When did it become so hard to give things away ?

[BethJ62]

Having a clear out including lots of baby stuff that DGC have outgrown and DD doesn’t want . Moses basket , clothes , toys.
As money is tight for many people I decided to give it away using a local Facebook site .
Simple ? No.
Despite me asking people to collect , every person who has shown interest has asked me to deliver . A couple of people have become a bit stroppy when I said collect only . Reminder - this is good quality free stuff.
Yesterday I waited in all day for someone who didn’t appear . Today someone who said she was desperate said she would be here at 10. I told her we are going out at 12 so she has to be here before then . 10 minutes ago she messaged and said she would be here at 2 !!! I reminded her the arrangement and she said she thinks I could be a bit more understanding!
Has anyone else experienced similar ? I don’t think I am unreasonable but maybe I am ??

I think most of the stuff in those gets sold per kilo for fabric recycling. Not sure it gets sold in shops.

Any baby bank or collections for women's refuges near you?

It’s a well known thing OP, so common, particularly on Facebook and particularly with baby stuff, we’ve had threads on it before.

Basically using the word “free” in the advert attracts a lot of freeloaders who (a) say yes to everything but aren’t particularly bothered about this item and (b) aren’t together enough to sort a simple pickup. They demand yoh deliver / if they do make it to your house they’ll treat it like a shop and start asking if theg can have other stuff!!

I don’t do free giveaways on Fb anymore. Either take it to a charity shop / preschool, or advertise on Fb for £5-10, that seems to get rid of most of the freeloaders.

A lot of the people who are in need don't have the means to collect. They don't have cars - can't afford to!

How about offering to drop off for a nominal amount for your time and petrol money?

I haven't read all of the comments but incase someone hasn't mentioned it, I would try your local Freecycle site.

I wouldn't be wasting my time with ungrateful people... I've seen many an ads saying 'colllection ONLY' and 'no time wasters' so I think it must be a common issue.

Sorry your good deed has been such as hassle, OP.

Always put a price on, tends to keep the cheekiest of CF's from contacting you. Then if you want you can decline payment or take it and donate it.

Just to add a happy story, I gave away a pet gate on my local FB site recently and the woman who came to collect was lovely and gave me two selection boxes

We did this. We forgot about an old mountain bike in the cellar on the day we moved so we wheeled it to the nearest wall, flat tyres and all. It was gone within 15 minutes at 6.30am!

I find putting stuff on for free the same. I tried putting things on for £5 and once they came to collect just said it’s actually free but putting a price stops time wasters. The people are always very grateful.

It's always been like that with pianos. Some of us will remember the 70s sport of piano smashing.How fast can you smash a piano up small enough to go through a letterbox
Yhe trouble is to the donor it's still that lovely new item they payed a lot fir, to a recipient it is someone else's crap.

There are lots of Acts of Kindness local groups on FB. Try on there. In my area lots of people are helping and being helped this way and very grateful for it.

I’ve given up trying to sell or give away low value items on FB marketplace. Far too many time wasters who say they are coming, and then you never see or hear from them again.

The final straw for me was when two separate items were due to be collected by two separate people on the same day. Neither bothered showing up, or even contacting me to cancel.

Now I just give stuff to the charity shop or bin it.

I think yabu to only realise this now tbh, it's been hard to get rid of stuff for free for years!
I don't really understand why, but I do know that there is a massive stigma towards anything free or second-hand in a lot of areas. Being seen or labelled as 'a scruff' or 'scruffy' seems like the biggest insult you can throw at someone where I live (not originally from here), for example! 😕

We stopped giving stuff away for free via local websites. Just a load of freeloaders and chancers expecting the World to revolve around them. You get a better "quality" of buyer when you ask for even small amounts.

