3 freecycle groups, and I belong to all 3 but I use one as my "main" one. If on a rare occasion something I offer gets no interest from the first group, I will offer it to the second one, and a couple of times it's gone on to the third one too. I don't post to them all at the same time, only when there has been no interest.

Once it's taken however, I do post a "taken" to each group it appeared on to let people know. Is this wrong? I can't find anything about this on the info that gets sent out. I hope you don't mind me asking, I would appreciate your advice.

You are doing just the right thing - we allow crossposts to our group a week to 10 days after the original post went out and expect people to post a taken / recieved to the group(s) that they posted an offered / wanted.

Well done and keep up the good work!

Ken68

FREECYCLE will be banned eventually.
Cheap stuff via church and boot sales and auction YES, but Free upsets the system and all this toing and froing on the roads aint doing the environment a lot of good.
Nice while it lasts.