Freecycle Freeloaders again...

[WendyWeber]

2 great ads on mine today:

Wouldn't we all, dear? And if you can afford to tax, fuel and run one, surely you can afford to buy it?

And from the same person:

foodfiend. It's the same here, we have left large furniture items before, and occasionally taken them.
Someone once left an amazing wooden suitcase/trunk on their front wall, it has old travel stickers all over it. We polished it up and it has been used for stashing magazines in, and with a cushion on as a seat or footrest in our living room since.

Lots of my posho friends have asked where it is from, probably expecting me to say 'Liberty' or such. lol

i left an old bath out the front for a week or two before taking it down then tip. i had a bloke knock on the door asking for the taps and plughole bit. i said go for it mate, and left him to take off when he wanted.

generally though its a 'terrible' thing to do round here to leave unwant5ed furniture out as it 'brings the neighbourhood down' .

i do love freecycle, i got rid of our old fridge freezerm (bit tempermental but freezer worked fine, great for xmas extras), ps2, gamecube, kids toys, cl;othes, desk, etc etc on there.

Depends how desperate you are to get it out of the house, jura - if it's small and not in the way then you could give her one more day, in case she hasn't been able to get to a computer.

We recently had 2 mattresses cluttering up the front room, and when the first person didn't get back to me within 24 hours I offered them to the next one (I emailed the first to tell her I'd done it)

i've had such trouble with freecycle muppets saying they want stuff and then not showing up i've given up. I leave EVERYTHING outside our house with a 'free! Help yourself!' label on it and it (almost) always goes. In a way it's better than freecycle as the person has seen the item 'in the flesh' so knows the colour etc. And there are some really poor people on our estate, and lots of poeple who don't speak English or have internet so my not use freecycle, so it gives them a look in, and mostly people take the stuff away on foot - they're not even driving to pick it up. I love it. I've got rid of a coffee table, 1 sq mtre of turf, and a baby canging table in the last month or two.

Interesting reading this - I've been thinking of joining freecycle but you're putting me off! and we haven't got anything to offer, but could do with a few bits of furniture. Do you have to have stuff to offer as well? Should I bother at all?!

I've had very positive experiences so far with freecycle - both offering and receiving. Even made a new friend out of it I don't like the responses which say ''i want this item, I will come round and get it at 6pm''. I tend to deliberately ignore them and give the item to people who make me laugh in their responses

The worst one was me asking for some carpet underlay for my pond. A woman replied, and my dh went to pick it up. When he got there, she beamed at him and said:
''I hope you don't mind but you'll have to remove all the furniture and lift the carpet to get to the underlay....!''

i usually wait a couple of days before relisting and usually say if no takers it's going to charity shop in x days and that usually seems to get rid of it!

I've had only good experiences of Freecycle as a giver and receiver. But I get too irritated by the lists of

Wanted: Laptop
Wanted: 32" TV
Offered: bit of old carpet

So now I don't read the emails and don't really use it, I think it is a shame it's becoming increasingly like that.

One of my local ones you had to offer something before you could ask for something. I offered some old PC games, the person was late and had sent her son and they never said thanks. That put me off!

Someone is having a laugh....

Wanted...

2 things please a senso coffee maker and a nokia n95 in working order
please.
thank you!

Can't blame her for trying

I don't see how asking for things is cheeky, or tight. Thats the whole point in freecycle! It shouldn't be about how much an item is wort, if you ask for something, and nobody replies, whats the harm in that?

When I got pregnant with my DD we were seriously low on funds, even though we both work full time. I got lots of baby things from freecycle, and I don't think I am "tight" for doing it, nor do I think its cheeky. I have offered lots of things on there too, but probably not to the value I have taken. However, when I have finished with all these items, I will of course, offer them to somebody else on freecycle. I don't know how we could have coped without freecycle!

I also know people who have given away cars on there. If you have an old banger waiting to be scrapped, and somebody asks for one, then that saves that car going to the dump...thats the point!!!

Also, I don't see why you shouldn't offer broken things, to an extent. I gave away a very old frezer a few months back, it didn't work well enough to be a freezer, but the man just wanted something to keep drinks cold in, so my old, broken freezer, did him a big favour, saved him some money. It also saved me taking things to the dump and saved the world from another freezer in landfill!

Why should people be slagged off for asking for things they would like? Even if they can afford to buy one themselves, a second hand one is much more eco friendly!

We've done well from freecycle, and we've been able to help people too. The first thing we offered was a canteen of cutlery that we had been given for our wedding. It was second hand and really dated, and completely not our taste, but we wanted it to go to someone who would appreciate it. The lady who came for it had lovely memories of a canteen of cutlery that had been used at special occasions in her family, but that had been bequeathed to someone else. WHen she clapped eyes on ours she dissolved into tears! We've also given a chocolate fountain to a youth club. In return, we've just had a load of bluebells for our garden, and a bag of clothes and a door bouncer for the DS.

What really annoys me is when you post to offer something and the same people seem to respond all the time. They never say anything specific, just "yes, I want it" I suspect that they use e-mail auto-responders, and don't actually want it at all, they intend to e-bay it and make a profit. I always wait a few hours (at least until the people on the daily digest option have had a chance to see it) before offering, then I like to choose someone who sounds like they genuinely want it.

I love freecycle

I have both offered and received some lovely stuf and met some really nice people too!

I just read "door bouncer for DS" and thought blimey, what kind of hard nut son does she have if she needs a bouncer?

Best things I got on Freecycle -

Two fab beanbags
My maternity pillow
Chicco travel system complete with car seat
Dustbuster
Bookcase for DP
Bathroom cupboards (really nice ones from IKEA)
Exercise bike

Given away loads too, most recently baby clothes too small for DD.

Edinburgh Freecycle not too bad, frequent requests for laptops but thats about it.

We did put a car on freecycle once. It was an old banger but taxed & MOT'd. We tried to give it to several charities to pass onto a family who needed it but the paperwork would have been too much apparently

So we freecycled it and got over 300 responses - mainly people asking what colour it was & if it had a CD stereo - I mean wtf...next time I'll scrap it :-(

Susan

I'd put a car on Freecycle.

I've got one now that needs a new exhaust.

It's taxed and MOT'd but if I won the Lotto I wouldn't need it and someone who knows how to fix it could walk off with a car for cheap.

Or for an apprentice mechanic to practice on.

From Bristol Freecycle today:

"Wanted: world peace. Also water butt."

Have scored a decent deep fat fryer AND a water butt off Freecyle .

Given away a massive, next to new slow cooker, 2 dozen jam jars, a jam pot, a blender and a bunch of weights.