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?!

Oh and another one.

TV advertised for nominal price (I think about £50 for a 55” 3 year old Panasonic smart TV). Still worked, but the size wasn’t right for our new house and the voice control annoyed the fuck out of me. A guy said he’d have it, but could only come during normal Working hours. That was fine, our cleaner said she’d let him in and deal with it for us.

She showed him the TV and he messaged DH asking which TV. Erm, the Panasonic one next to the front door ready to collect.
‘What about the Samsung one in the living room? Can I have that one instead? Same price?’
No.
‘There’s a new Sony one in a box here, can I have that one?’
Great big fucking no.

He took none of them. Because he wanted the brand new 65” Sony one instead for £50 and we weren’t being fair.

I’m glad we weren’t in. I think DH May have hit him for being such a dickhead.

I advertised some pears on Olio.

I was asked to deliver 6 miles away.

Then a group who work feeding homeless people got in touch, they delivered and apparently they were really popular.

Guess where they are going next year?

@jimmyhill if I need a sofa and someone is giving one away and all I have to do is hire a man with a van for an hour or two I'm very sure I'm the one getting the better deal in that scenario.

Surely that's the point of selling or giving away stuff though. The giver gets it taken away, the buyer gets a good deal on an item they need, and everyone goes home happy.

@MardAsSnails that one has me laughing hard! But you clearly have the world's worst tv showroom, fancy not letting him choose

Note well, sellers. Lots of people are absolutely barking and gain lots of pleasure from winding people up. Give it to a charity or leave outside with a notional price on. Many people despise free things but will happily steal something with a price on. Weird. True.

Here's my Marketplace 'experience', I posted about this back in May.

So, I unfortunately lost my mum in April.

Sadly, my mum didn't own her home, nor did she have much money, so while clearing out her place (which she recently decorated on a budget and furnished) I have been listing her belongings on Facebook Marketplace, to raise money for her ashes to be interred.

CF messaged me on a Friday, wanting to buy her desktop printer. Fine. However, it was my mum's funeral on that Friday, so I didn't read and reply obviously.

He keeps on sending more messages through the day to get me to reply, he's keen and not to know I'm at my mum's funeral, so I ignored him.

I finally reply on the Saturday, it's £15 for a fairly new £45 Epson printer. He agrees he wants it and we arrange for him to collect from my mum's on Monday, as I'm there again doing more sorting and cleaning.

He texts to say he's on his way and adds "£10, okay?" Um, no dude. Not okay. It's £15. He arrives and I tell him it's £15. He starts pulling a face, I'm like, "As you can see, this is an old people's accommodation, not my house. I've lost my mum and raising money to bury her. So it's £15. The software is all there unopened, it's good as new!"

He very reluctantly pays up (from a big wad of £20s incidentally!) and asks what other things I am selling, so I show him around. He says he likes a beautiful side table and asks how much. I say £20. He replies, "But can I have it for free?" I repeat that sadly not, I'm raising money to bury my mum remember?

He pulls a face, then starts walking around prodding and poking through all of my mum's meagre belongings and asks, "So what is here, that I can take for free then?"

Absolutely nothing you fucking vulture, piss off!

I didn't say that, as I was of course 'terribly British' and due to being whacked out on medication to help me deal with the grief, I just apologised that nothing was for free.

He took his printer and pissed off. Fucking wanker.

Some people are beyond disgusting aren't they?

People asking for stuff may well be hard up, but it's not relevant.

People giving stuff away are just as likely to be hard up - just because you don't want it need something, or it won't fit or you can't use it, or your kids have grown out of it, and you're giving it away, doesn't mean you're rich.

But, frankly, IME, the majority of people asking for the free things are not hard up. I gave away loads of household stuff in my last but one move and the same guy came, with a trailer, to pick up quite a bit of it (advertised at different times). He was clearly going to sell it. I didn't care, because I couldn't be bothered to sell it and good luck to him - but he was certainly not in need! I mean, not many people need two fridges in one week, do they!?

I was having my kitchen redone, and I posted offering all the units, sink, tap etc FOC to anyone who wanted them. Clearly stated "available from Thursday 12th" - giving them a solid week to arrange a van and their lives for what was going to be a big pile of stuff

I was inundated with people saying "is this still available, I can come right now". Er, no I am still USING the bloody thing! When it was available I messaged them again and they were "no longer interested". I highly doubt they found and collected another entire free kitchen furniture set in the preceding 7 days, so

And when mu mum gave away her bath (proper old massive one, metal not plastic etc). She advertised it saying "free - bath only, no taps"

People got pissy that she wouldn't deliver it (she has a fiat 500) and provide free taps too!

jimmyhill I didn’t say I was doing them a favour. I implied (maybe too subtly for some) that the favour was mutual - I wanted to get rid of (decent) stuff, they needed stuff - good for both parties - although in my case their genuine appreciation with the items when they turned up to collect them seemed to indicate that they thought I was doing them a favour, even if you don’t.

