WTF is wrong with people - Free Stuff

[Iamnotagoddess]

So I have some furniture that I have offered on Facebook Market Place, for free.

The furniture is in good condition but it has slight (cat) damage so I have offered it for free.

Women messages me asking for more photos which I sent, she then messaged me saying they are “too worn” and she’ll keep looking. They aren’t worn at all, it’s our furniture and has been for some time and there is nothing wrong with it - and it’s free!! Why not just say no thanks and leave it at that.

Other people messaging asking if it’s still free and if they don’t get a immediate reply sending another message “??”.

I reckon I would have been better off asking for a tenner. Wtf is wrong with people?!

I have successfully avoided Facebook so far, and I think I am one of the lucky ones to escape its clutches. So no clue about marketplace or whatever, and it sounds like I am a winner!

I have never even wondered what I am missing from FB. I seem to get along fine without it.

best way to get rid of stuff is to put it outside the house with a big sign "for sale, £10, please knock"

It will disappear.

Oh OP my classic was phoning ss after two dc to offer: cot, changing table, high chair, McLaren pushchair & carry cot - all in perfect condition. "Oh sorry, our clients are only provided with new things".

Never mind, my friend married to a director of Warburgs was very grateful.

The entitlement beggars belief - fed by the liberal intelligentsia. Unbelievable. That was early noughties and am sure it's worse now.

I remember offering a free baby mobile on marketplace and wrote in perfect working order with a video of it in action spinning. Someone asked me to deliver it I said no.
They then showed up and insisted on me putting batteries in it to make sure it worked before they took it. It did work but not only that even without batteries it was still a lovely mobile for above the cot. After I quickly removed the batteries from my remote and put them in to show him it was working, he then asked if the batteries were included as part of the deal. I wanted to throw it at him by that point.

I've only had positive experiences with giving items away free on marketplace.

Managed to get rid of a large offcut of carpet (long narrow room) within 4 hours of the carpet fitters leaving!

However selling a good foldable playpen got knocked down in price (it was cheap anyway) and then they wanted it delivering 10 miles away. Fortunately I then remembered a pregnant colluegue, messaged her and was able to give it to her which cheered me back up.

For baby stuff I now just use a local closed Facebook group where no selling is allowed, and everything just gets swapped around from family to family, it's great seeing the name labels in clothes that have passed through multiple families

Can we not have a mumsnet marketplace? I have LOOOOADS of stuff that I would love to give away but without the CF’ery.

Recent things I’ve had to give to the charity shop: loads of VTech toys the toot toot people/ animals/ noisy little buggers.
Heaps of happy land, including track, trains (2 children, 7 years worth) rosebud cottage, other cottages etc
Peppa pig land, and various numerous peppa pigs etc.
Kids clothes that I can’t BEAR them to grow out of. Gorgeous jojo dresses and wellies, Hatley coats, Boden dresses - and the charity shop will just whack a pound on as usual

I would really rather it go to charity than in the bin, but really I luff mumsnetters the most, as throughout the last 8 years ‘They’ have helped me (and given me a kick up the arse) when I’ve needed it.

It would be really nice to spread the love around.

@TitsInAbsentia I have no clue.

It was 2 seater sofabed, always covered with a blanket so in good condition.
We decided to change the seating to something that we could actually stretch ourselves on,saw a perfect corner unit on fb so made arrangement to collect it.

Advertised on local fb, no interest so we called BHF.Yes,they were interested, they would come on Friday.
On Friday we had a phonecall that they would come on Monday so could we cover the sofa(already outside in anticipation of collection, we are in Scotland so big chance of rain)
They came on Monday, I was out and left a note.
Perfectly good sofabed went to the landfill(unless someone rescued it).
They sell tat for stupid prices yet turnedd their nose up at perfectly good item

I had a friend who had been complained for ages that her dishwasher was broken and she could not afford to replace it. So when I changed my kitchen, the good almost new dishwasher was replaced by an integrated one so I offered to my friend...

