To have left the Freecycle group?

[KirstyJC]

Oh joy. I waited in all morning for someone who said they would be here at 11. When I emailed back at 11.30 asking where they were I was told they would be here in a couple of hours after she had a bath!

When I said we had to go out then and had been waiting in for her, I got a very rude email saying to 'keep the item'.

This is the final straw! This is far from the first time this has happened! So I have removed myself from Freecycle.

I am sick and tired of people thinking their time is more important than ours, and that they don't even need to bother with basic courtesy ie letting us know they are delayed.

So AIBU to pull out of freecycle? Grrr......

[Mabelface]

I'm a co-owner of a freegle group. If you have no shows or abusive messages from any member, do make sure that you email the mods so we can do something about it. If we don't know, we can't deal. :)

[RahRahRasputin]

We use Freegle now, some sort of offshoot of Freecycle. You're not allowed to post lists of items any more, which is a bit annoying, but when we used to do an Offered: various post, with say ten completely unrelated items from clearing out the loft, there would be immediate replies of people wanting all of it which seems rather coincidental. We would usually give as much as possible to polite people who wanted individual items then let them take the rest.

For a while there was an ongoing sob story about a woman whose dog had cancer. She kept wanting things to sell to pay for treatment and also posting very graphic updates about it, in the end I felt so sorry for the poor dog being kept alive and forced to have chemotherapy when it could barely walk and had all sorts of horrific symptoms

I haven't used it for a while as I complained to the moderators about the number of sob story posts, which are clearly banned in the guideline, and I was told that they weren't the sort of people who would read guidelines so there's no point telling them off

The one that triggered me to complain was a man who posted a whole list of things he wanted and then said something about how he was the dad of teens and so he didn't have much money as he had to buy them everything they wanted

[deakymom]

ive left too i accidentally didn't put multiple pleases and thank yous in my request so they sent it back saying it was "rude" so i tried it again three pleases/thank yous sent back again so i messaged admin explaining i was trying to have a sort out and nit picking was not helping finally got the ad published then i tried to put on a request i was told i couldn't unless i actually got rid of something first i quit

the ones that get me are the "desperate" ones that conclude as sent from my blackberry device or sent from my iphone really? if you can afford them you dont need to be begging for clothing trade your phone in and BUY some

[stripedtortoise]

YANBU. I had a similar situation with a fridge. Kept cancelling. Excuse after excuse. Then got shitty with ME when I dared to say I'd have to offer it to someone else & sent a very strongly worded email to me branding me the C word! :/
When people are getting something for free, they care less. I stick to EBay now.

[IAmANightOwl]

I used Freecycle a while back and I couldn't get over some of the 'Wanted' posts, like 'In desperate need of tumble dryer as winter is coming and have young baby..' Sounds reasonable until you actually read on '...must be condenser drier, silver/grey, immaculate condition, please message me and I will give you my address for delivery' Good luck with that then!

[FriedSprout]

In parts of Canada, they have a specific day every month where unwanted household goods are left outside on the verge for anyone to pick it up.

i too no longer use freecycle, due to the sob stories that leave me feeling guilty and the lack of curtesy.

[AnnaLegovah]

I totally get that Bogey, hope no-one thinks I'm being poor-ist but given the amount of sob stories I saw on my local Freecycle, nobody in our town has a car. I'm not sure I believe it.

[toobreathless]

I tolerate the fact that 90% of our local freecycle seem to be utter idiots as it is useful for getting rid of stuff I can't shift myself.

I skim read the first 10 of so replies, pick one that sounds nice and vaguely reliable & it is on my terms. 'Must be collected tomorrow between 9 to 11am' I haven't had a no show (yet)

We have passed on several large pieces of furniture and a car. The car was going to cost more to MOT than it was worth & went very successfully to a trainee mechanic who could do the labour.

[kungfupannda]

I never had any problems with freecycle until a couple of weeks ago when I offered something that turned out to be surprisingly desirable. I had upwards of 30 responses.

I went with the first-come-first-served policy, and arranged collection time with someone who wanted it that day. They never showed up and never made contact again. The next half-dozen replies were all along the lines of 'I'll have it' or 'Text me I want this' or 'I need the [insert complicated technical specifics] so I know what I'm getting]. I skipped all of them and gave it to a nice lady who asked politely, gave a factual explanation of why she wanted it - not a sob story - and turned up when she said she would.

