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'm always astonished by the amount of cheeky fuckery people report on these threads! My own experience is the total opposite. I've sold and given away lots of stuff and just about everyone was lovely. No ridiculous haggling, no insults, no delivery demands and the people who got stuff for free were all really grateful. The only problem buyers I've encountered have all been on eBay. I'm in Germany but this couldn't possibly be a cultural difference, or could it?

The amount who name a stupid price with the excuse they are "doing me a favour" made me get the rage

I've often suspected some of them are the same people who offer a sob story and then stick the items on at a price. They've got to excuse their CFery somehow, so they pretend you've already been compensated by the favour they've done you in taking it away

They're chavs.

I offered stuff for free on Facebook and was asked more than once about me delivering the item. I replied yes and the charge is £30 for delivery... guess what they didn’t want it delivered and they’d come by and pick it up!

People are so weird.

We just bought a wreck of a country house and I've shamelessly combed the usual websites for unwanted furniture. I zip over at the earliest opportunity with a bottle of wine, no drama just thank so much and off I go.

I've given a lot of stuff away over the years and you get a lot of unpleasant people, but equally I've had met so many nice ones too. One guy came to my house and took away a giant box of hardware and sent me a video of the computer he built for his son from it.

NRTFT so sorry if someone has already mentioned it, but use Freegle instead. The Freegle community are FAR more polite and friendly when giving/receiving free items.

Today on Freegle I gave away a whole dressing table set. It was well worn, needs a refurb, but the recipient was polite, stuck to collection times and was over the moon with it.

People on FB Marketplace are hideously rude and unbelievably entitled.

www.ilovefreegle.org/

Then sign up to your local Freegle group.

GetMeOffThisCycleOfMisery When my mum died early one morning, one of her sisters turned up at our house that afternoon and started rifling through her wardrobes as “she won’t be needing this now”! Then when we told her to leave she went round to another sisters house and slagged us off because we didn’t offer for her and her husband to stay in mum & dads bed for the night because dad wouldn’t need to sleep in the double bed! Over 20 years later and we still have nothing to do with her. People are twats.

Am I the only one who wants to see EntropyRising's wreck of a country house?

It's a terrible wreck, trust me.

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.

It makes a fair degree of sense for social services not to want to get into the minefield of providing (I'm sure well intentioned and very high quality) second hand items to people considered to be in need of support. I can think of oodles of reasons that don't involve the world entitlement.

Buying new means consumer rights, guaranteed standards, warranties so they're not stuck sourcing another safe second hand item if something breaks after a week, someone to sue if the carseat doesn't perform as it should in a crash. I mean, some of this stuff is actual life or death. And social workers aren't and have no reason to be experts on whether it's safe or not: they'd probably have to consult someone who was, no doubt at a cost.

I have gladly accepted and passed on second hand items myself, but it's a bit different in a work context where you have welfare responsibilities and potentially vicarious liability. Repurposed stuff from a reputable second hand retailer with the appropriate guarantees, that could be fine, but there seem very good reasons not to take donations from members of the public.

@jimmyhill have never thought that giving away stuff that you can pick up and collect to be doing myself a favour. I have a car and live a mile from a community tip. I drive past it to get to charity shops. If that’s really how people view freecycling I will just give to the charity shop. It’s never occurred to me and I don’t need favours from strangers. I’m quite well off. Maybe that’s why they are generally rude and ungrateful. Seems it’s loose loose all round. Thanks for the info.

Made that mistake myself earlier on in the year. Never again!! So many time wasters....

It's a big win if we all buy less stuff and make sure the stuff we don't need goes to a good home - it's not a favour to be lorded over the giver or the taker, but a better way of doing things.

We can do it!

IME it's better to ask for £5 - somehow this attracts more serious people!

Friend ran an over 60s lunch club for a while. As a treat she took them to an 'all you can eat' buffet place and watched horrified as many of them stuffed sausage rolls, roast potatoes, yoghourts etc. into tupperware they'd brought with them for the purpose. "But its free" 'No, its all you can eat' "Yes, free". Just the once, stuck to cooked on site after that.

WhenOneDoorClosesAnotherOpens:
"Does this come with plates"
"watching one of those clown routines"

Proper made me chortle!

I leave stuff outside my house and its gone in a few hours; furniture, nicknacks, books.

I hate this behaviour longwayoff.

It's all you can eat, not all you can steal.

Greedy sods!

I've been trying to shift some decent redundant furniture recently. I stick firmly to collection only, not because I can't transport it, but because I'm not willing to risk the bother and fuel of attempting to deliver to some cheeky fucker and the transaction not occuring. By expecting them to come to me, it does weed out a layer of cheeky fuckery.

I had one lady enquire about how something would come apart, and apparently it wasn't what she was looking for as it was for camping rather than a one off transport and that was all explained pleasantly. Refreshing after the conversations that are initiated then fall to nothing without explanation.

It would be less bother for me to take a sledgehammer to stuff and take it to the dump 15 mins away, but it's better for stuff with good life in it to be passed on and reused and benefit someone else.

I ended up bringing a radiator cabinet to the dump. I measured every possible useful measurement but got enquiries asking for measurements that didn't make sense. Wind ups? Probably. Then another person sent me a text to tell me it was too big for them. We hadn't communicated before that, I don't know this person and I wasn't desperately trying to get this person to take it. Why would they feel the need to tell me that? Did they think I was going to magic another one out of my arse that fitted their needs?

I gave up doing car boot sales because of the ridiculous haggling and questions. Cut glass trifle bowl priced at £1 and someone asked if it was real crystal. For £1? They put it down and didn't buy it.

I once sold a 4 seater sofa on Ebay. A month later, the buyer asked if I wanted it back.

I mean, wtf???

We leave things outside our house with a note, 'free help yourself'. They are gone in half an hour.

The British heart foundation where I live will come and collect things like this and sell them on. They're a joy to deal with and it's SO much easier than fielding questions from the weirdos that lurk on selling sites

The British heart foundation where I live will come and collect things like this and sell them on. They're a joy to deal with and it's SO much easier than fielding questions from the weirdos that lurk on selling sites

The BHF did collect a lot of stuff from my mother’s flat after she died suddenly.

However, there were a lot of conditions attached which meant that I had to use sites like FB Market Place and Freecycle in addition, ie, no sofas without fire labels (fine but we’re talking about an antique sofa); nothing with any marks whatsoever as customers only want things that look new (I quote); nothing that attaches to the wall; tables etc had to be dismantled.

It would have been far easier for me had BHF been able to take the lot rather than have to run the gauntlet of twats on FB MP.

Can I just say on a positive note I’m on a reuse/recycle group where everything is given free and while there is some bad behaviour ( no manners/no show) the overall amount of good it does is amazing and gives such a warm feeling - people starting life again after a divorce, homeless charities, teachers setting up classrooms, people who just can’t afford new things, and grateful to receive. I’ve received and given and it feels very worth while.