• she wanted me to collect her to come and see it (she has a car)
• then told me that she wanted my builder to deliver it and install it but that she couldn’t pay more than a £5 for the installation.
• then she complained that she won’t take it unless I promised to take his old rotten dishwasher away... and pay for any damage that could be incurred to her kitchen during the process.
• I said the builder was not free and I didn’t expect him to do anything for her unless she was paying him and suggested a £60-100 for the service she wanted. She refused and told me her exh would pick it up from me when he was around and would install it himself, free of charge because he was a decent man.
• So I said, ok, when is he coming to pick it up? Her answer, I don’t know, he normally comes from the south only about 2 times a year.

So when the builder asked... I just told him to put the dishwasher in the skip.

... and 8 months later the CF called me to let me know her exh had agreed to help her and was in route to my house to get the dishwasher.... WTAF???

Friendship is no more...

This is why I put stuff outside my house when I last moved. All excellent stuff just downsizing and no room to put it. It all went straight away, I did live on a main road though.

I'm a member of a free stuff FB group and it has strict rules including no asking for delivery, people not turning up getting thrown off the group and no PMing to ask for items. It works pretty well.

I've also seen people trying to give absolute tat away to save the council fees when you get a bulk uplift. There was a sofa advertised the other day as a bit stained and a couple of cat scratches but will do someone starting out.

Obviously people are going to ask for delivery. I never get why that confuses people.
Someone buying furniture on Fb or freecycle/gumtree most likely doesn't have a lot of money so is less likely to drive. How are they meant to get it?

Oh OP my classic was phoning ss after two dc to offer: cot, changing table, high chair, McLaren pushchair & carry cot - all in perfect condition. "Oh sorry, our clients are only provided with new things"

Oh, it's worse than that, I promise you.

New pram, new cot etc - then they sell the stuff. Get pregnant again - new pram, new cot etc - then they sell the stuff - and on ad infinitum.

You alright schadenfreude. We have met you know

Can we not have a mumsnet marketplace? I have LOOOOADS of stuff that I would love to give away but without the CF’ery

It's a nice idea, but looking at a few of the replies on here you wouldn't necessarily be free of the CFery even with Mumsnet ...

Without exception every single "buyer" on marketplace does not drive. They can only collect after 8pm when they will despatch their other half to collect.

It will be in 3 days time.

I had some brand new baby products I didn't want so I gave them away on a parenting group. Sent them to this woman, she paid for delivery.

After ONE DAY, she was messaging me asking where they were. I asked her to be patient and she just kept messaging, even though I showed her the proof of delivery.

This was stuff worth over 100 pounds, that she was getting for a couple of pounds delivery fee but all she could do was moan that it hadn't arrived yet.

Can I remind you that schools and nurseries might like good quality toys. Also old folks homes have been grateful for knitting equipment/craft stuff.

I lost my best friend due to Cheeky Fuckery.

After I had DS2, in August 2015, I had absolutely loads of newborn clothes, brand new that had never fitted him, and some 0-3 months that was like new (he was a beast at 10lb 10.5oz and went straight into 0-3 months, and soon outgrew those!)
As she was pregnant I saved them for her, popped them into bags, boxed them up and put them in the attic to save space.
Comes to December, she finds out she's having a boy. Brilliant, means I can get rid of all the clothes, not just the neutral stuff.
My DPs brother then commits suicide.
He's grieving. What does friend do?
Absolutely nothing but pester, moan and complain that she wanted theses clothes... That I was giving her free, and she still had half a pregnancy to go.
So I tell her to wait until after the funeral. She told me to fuck off and said that I was rude!
I told her that if she couldn't let the family grieve I wanted nothing to do with her and she can buy her kid some clothes from a shop instead of expecting handouts off me.
I haven't spoken to her since. Cheeky fucker.

It's when people don't bother to read the description at all that bothers me.

It may bother you, but surely if you’re on Mumsnet regularly you can’t be surprised.

