Freecycle replies!!

[lisad123]

Ok I thought it might be fun to list all the lovely replies I get for what I have offered today;

I have offered a broken dyson (brushes arent working but sucking ok)

3 wheeler buggy great for walking.

Here are the replies so far, who shall I choose?

Yes, I suppose that's how I feel too sandal.

I do think there should be gratitude on both sides, but I don't think the tone of the vast majority of replies here sounds rude at all - especially the ones asking about the make of the dyson or the colour of an artificial tree. They are sensible questions if either issue is a deal-breaker for the recipient. What's the point of passing on things that won't be of us to the person who gets them?

I've just had a look at my latest email and found this:

REQUESTED: Johnny Depp 

:o :o

I would request him too

We get a lot of requests for ipods/wii's/psp/ds's on our freegle posts.

i never know how to ask for an item and get the daily digest so by the time i've replied it's usually gone which makes me a bit .

Apart from "Dyson please" what is wrong with these replies? What are you meant to write?

I'd put it on Ebay and not even bother with Freecycle this time.

Great as Freecycle is, some people are out to make money from it and Dysons (even broken ones) are worth money.

I'm speaking as someone who gave my first broken Dyson away on Freecycle (i had about 50+ replies but was new at the time so not suspicious) and then sold the 2nd broken Dyson on Ebay for over £60!

I'm sure there are some honest people replying but how do you find them? I've had people asking me to deliver, specifying exactly what kind of dect phone they were after and one guy who said he'd prefer the seasoned oak logs we had in the garden rather than the scrap (fire) wood i'd posted!

I've had nothing but good experiences with Freecycle. I ignore the odd rude reply and usually have someone willing to pick up very quickly. People show up as promised without fail, they're always friendly and we sort out the heavy lifting/dismantling together. It's a great system.

Most of the replies you received were friendly, I don't understand why you're posting them here? To parade people's replies around and make it into some sort of contest for your own amusement? Not very respectful, IMO.

I also don't really see what the problem is? Seriously, apart from the abrubt one with no please and thankyou can you tell me what more you would want? I have also never used freecycle and would only use it to get rid of junk and would be hugely grateful to anyone willing to save me the trouble of a trip to the tip or mucking around with arranging a collection time for the housing trust.

Beanbagz, what's wrong with that? If I have something that I don't need or want and can't be bothered selling, why shouldn't someone else make money from it? Personally I hate Ebay and can't be bothered with the faff of working out postage, sending stuff etc - if someone can make money they need from something that would otherwise be binned, good luck to them.

I have started a policy of only offering to people who say please or thank you (or ideally both!) in their response. And I refuse to phone initially.

I've found it a real mixed bag. Some really lovely people like those who sent me a lovely message after picking up a bag of kitchen design magazines or the woman who was so very grateful for the single duvet, to the ungrateful grabby ones and the one who sent me a really rude email saying she was going to "report me" when the item that I had said was not tested and had been in a cupboard for 2 years had a minor problem with it.

My rules are:

• txt spk or inpolite responses don't win
• I say in the original post when they will be available for collection and rough location and I expect people to confirm they can make that time
• fail to show up at said time without discussing in advance means it goes elsewhere

i put a few more bits up and got:

Hello luv would luv the "Toaster please can collect 2day (Thu)

hi could i have all these items to help my friend

hi there
Im interested,

oh boy would I like to have these but no transport, thankyou for reading

have u still got items please can collect today

May I have these if so can collect about 6pm :)

ItWasABoojum it's just i'd rather stuff i was giving away went to people who really needed it to use themselves.

You're right Ebay is a real faff for selling things unless you have something that's sought after which is why i still use Freecycle.

Hi none of those sound bad to me. Even the one that doesn't say please and thank you is still very polite, checking availability, talking savour your convenience

I gave away a knackered but fixable Dyson once and picked someone at random. A posh woman turned up and squealed "now we have one for every floor of our house!" before dashing off with it to her 4 wheel drive.

Ive had a lot of good resposes from stuff Ive posted on freecycle and some bad ones/no shows.
Its really hard to decide who to give stuff to as I think some people have got really good at spinning a line and sounding needy then turning up in 4 wheel drives etc. and looking a lot richer than me.
I also think that some people are dealers in certain items and exploiting the set up and depriving others of stuff they really need. But what can you do if you want to ensure that it goes to someone who needs it rather than is going to make money off it? I cant work that one out so have decided not to worry about it too much.
Overall my experiences are good.

it might be more fun in CHAT.

Oooh! A member of the Thread Police. Get over yourself.

I wouldn't give to anyone who wanted both as it sounds like they just want anything for free and may be selling it on.

Get over myself? I'm not a contortionist and that sounds harder than posting in chat instead of AIBU.

I've had good and bad experiences with Freegle, on the whole I've found people fairly polite and do actually turn up when they say they will.

Cheapcycle is another story - one local lady asked for our lovely German furniture, and after we offered it to her she asked if we could possibly deliver to a town 20 miles away. We thought about it and said we could, for petrol money. Then she wanted to come and look at it first - fine, we said, when can you come. She gave us a time, we sat at home, she didn't turn up. She did this three bloody times. In the end I emailed her and told her not to bother.

I Freegled the same furniture a week later and she popped up and asked for it and could we possibly deliver...

I remember in one week I got off freecycle and Gumtree

A (sat on twice) brown leather Ikea sofa with metal tubular legs
A Wii with 6 games,2 controllers and 2 singing mikes
A bag of beautiful costume jewellery from Accessorize
A posh cat basket
60 ceramic rust colour floor tiles....still in boxes.
A sony CD player with speakers (RRP £260)

I love freecycle

I like the first response, and agree that you can get rid of both at the same time.

I have had mixed feelings about Freecycle.

I got a beautiful bike for me, but when I went to pick up, I took at bottle of wine for the woman getting rid.

And I was giving away some toys and the woman who I was giving to asked me what bus she should get. I willingly took them round to her, and she was so nice and invited me in and I was happy to help her.

OTOH I must admit I was once overcome by drunken righteousness and emailed one man and asked, since he seemed to regularly ask for loads of things, he might actually adopt the spirit of freecycle and actually offer something to others.

There was also a couple of people asking for money, and again fuelled by drink outrage, I grassed to the moderator folk. No response.

So I came off before I was banned