We had a garden shed that we put up for free on a local facebook group. Just a succession of time wasters, people came to look, promised to come back on "x" day but then disappeared. After a few weeks of being messed around, we put it up for a fiver - what a difference - first person to contact us came straightaway and came back the next day to dismantle and take it. We let them have it for free anyway as it was worth not having to deal with more tyre kickers.

Another time, we had a good/relatively new sofa which we tried to give away. Some lunatic came with a small 2 door car (VW Up) thinking she'd get it in and was most put out and aggressive when she asked us to help her put it in the car, when it was blindingly obvious it wouldn't go in - she insisted she wanted to at least try but there was no way we were wasting our time and effort on something impossible! In the end we donated it to a local charity shop who were happy to come and collect it.

The time wasters must love searching for the word "free" whereas "normal" people will search for products/items first then consider costs etc. I suspect the "freebie" merchants don't actually want stuff for themselves but to take away to sell on, and presumably they don't bother coming when they find other things (that may yield more profit for them) come up. It's probably a business to them.

I echo everyone who says charge a low price.

After being dicked around far too many times, I always put things for a small amount, then tell people they can have it for free when they pick up. I’ve not been messed around since.

9/10 people refuse and give me the money anyway and most say please put it in a charity box if I don’t want to keep it, which I do.

But it does sift out the time wasters.

@Doris86

Now I just give stuff to the charity shop or bin it.

We've a pretty large charity shop near us who are really good. They take/collect furniture and other larger items, so it's popular because it's not your usual "books, cds, objets d'art and clothes" type of small shop. We recently took them a load of christmas decorations (trees, lights, tinsle, ornaments), a book-case, lots of boxed/complete toys (lego, scalextric, mecano etc), child's car seat, dining table & chairs, and a few other things. They're very happy to take all kinds of things. We've also bought quite a lot from them over the years including a desk and wall mirror.

The sofas we donated to them were sold almost immediately they appeared on display, each for a few hundred pounds!

It's definately the way forward - we need places like that who take your "bigger" stuff for reselling, rather than the default of taking it to the tip. Small charity shops don't cut it really as they only take the small stuff which isn't as popular.

i always add in "COLLECTION ONLY" in large letters, then when the person arranges to collect it I say "if you don't come on agreed date / time it will go straight to the next person in line as other people want it as well, I hope you don't mind but I've been messed around before, so only agree to come if you are going to come as agreed".

Had this recently - I did deliver (clothing worn once) and the first time they were in, didnt answer the door and lied about being out. They were told one more chance and they needed to give me a time they'd be in. They wont be getting anything else from me.

Last Christmas we "sold" a TV - offered it for £20 and when they didnt try to quibble over the price they were handed it back and wished a Merry Christmas. I recommend either a small charge or a charity shop.

How do you find this information? I wouldn't know where my local womens refuge was.

Like PPs, I use Olio, and have found it really efficient. I have no porch or any covered place outside to leave things, so people have to come when I tell them, and they always have. Got rid of all sorts of things on there.

I've also used Olio with no issues. I had a huge clear out in the summer and everything went. I also collect things for school off there. People on it all seem to be lovely.

I've tried selling things for small amounts and still had the same timewasters. I'm done with trying, the number of pisstakers is unbelievable.

This!
Don’t wait in for people for free stuff.
people can be extremely entitled and expecting delivery ?
crazy.

I did have one memorable occasion where I was giving away some Barbie stuff midway though December, a big item so I said collection only.

Someone messaged me that it would make their dds Christmas as they had no money. They then asked where I lived. She then said it was too far and could I deliver - 70 miles away. No. Then they asked if I would pay for a courier. Also no.

I was then bombarded with messages saying her daughter was distraught, I had ruined a little girls Christmas. I woke up to about 50 in a row getting more and more angry and abusive. I blocked her and the admins got involved when she said she was seeing someone to come and “sort me out” (couldn’t she have sent them to pick up the Barbie House then?!)

It was absolutely mental.

I have a parking space so I put everything there and a "Free, help yourself" sign. It nearly always goes within an hour.