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......

Buddles, everything is free to collector - its called FREECYLE, I think its you who is having the trouble here.

Except it wasn't listed on Freecycle.
So no, she isn't the one with the problem.

With Freecycle, I find out what day they plan on coming and leave the item on the doorstep as this is most convenient for everyone involved.

The trouble with the first come first served idea is that those who can't hover over their pcs all the time miss out.

That's the nature of the beast.

I can't bear the manipulative sob stories--and conversely, the person who primly announces that she will be considering all offers carefully to ensure that her shitty second-hand bowl goes to just the right person. That's not what freecycle is for.

OP you are definitely NBU! I too left freecycle after advertising a pine chest of drawers for collection. I was heavily pregnant, DH working away, just wanted rid really so that we could free up the room.
A couple agreed to collect, turned up 2 hours late, without a car to put it in?!. I said I really need to go out so perhaps we could move it onto the drive so that I could go out and they could nip home to get the car.. fab.
Except, they never came back, it pissed down with rain, and I was left with a solid pine chest of drawers blocking my garage for a week till DH came home and took it to the tip.

Thank you OwlCapone

I was actually about to hit my head against the wall or do some primal screaming as I don't seem to be getting through to some people. To reiterate

1. I don't give stuff away for free to feel like Mother Theresa (did she use Freecycle??) I do it as can't be bothered to sell. I normally want stuff gone quickly . Most of my stuff goes to charity.

1. I wasn't moaning. I was just reminiscing about being asked to deliver a free to collector sofa. You can assume if someone offers a sofa free to collector it's because they can't deliver, I had a long and friendly exchange with the people who wanted my sofa explaining why I could not deliver. I offered to rent a van to drive it to them but I'd have to charge the van money and petrol to them. I don't see why I have to explain all this in great detail.

1. On occasions I have sold things that fit in the car I have offered to deliver. I've even gone on the bus to deliver things. No I don't do it to feel high and mighty. I just do it to help.

1. It was on Friday ad and not Freecycle. Sorry for posting a comment on a Freecycle thread about something that happened to me on the Friday ad. Obviously I'm totally wrong to do that.

But lordofmyflies once they turned up without a car surely you should have then driven them and the chest to their home?!?!

Sounds like something that would happen to me. Actually something similar did, again listed in friday ad but I shan't tell the story for fear of being told I'm trying to be mother Theresa or pissed off about it or accused of being high and mighty....

That's the nature of the beast.

Ours asks (but does not insist) that you agree to their Fair Offer policy where you wait for a few days before picking someone.

I do this, delete anyone who says "I'll have it and will pick it up tomorrow" and then pick someone at random. I am not interested in the sob stories. Sometimes I'll deliberately pick someone who has collected with no fuss from me before.

buddles I know where you're coming from, I offered a double bed frame collection only once and got a long sob story from someone about why she couldn't collect. Not really my problem, it physically won't fit in my small car so no I can't deliver it to you. It went to someone who collected it.

I've had sooooo many people not turn up on Freecycle when they've said they would. I put it down to 2 things

a) As others have said, there's a well-known mental accounting effect that goes on when people think about free stuff. If someone is paying even 1 pound for something they will put it into a different category than something that is free - meaning that they will treat the thing involving even a token expense as far more important. I remember someone who helps out charities a lot with business advice / consultancy talking about why they started always charging the charity a token amount (eg like 10 quid) rather than doing it completely for free. This is not because they needed the money (they were very successful and busy, and their professional charging rate was very high) but because it stopped people just mucking them about for no reason at all - cancelling with no thought etc. Apparently even a token charge made a huge difference into how flaky people were.

b) There are plenty of people on Freecycle whose life has less slack than me. Why didn't they turn up? Maybe they don't have a car. Maybe they don't have a partner so it's easier for work or other interruptions to disrupt their plans. Maybe they had to feed the electricity meter and now they don't have the bus fare. Maybe they're a refugee and they're unfamiliar with the area. Maybe there's something else going on. So I just shrug my shoulder, assume something's come up, and move on to the next person on the list grinding my teeth like nobodys business

It's cool when it works though

(And at the Freecycle organiser who wrote a scolding email about why they weren't first in line)

I seem to always pick the person who does not reply. Its uncanny!

Anther here who no longer uses freecycle.
For all of the above reasons plus I found I was becoming too judgey about the stuff people were saying they need.
Like 3 (yes 3) rabbit hutches as the DC were each going to be getting a bunny for easter.

Poor old Buddles don't know why you got such a rough ride there! (it's not you!)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Everything on freecyle is free

Gobblino, Buddles didn't post it on Freecycle!

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!

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?

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

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.

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"

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.

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.

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