Anyone used Freecycle?

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Yes - I have given stuff away. But I fell out with the daft bint who runs our local one because I was getting swamped with e-mails for an item that had gone - I tried to post that it was "gone subject to collection" and she sent me a shirty mail back saying I could only post it as gone when it had actually been collected. I prefer to keep people informed, but I'm not sending 100s of mails a day.

Our local one is now Freegle - because they didn't like the way freecycle was going.

[d000hg]

We gave away a road-legal car on Freecycle.

[RichardCranium]

Mrs RC & I used it as both donors and collectors.

I got fed up in the end with people saying they would collect stuff and then not turn up, and the Sunday car-boot-sale scroungers who say they will take something, come round and then refuse to take it unless it is in perfect nick.

It also went all weird in the USA whereby the founders tried to over micro-manage it - there were noises about the UK going independent. No idea what came of that.

[ChrisPackit]

I tried to give away a wasps nest on Freecycle.... no takers. What do they want, blood !!

[scooterscot]

yes. I've even collected the odd thing or two myself, including a shelf - which now sits in the larder holding many tins of grub.

[norrahe]

I used it a lot after moving house and had to get rid of stuff that wouldn't sell on ebay.

Offers to take stuff off your hand come in thick and fast on freecycle, I'd look at the first 10 and, like Mr Robin note the please and thank yous or someone who seems to genuinely need it.

Often you can agree with someone that they will take the item and sometimes they may not turn up. I normally post "offered subject to collection" and then mark it as taken after that.
Some people can be a tad lazy and offer something and not check e-mails ort neglect to mark it as not available.

Though I did manage to get rid of a knackered greenhouse on freecycle, this women turned up on my doorstep in her fiesta and dismantled my greenhouse (it did take 6 hours) and took it away on her boot.

Some people have sent me thank you e-mails after taking the items off me.

[MrRobin]

I've used it a couple of times to give away items of old furniture. Usually, replies start coming in within 10 minutes. I picked the first one that had composed a properly punctuated message, with atleast 1 'please' or 'thank you'. To the others I send a 'Sorry, it's gone' note and change the post on the site. Any emails received after that I just ignore.

[doodab]

Some stuff is hard to get rid of on ebay even at a 1p.

This is why we have bins.

[SueEllen]

Giving stuff away! Ridiculous.

Some stuff is hard to get rid of on ebay even at a 1p.

[MarillionFan]

Giving stuff away! Ridiculous.

[SueEllen]

Yep as both a offerer and a receiver.

Emailing people twice tends to annoy them as there are many reasons why people are away from their email or haven't answered.

In lots of cases offerers tend to:
1. Decide who they are giving the item to when they receive the emails
2. Wait until that person has collected the item
3. Tell the list it's taken

If the person in 2 hasn't taken it then they then offer it to the next person list etc.

As people get items for free they often can't be bothered to turn up wasting your time as you have to wait in. So now I demand a phone number (which I don't ring) and if you haven't answered your non-work email within 24 hours I offer it to the next person on the list.

[ilovehr]

I thought of that

But that seems to go against the principles of the site.

If I wanted to pay for it, there's loads on Ebay - it's just that it is local to me and it's free!

The site seems like a great idea in principle but there doesn't seem to be any control or systems in place to make it work smoothly....

[amcdonald]

They've probably already given it away but been too lazy to change the advert

Freecycle has been good to me, the other month I got enough CAT 5 cabling to wire up a very spread out 6 bedroom house, and like most things they'd have only thrown it away otherwise

In their case they were muppets CAT 5 wasn't good enough for them anymore

[Old Greg]

What have been your experiences? Good or bad?

I was mooching around on there a couple of days ago and spotted someone giving away a 1984 Canon T70 camera. This is the camera I learned on at college (as well as the Pentax K1000) and I thought I'd take it of their hands for old times sake.

I've emailed twice and not had a reply and the item is still listed as offered.

Should I give it up for a bad job?

Email them and offer them a tenner.

[ilovehr]

What have been your experiences? Good or bad?

I was mooching around on there a couple of days ago and spotted someone giving away a 1984 Canon T70 camera. This is the camera I learned on at college (as well as the Pentax K1000) and I thought I'd take it of their hands for old times sake.

I've emailed twice and not had a reply and the item is still listed as offered.

Should I give it up for a bad job?