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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To begin to dislike Freecycle?

56 replies

breatheslowly · 01/08/2010 17:27

Freecycle is a great idea and has worked for us really well in the past - both ways. But in the last week our local group has had wanteds for:

TV 36 inch or bigger
Ikea Trofast storage system
Washing machine in working order
Wooden high chair

Surely these are too specific and freecycle isn't a personal shopping site.

I don't mind the many other wanteds and lots of them are actually for sensible things - jars for jam making etc.

OP posts:
Meglet · 01/08/2010 17:30

My all time favourite from ours was couple of years ago when one of the regulars asked for a grey african parrot as hers had died and the kids were upset. FFS.

Tarenath · 01/08/2010 17:31

No YANBU. Some people do ask for silly things. I've seen a want for things like a PSP, dishwashers, laptops etc.
Also there's far to many people that like to mess people around when collecting things too. I had someone turn up at 10pm for something and ring the doorbell, despite being asked to knock and not ring because my kids would be in bed!

Having said that, I've met some really lovely and considerate people through freecycle, and even made a friend once

innocuousnamechange · 01/08/2010 17:33

I think you may be in the same group as me. I'm fed up of all the spammers tbh. Generic 'I'll have that' replies to anything I offer have put me right off. ANd some people on it are so grabby. There's always a particular woman asking for very specific toys for her son, offering the occasional tatty towel or somesuch. I mainly put up offered items, I think I've only asked for one thing, and didn't get a single reply. Meh.

Clumsymum · 01/08/2010 17:34

Oh I know what you mean. I assumed it was for stuff folk really need, but they are becoming more fussy.

I've been on today, looking for a bike for DS. I've posted a Wanted request, asking for anything useable (I assume if anything comes up we will have to get new tyres & so-forth).

But someone on there is asking for a 4GB SD card so he can store more music on his phone, Someone else a specific make of dishwasher in working order.

Meglet · 01/08/2010 17:35

namechange The only time I asked for something on freecycle was for old blankets to cover the guinea pig hutch in cold weather...... my dad replied as he had some in the garage .

emptyshell · 01/08/2010 17:53

It's the attached sob story that's become almost mandatory on our local group that gets me. We had a request for an Xbox360 complete with two paragraphs about a distraught child sat with the controller for his dead console in his hands staring at a blank TV screen a few weeks back, from the same person who'd requested a flat screen telly, silver washing machine and numerous other things that month.

Get some amusing asks the month Rocky Horror hits town though - lab coat, suspenders, basques, water guns all came through - guy was asking for a Santa suit last month which I guess counts as forward planning!

melpomene · 01/08/2010 20:12

LOL at distraught child wanting Xbox360.

I don't think the washing machine request mentioned in the OP is so bad. A washing machine is an 'essential' that someone on a low income would find hard to afford, and if someone else is upgrading their washing machine to a better model they may be glad of the chance to offload the old one.

It is cheeky to ask for a specific branded product, though.

The cheekiest person I've encountered on Freecycle was someone who asked me to deliver an item I was offering to his home. It was a small, light, easily portable item and he lived only a couple of blocks away from me, and didn't give any reason why he wouldn't be able to collect it. Because he was the only person wanting the item, I replied that he could have it but would need to come and collect it. I never heard from him again.

addie81 · 01/08/2010 20:18

I listed a big stack of very expensive law textbooks that I don't need anymore on our local free cycle group so that a poor student could have them - a man replied and asked for them. When he came to pick them up I asked him where he was studying - he said he was not a student and just wanted to sell the books online! I know that's technically allowed - but I really thought it wasn't really in the spirit of freecycle.........

Galena · 01/08/2010 20:19

To be fair, I put a wanted on recently for a few things, including a room divider or BabyDan playpen (which generally sell second hand for 30-40 quid). Someone did actually offer me one, and so DD now can't launch herself out of the patio door! However, if I put offered items on, I make it clear that 'I'll have it' type replies will not be considered.

Never had anyone not turn up at an arranged time.

ChippingIn · 01/08/2010 20:28

I used to really like Freecycle too and like you have both offered and taken things, and once asked for an obscure text book that's no longer in print on the off chance someone had one gathering dust on a book shelf....

However, wanted ads are becoming a joke - not only are they asking for expensive items (cars, sheds, games consoles etc), but stating the colour, condition etc that they must be in.... too rude for words.

wukter · 01/08/2010 20:32

We offered our old tatty shed before, stressing that it was old and tatty. A man came and broke it into planks in our garden before he brought it - he wanted it as insulation for his pigpen.

I don't mind what people ask for or offer as long as it is clear in the header line.
Don't have to click on it.

emptyshell · 01/08/2010 22:29

Another one I had was the day I offered a PS2 (only occasionally worked, needed fiddling to re-set the lasers)... one of the habitual scroungers replied saying "I'll take it, I do stuff for the premature babies"... now, the exact use a premature baby could have with a games console was never stated and he didn't get it for being an illiterate demanding muppet anyway, despite the 10 emails he sent bugging me to know if he was getting it.