OP on thread yesterday describing issue with work contract and change in hours, including the information “I have the agreement in writing” (I precis)
Literally the first post: “Do you have the contract in writing?”

God I had this once

Someone asked if anyone had some pink paint for free and I’d just painted my sons room so had loads left (son at the time loved pink) so I offered her my leftover paint (almost a full very heavy huge tin)

‘Can you meet me in town?’

Sure I was in town that day-stood waiting almost an hour with six kids in tow

No show

Message-‘oh sorry my daughter was in hospital’ (fair enough)

‘Can you meet me in xyz?’(3 miles away-I had to catch a bus cos I don’t drive-a fiver both ways)

Sure

No show

‘Sorry I forgot’

Fine

‘Can you bring it to my house?’

(Losing the will to live but wanting to just get rid of this bloody paint)

Get to the address and it’s the wrong one!they don’t have a clue who I am or why I’m offering them bright pink paint! (another fiver in bus fares lost)

‘Oh we’re family’ comes a message ‘I’m dating your cousin’

I don’t care!you can come to me for this paint-gave her my address and shoved it in the cupboard

10 months later she rings me-not about the bloody paint but to tell me she lost her baby to cot death (so sorry nobody deserves that) and how she can’t decide how many more babies she wants-oh and did I know my uncle had died?

No I didn’t-and to be fair I didn’t care seeing as I’d only met him a few times as a kid

She rings back two weeks later calling me a slag for not going to the funeral (!?!) and then put the phone down on me

Then slagged me off all over my hometown for being rude to her and how I’d tried to hit her!

I’ve never met her!

I moved 3 years ago and took the tin of paint to the tip!

Now I don’t offer anything to anyone

When I was younger, I was lucky enough to win a car in a charity raffle.

I needed the cash far more than a car, so I advertised it for sale.

After taking about 30 calls from CFs of the highest order, I remember sitting with my head in my hands, wondering what kind of world this was. Stand out was the man who yelled at me for asking money for something that I’d had for free. I should apparently just give him the new car if I didn’t want it. And the woman who wanted it free, but also repainted in a different colour first.

If I hadn’t heard them with my own ears, I’d never have believed people like that existed. That people give you such grief over stuff that is actually advertised as free is incomprehensible.

jimmyhill what a load of nonsense.

I have to say, I have been lucky. I have offered a number of decent items for free when I was moving house, so short of time. Provided clear photos, description, measurements. Specified no delivery.
Everyone who accepted items turned up when they said they would, with appropriate transport, and were actually very appreciative. I would much rather get rid of stuff in this way than send it to landfill.

I was selling my old car, as my
Mum had decided to give up driving, and pass onto me, her fairly new car. I advertised it on Facebook and Gumtree.

Oh dear lord. The CF-ery was incredible.

The best one was a woman who ‘really really needed a car asap’. My car was a few years old, but really well looked after. Full service history, etc. She wanted to get it today, with a discount, and she’d only be able to give me half the money right now. I said she could pay a deposit to secure the sale, but I couldn’t let the car go until I had all the money.

Well.... you’d have thought I had stolen something from her! I was a bitch who was stopping her taking her children to activities, etc etc.

In the end, I sold it to a guy who was straightforward, turned up with the cash, etc. The woman continued to message me for 5 weeks, calling me for everything under the sun. Deranged.

jimmyhill what a load of nonsense.

Your post makes my point though. People did you a favour by taking the stuff away at short notice before you moved, saving you the hassle and/or expense of sending to landfill.

To achieve this you had to go to the bother of providing photos and description.

So... who again is doing the favour for whom?!

No jimmyhill you are talking bollocks I'm afraid.

If they can't be polite, people should just not respond to adverts for free stuff.

And the poster who said most of the people who want this stuff are hard up and won't have a vehicle, therefore it is perfectly reasonable of them to expect the free stuff delivered! Um... how about reading the advert properly and noting the item is to be collected? Or how about making arrangements yourself? It is not the giver's problem, they are already doing you a favour.