And even you can’t believe that it’s “doing a favour” to mess people around and expect the donors to do all the work when decent stuff is being given away for nothing (although reading about the antics of some of the CFs on this thread, perhaps you do).

Another vote here for just leaving stuff outside your house and people will take it. We did this with a few items and they were gone within hours. As it happens, one of those items I'd had for a few years after a previous neighbour left it outside their own house for anyone to take, so we were just continuing the chain and passing it on again.

She showed him the TV and he messaged DH asking which TV. Erm, the Panasonic one next to the front door ready to collect
‘What about the Samsung one in the living room? Can I have that one instead? Same price?’
No
‘There’s a new Sony one in a box here, can I have that one?’

Why was he even put in the position where he could nose around what else you'd got, Mard?

IME it's usually best to put whatever-it-is in a totally different area - a garage, carport, apartment hallway or whatever - rather than risk letting CFs in your house. It saves the risk of them "coming back for the rest" when you're not in too

Even if you lost with a price you get cheeky sods offering 50% less than the asking price. Tell them know and they respond well if you change your mind message me, or well how much do you want? Erm the asking price

Free stuff I put on the local free Facebook page, rude people and time wasters are removed and I can get stuff shifted in under 24hours.

I was getting rid of 4 swivel bar stools (they cost over £100 each John Lewis).
Slight bit of damage on the leather type material on a couple of ones. And one squeaked. I took pics of the small bits of damage, and stated that one squeaked but that could be easily sorted. £5 each, total £20

This really posh woman turned up with her driver. (her words). She took one look at them and in a cut glass vase said 'ewwww, they are in really poor condition, I wouldn't dream of having them'. Rude cow
I replied 'did you read the advert' as I hustled her out of my house.

Offered a convector heater for £5 on FB. Man kept hassling me to take £3 and would I deliver it to XXXX which is across a major town, horrendous traffic always and about 50 mile round trip.
Errrr no. Go away.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the "invented damage" gambit so far - as in pointing at some imaginary "damage" to get the price down

I had this when exH was selling a camera lens and left me to deal with the collection. The chap was most insistent about a fault which genuinely didn't exist and would have been very visible if it had done, but his face was a picture when I explained "I couldn't possibly sell something damaged" and put it away, despite his protests that he'd take it for free and repair it

Nice try, sunshine

I was selling a bundle of clothes my ds had grown out of for £15:00 I think it was. There was one lady who wanted me to send her a photo of every single thing (about 50 items). Luckily someone else wanted them, so their offer was accepted.

People. Not. Reading. The. Ads!

Example:
A red Monsoon shirt dress, size 8, made of 50% cotton/50% viscose, no stretch to fabric, button fastening, long sleeve, detachable sash, approx knee length, fully lined, machine washable, new with tags. Measurements: bust ..., waist..., length shoulder to hem..., underarm to hem.... . PRICE: ... . And plenty of pics added too.

Replies:
-Is this new?
-What size?
-How much?
-What's the fabric?
-Measurements?
-Will it fit me?
-...

I’m afraid I’ve been that CF. A lady offered a free kitchen table so I asked is it still available and what size is it? She replied and I said that’s ideal for my kitchen, will I be able to disassemble it to fit it in a small van or is it one solid piece? She was really offended that I kept asking questions about a free item so she blocked me. I genuinely just wanted to know if it would fit in my kitchen and van!

That’s not remotely cheeky, @silverchime. Just common sense. There’s no equivalence between what you describe and other posters’ experiences of CFs.

I give away quite a lot of outgrown children's things on Freecycle. Always put complete postcode as covers "Birmingham"; quite a distance if you are in the other side of the city.

The amount of people who cannot use google to find out a location is staggering. I told one person where I was and to get a bus/ train and she seemed really put out!

Also those who state they are interested, you reply and then silence..... why??? Just scroll past if you don't really want it.

will I be able to disassemble it to fit it in a small van or is it one solid piece?

That’s a perfectly reasonable thing to ask. Unlike the man who asked me whether my sideboard would fit in his car? Not giving me any clue as to whether he had a mini or a Discovery. 🙄

Some of the people who reply "Is it available?" or "Can I have it?" are sending them automatically in the hope of getting first dibs. They are often traders.

Having been caught a few times, I don't reply for a few days to let others have a go, and pay more attention to the ones who say "I've been looking for a grey one with wheels like yours" or something relevant.

Also, for clothes, I say "come and try it on to make sure it fits you" as traders will try all sorts of well-rehearsed stories.

@PigletJohn does anyone actually turn up when you ask them to try it on? I'm not a trader but I'd find that sort of message very suspicious so wouldn't get it.

not bikinis or underwear! Inexpensive things I don't bother.

But business suits, that can be quite expensive. I remember one fellow who had been out of work for a while and wanted to look smart for a job interview. he was really delighted.

My mother gave away a number of smart once-worn wedding hats. She'd imagined they would be useful to several guests or MoBs, but one woman came and took the lot.

Did they end up on her stall?