I've got to put a telly up on there soon and I keep putting it off because the rude "I'll have it"s who barrage repeated emails at 5 minute intervals are so hard to deal with.

expatinscotland · 01/08/2010 22:32

I stopped using it when I had too many no shows.

Wilts · 01/08/2010 22:35

Same as Expat- have been really messed around this week and can't be bothered with the hassle anymore.

ragged · 01/08/2010 22:36

I think I've got a cure for most no shows.
I tell them a deadline to pick the item up, say I hope that's fair, and tell them it will be offered to next person who replied if they don't pick up by deadline (as near in time as I dare).

Has worked so much better than saying "Yes you can have it, when can you fetch it?" type replies.

That said, I usually try to carboot or give to charity shop first, Freecycle really is a dumping ground of stuff that should go to tip, otherwise.

Fiddledee · 01/08/2010 22:47

I've freecycled alot recently as moving but have stopped using it. No shows is a big problem and people being quite aggressive by email - somebody tried to intimidate me into dropping an item off at their house.

Only going to freecyle stuff too much of a hassle to move e.g. bookcase or wardrobe.

baby vests are going to be used as cleaning cloths for a number of years in this household

Vallhala · 01/08/2010 22:48

The other side to your OP is the attitude that my FC Mods take. We are allowed to ask for "advice where to obtain" - ie whether anyone has seen an ad for an item for sale (although THEY are not allowed to sell on FC of course).

When I first started Freecycling I emailed the Mod to ask if I could request information on where I could buy a dishwasher at the same time as offering some items. The Mod replied that it was perfectly ok for me to post a wanted ad for one. I did and got a response from a lovely couple who delivered too and wouldn't accept fuel money, for which I was incredibly grateful as my "D"H had just left me with 2 under-twos and no money.

So, it may not be that the posters are behaving unacceptably but that the Mods are happy to allow such posts. I do agree however that if you want a highchair, for example, you should be grateful for one that is clean and safe and not have the cheek to specify that it's pink, wooden or comes from John Lewis!

bytheMoonlight · 01/08/2010 23:01

Agree about Mods needing to be in control of the board.

Sob stories are not allowed on our board. Just simple requests.

jenny60 · 01/08/2010 23:07

One person asked me to send her the hair dryer I had offered because she couldn't afford the petrol for the 5 mile drive to my house. I did this and asked her to donate the postage to Oxfam, She then asked if we were interested in renting their holiday house in France! I was

PurpleCrazyHorse · 01/08/2010 23:23

I've had a run of no shows in the past and now state in my offered posts that no shows will be reported to the moderators. There's no official way to do this on our FC board but I figure if a few people start doing this our moderators will do something as they'll be inundated with messages! Now I've had 4 people in a row turn up on time

Mimile · 01/08/2010 23:36

No shows and hard competition for any offered items, with too many sad stories to choose from.
Our personal favourite is a regular user on our board, who will go for any old semi-valuable item on offer, puts a good sad story together, and proceeds onto request item to be delivered miles away from the board locale, at a specific time, and starts threatening when things don't go her way.

FC has been great for us in the past years; have got loads of furniture/baby stuff and given loads to other people too. But surely, there could be better moderation.

fustyarse · 02/08/2010 08:38

I recently offered quite a lot of decent baby stuff and predictably had loads of replies- I immediately disregard any that are impolite and grabby!

I chose a nice girl to take it all and followed up on our board with 'taken'

this one guy kept on emailing me, asking if he'd 'won' the stuff, he didn't understand how it worked etc, I emailed him back saying sorry, not this time

Imagine my surprise when I found he'd found me on Facebook, friend requested me and messaged me there

Farking weirdo. I blocked him.

OutOutLetItAllOut · 02/08/2010 09:04

last week i offered 3 sets of curtains, and i had people doing the, ill have them all thing. it was as 3 seperate oferes on there and i refused to give them all, ( all really different size ans style and clouor) to the same person.
1 guy was mean to come b4 3 pm, and at 8 i emailed and said sorry im now offereing to the next person, he then turned up the following day, so 48 hrs after he was meant to have them and had a go at me.
tosser.

RandyRussian · 02/08/2010 09:32

I heard that people use Freecycle as a source for stuff to sell on Ebay.

Makes you wonder!

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 02/08/2010 09:46

Yes and no. If someone is going to buy, say, a Trofast storage system or a wooden highchair then I don't have any problem with their thinking "I wonder whether anyone has one they don't need?" and asking before they buy new -- the purpose of Freecycle isn't to act as a charity funnelling stuff to the deserving who can't afford to buy new so much as it is to route used and unwanted stuff to where it is wanted, can be reused and avoid waste and excess consumption.

But there are a lot of people out there taking the piss (e.g. trawling for stuff to sell on and the "habitual scroungers").

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