If you can't be arsed with the absolute basics of courtesy - please, thank you etc - I can't be arsed with you!

[Bogeyface]

Anna that doesnt surprise me to be honest, if someone is genuinely in need so they cant afford to buy a sofa or whatever then they wont able to run a car will they?

[YourMaNoBraBackOfMyCar]

Should say I ask for nominal amount and have occasionally dropped stuff off if I have time.

[YourMaNoBraBackOfMyCar]

I hate Freecycle. I now use my local fb selling page. Never had a worry shifting anything.

[AnnaLegovah]

I'm always amazed by the numbers of people on Freecycle groups that want something but don't drive - seems a disproportionally large amount.

I gave up on my local Freecycle page ages ago because most of it is people wanting expensive (usually electrical) goods and never offering anything themselves.

[phantomnamechanger]

owl
I recognise that story, you must be on the same group as me! LOL

some are very genuine.
One family had their house burn down and their friends/relatives were asking for help on freecycle for stuff to help them get cleaned up a bit - they ended up with mops buckets old towels etc but also people helping them. Lovely heartwarming story. It's not all rude and grabby.

[MotherOfInsomniacToddlers]

I left my free cycle group because of this and also I got fed up of the grabby "wanted posts" fair enough post something like "I'm in need of a washing machine, if anyone is getting rid of one please get in touch" but most the posts were along the lines of "I need a washing machine, fridge freezer and 42 inch tv, must all be in excellent condition and need delivering to me ASAP" I always wanted to send a message back saying something along the lines of "I think what you are looking for is a shop"

[OwlCapone]

That's not a sob story :)

I ignore all stories like "I really need this salad bowl because I lost my entire house contents when my house was struck by lightning and I am a single mother of 15 children and I only have one leg and we are living in a tent in the garden and it's infested by killer bees."

I do have sympathy but I have no way of telling whether such a story is true or not so I go down the route of picking at random. I say in the description that I will be picking at random so I actually rarely get sob stories now.

[Bogeyface]

People saying about sob stories etc. When I reply I always say "We would like to be considered please for the chest of drawers for my daughters bedroom. I can collect most days after 2:30pm or all day at weekends. Thank you

Bogey" is that too "sobby"?! :o

[buddles]

Thank you People who have come to my aid !

Gobbolino I'm talking about Friday Ad NOT Freecycle but hey let's just leave it at that yeah?

[phantomnamechanger]

Blimey Gobbolino, how many times do you need telling!

Leave Buddles alone will yer, she/he was not even talking about Freecycle and she/he and several others have told you this several times now!

[OwlCapone]

Everything on freecyle is free

Gobblino, Buddles didn't post it on Freecycle!

[Roseformeplease]

Slightly off topic, but following on from charging so things have a value and are wanted.

We used to own a pub / hotel. Occasionally, we would be given, for example, 30 free mackerel, freshly caught. DH would see them as free, put them on the menu at, say, £2 to allow for cooking and some salad / potatoes etc. No one would buy them. When he put the price up to closer to other items on the menu, say £6, they would sell out quickly.


Free cycle sounds similar, although not available here so it is the council or the dump.

[matildasquared]

See I'm afraid to have that pick-and-chose system.

In the US city I once lived in, the Freecycle was getting fucking ridiculous with these long sob stories, so that the most manipulative person "won" the freebie.

And the people offering things started making a huge production of giving their used table to "the most deserving" request. It's a fucking used table and you don't need it. Someone will come and take it off your hands. Ugh.

[GobbolinoCat]

BTW I usually give to the person who puts a little more meat into their reply and go from there. and when I win something which is 99% of the time I am always polite, and I always follow up with a thank you mail.

[GobbolinoCat]

For all of the above reasons plus I found I was becoming too judgey about the stuff people were saying they need

I think your putting too much thought into it, when you have shifted out of hte house, and shifted into the house the amount if stuff I have you dont care....


you offer, you get replies and you chose someone and thats that....they dont turn up, you find out why, if they dont respond, or apologise, offer it t to the next person.

[GobbolinoCat]

BUDDLES.

Everything on freecyle is free, i actually think perhaps the person is new to FC if I see....

free to who can collect as its all free.

I have directed several friends newly single shat upon by life with children left with nothing I would hate for them to merely ask if delivery was an option and be thought of as some of you think for asking a question.

you think its cheeky of people to ask because its free but its doing you a favour too.