What do you think of these Freecycle Wanted Posts?

dollydoodah

Ticklemouse wrote: »

I collected some books off a lady yesterday. She's even added some more she had found hanging around. We were also having a bit of a moan about the list of wanteds for laptops, Wii's etc.

We also moaned about no-shows. The original receiver of the books had twice failed to show so she was really pleased I turned up when I siad I would.

Are you talking about me? :rotfl:

I only popped on this thread as I saw a wanted add on for a Car this morning as the daughter has just passed her test and would love a car. If they can't afford to buy a cheap runaround, how one earth would they be able to afford the insurance which would inevitably be more expensive?

eryn_kathleen

The thing that really drives me nuts about the sob stories is that someone who has a genuine reason to request something that they wouldn't normally ask for sounds suspicious.

I work from home pretty frequently, which means that our spare bedroom is covered in papers. Until recently, we hadn't had visitors to stay with us for more than 3 years.

When my husband was diagnosed with cancer in November I posted a wanted ad for a 3 or 4 drawer filing cabinet so that I could tidy up the spare bedroom enough so that his parents could stay with us for a few weeks. I explained the situation, and I didn't think my wanted was particularly unreasonable as there must be loads of businesses in Edinburgh trying to offload old filing cabinets.

I got four replies - one very kind email from someone I'd given a microwave to, offering to help with transport, and three emails telling me how fed up they were with sob stories and how they thought it was horrible that I would lie about having a sick family member. I couldn't believe it - that was the only wanted ad I ever posted, and I've offered dozens of items.

I was really upset, but then I told DH about it and he told me to send them pics of his stomach with the fresh scar running across it. I did, and it was very satisfying!

bathgatebuyer

Great one on my local page at the moment - Wanted ipod touch, must be able to deliver it to me.

I presume someone is having a laugh??

I'm thinking about listing something equally unlikely:

"Wanted: Jose Mourinho. Must be willing to satisfy my every whim"

Ice_2

I have afew bits that I need to get rid of that were my late mum's and are taking up valuable room I feel enclosed with this amount of furniture but you guys are putting me off wanting to go on mine...I signed up just before christmas thinking that come new year I can de-clutter the house of my mums things that are just in the way and I will never use...but I haven't got up the courage yet to put in an "offer" message yet...it's silly me keeping all these things I have a table and 4 chairs in my lounge that are just in the way...I will think about putting them on at the weekend...thanks for all your insight into free cycling...:D

HugoSP

eryn_kathleen wrote: »

I got four replies - one very kind email from someone I'd given a microwave to, offering to help with transport, and three emails telling me how fed up they were with sob stories and how they thought it was horrible that I would lie about having a sick family member. I couldn't believe it - that was the only wanted ad I ever posted, and I've offered dozens of items.

Personally I would have contacted the moderator who I'm sure once he satisfied himself that you were genuine, would have probably sent a chastizing e mail to the individuals involved and posted an announcement regarding the lack of community spirit amonsgt a few.

I wish you and your husband well with his treatment.

HugoSP

Ice wrote: »

I have afew bits that I need to get rid of that were my late mum's and are taking up valuable room I feel enclosed with this amount of furniture but you guys are putting me off wanting to go on mine...I signed up just before christmas thinking that come new year I can de-clutter the house of my mums things that are just in the way and I will never use...but I haven't got up the courage yet to put in an "offer" message yet...it's silly me keeping all these things I have a table and 4 chairs in my lounge that are just in the way...I will think about putting them on at the weekend...thanks for all your insight into free cycling...:D

Offer one thing at a time if you want, until you get a feel for how freecycle works.

I would do the following.

Ask for a contact (landline) number in your ad for anyone who replies. This way you have someone at the other end of the phone to call if a pickup doesn't occur.
Make it clear that these items are not to be resold, unless you don't mind finding them on e bay or the local paper.
Make it clear that you will 'draw names out of a hat' as to who gets them. That way you won't feel pressured to giving it to the first to respond.
When contacting the person who is to have the item make sure you agree a collection date and advise them that you will have to re offer it if they don't pickup or contact you.

Recently when we bought a house that the seller left his furniture in we did a scattergun approach. We listed everything. In the end one person took most of the furniture and we know she kept most of it and re offered some bits she couldn't use after all.

buxtonrabbitgreen

I think freecycle is great. If you don't want your items to be resold you can say so in your post. If you are really worried about someone making a profit from your stuff, sell it your self instead. Some things I have offered on freecycle have not been wanted so I put them in our local paper (online so no hassle and free to advertise under £100) and sold them all.
The best thing I have been given was a cycle. It was offered and I replied, not a sob story but explained that my doctor said I had damaged knee ligaments and cycling would help. I got the bike, and it turned out it was someone I had given a kayak to. So people do remember.

Ken68

Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly; but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving once and for all that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

Andy_Davies

Pooky wrote: »

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.

I'm the ofa Freecycle group and would agree with the above...

The other thing to remember about wanted ads is they're self policing

- people can ask for what they want but it doesn't mean anyone is going to give them it. If the other members of the group feel the poster is being unreasonable then they won't give them what they're looking for.

- if someone does give them the item (not matter how unreasonable you or I may thing the request is) then ultimately it was a reasonable request!

On the unmoderated posts, my understanding is that members should only be kept on moderation people while they don't 'post properly', once people follow the rules they should be taken off moderation.

Cheers

Andy

LilMissEmmylou

in a way i honestly hate wanted adds! but i know sometimes they are needed. Ours is full of laptops wanted at the moment and some berk wanting a specific set of 4 alloy wheels for his car and another wanting a moped or scooter... but hey its alright, he can collect it at anytime lol