What do you think of these Freecycle Wanted Posts?

HugoSP

Well today I just collected a cooker after asking for it on Freecycle.

This is the e mail I originally wrote, which I would appreciate your comments on:

Wanted Please: Freestanding electric cooker 500 to 550 wide

Hi

I wonder if anyone can help some friends of our please. They do have
internet access, but not at the moment due to trouble with their phone
line.

The oven in their slot in cooker has broken down. The hob and grille
still work fine but they do need a fully functional replacement.

I have a van and can easily pick up a working 500/550mm wide slot in
cooker. Although they could probably accomodate a 600mm wide cooker
they would have to move some kitchen units to do so, and their place is
rented so the landlord may not be too happy about them doing this.

If anyone can help with this I (they) would be very appreciative.

Thanks for reading this


The ad was meant to be polite and appreciative that we were hoping for someone to be generous enough to offer one to us.

We received one offer and it was picked up this evening and taken around to our friends a few miles away from us.

The nice chap who gave it away joked about me being a middle man, but the way I see it is there are only winners here all round.

The gent who gave it away had it removed within a few days of having his new one fitted - he was using it right up until the last minute and couldn't let it go straight away, so we know it was working.

Our friends (parents of DD2s best friend and the nicest people you could ever meet) now have a fully working cooker for the first time since Christmas Day - Joint of beef they had had to be cooked in the grille after the oven broke down.

They kindly gave us a bottle of wine for finding it, collecting it and bringing it over to them. I was passing the house where it was at this evening on my way home, so I saved them a trip to collect it. I really just wanted to help them out, and I could do that very easily.

HugoSP

Ice wrote: »

on our's it states that if someone asks you for money to report them or if someone offer's you money to report them...an if you suspect them to be an ebayer repoat them...it's not like its wrote on there heads...but I haven't been on mine long also I haven't taken or offered anything yet...I have alot of stuff from when my mum died ...but I feel I can actually get rid of it now...was wondering of a charity shop...as one item is a wall unit/drinks cabinet...the other is a table and 4 chair's but I just don't have the room for them so they are gonna have to go...also a bath chair cost £130 and never been used...I wonder if I could give that to social services or somewhere...anyway off down town tomorrow so will ask afew charity shops first if not freecycle and see who wants them...they was one for a laptop on mine...if anyone got a new laptop for xmas can I have your old one...no p's and q's nothing cheeky devils...:D

As far as the disability aids are concerned, Help the Aged may be the best route to rehome these. Mention that you'd like them to go straight to someone who needs them, rather than a privately run nursing home who, lets face it, are a profit making business.

Ice_2

Ticklemouse wrote: »

The woman I collected the books off also said that she has had plenty of text books from her uni course to offer. She said that usually she is inundated with offers to collect, but this last time she specified that theywere unsuitable for resale on Amazon or ebay due to the number of handwritten notes in them, She only got 2 (genuine) responses.

Maybe that is the way to go with books etc

ps. Had no luck with anyone offering me an LS Lowrie. Ah well, maybe if I specify that I will accept a Constable (originals onlyof course!!) I will get a better response :rotfl:

this one any good...lol...:rotfl:found it in smileys

sammiboo

I am quite a new comer to freecycle. I have offered a toaster and a kitchen table with seating. Both were collected although I noticed in the responses there was a distinct lack of please and thank you. :rolleyes:

HugoSP

I think that people seem to think they need to be first to run off a reply, so they type the minimum.

I have found that a polite response works wonders with some people, and I always mention that I can easily collect.

I must admit I used to pick the first respondant but after reading some responses to my offereds I tend to pick the first response that I like.

ScoobieGirl

HugoSP wrote: »

Well today I just collected a cooker after asking for it on Freecycle.

This is the e mail I originally wrote, which I would appreciate your comments on:

If I was writing it I would have just kept it very short and polite, probably not mentioned that it was for someone else, or why you wanted that particular size. I don't think most people care, as long as it goes to someone polite and appriciative.

It was very kind of you to go out of your way like that. I love it when freecycle works like this.

HugoSP

ScoobieGirl wrote: »

If I was writing it I would have just kept it very short and polite, probably not mentioned that it was for someone else, or why you wanted that particular size. I don't think most people care, as long as it goes to someone polite and appriciative.

It was very kind of you to go out of your way like that. I love it when freecycle works like this.

Thanks for your response Scoobiegirl

I was worried that keeping it too short may not prohibit politeness, perhaps not. Although I didn't want recognition for helping someone else, I felt that if people could see I was trying to help someone else then I may appear more deserving.

We needed the slightly smaller size to fit an existing slot between units, a 600mm cooker wouldn't have fitted without moving the units, and as it was a rented property they wanted to avoid that.

But, yes I could have eliminated saying they had internet connectivity probs etc.....

Thanks again for your feedback, most appreciated.

missyg_3

Hugo I liked your wanted message, and I'm glad you got a result!

You explained WHY you need this certain size cooker, which I think is important otherwise people might think "oh, they're being a bit fussy". You didn't try to use a sob story, just presented the facts.

It is good to see someone taking a bit of trouble to word a wanted message nicely. Those are the ones I'd be more inclined to try to help, if I could.

Pooky

Don't give up on Freecycle guys, I know the wanted adds are a pain in the proverbial but please remember that these sites are owned and moderated in peoples spare time.

Some sites are set up for unmoderated posting which means that messages go straight through without anyone else seeing them, it's up to the site owner if they set it this way and for all the wanted posts that go unanswered Freecycle is still doing what it was designed to do.

I'm a longstanding moderator on my local group and I know it's hard to collate with other mods as to what goes and what doesn't - at the end of the day we try our best.

My local group is fairly small but I still moderate on average over 80 messages a day - lots of these need editing to remove phone numbers, edit locations, they need checking to make sure that they've "offered" before "wanting" (one of our sites rules) and checking that they've not already asked for this item in the past month, although these checks are fairly quick to do they all take time and yes the odd post does go through when it shouldn't.....I'm human after all.

For all my efforts I suffer countless abusive emails from people who don't like it when I reject their message......but I still do it as I belive that if you look a bit further through the sea of wanted adds you do get a glimpse of what it's all about.

2boysmum

just checked my e-mails and out of 21 freecycle messages 18 of them were wanted ads the best one being this one[FONT=&quot]
"I know this is cheeky, but is there anyone who has an old caravan they dont
want anymore. We have kids so it would need to be a 4/5 berth. It would be
great to get to see some of the country while its not yet warm enough to
camp! "

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