Peacocks

[Chooks Aloud]

I’ve heard so much about Freecycle so I thought I’d give a go at the weekend. Never again – what a parlaver. It was really hard getting logged into it, but eventually I did.

 

Anyway, I’m in the process of sorting things out to give away, but not quite finished, so I thought I’d put a wanted on Freecycle for some scaffolding boards in the meantime. Shortly afterwards I got a reply saying that I’d been refused, that it was a privilege to use Freecycle and not a right and that I should not be putting a ‘wanted’ post in and should be offering instead.

 

I wrote back and said that I’d only just joined and was in the process of sorting things out. Surely Freecycle is about keeping things out of landfill – and me wanting to take something that somebody else will be throwing out is helping!!!!

 

Because of this I asked to be unsubscribed and I certainly will not use Freecycle again.

 

You also get hundreds of hits into your inbox as well - a nightmare!!!

 

Karen

[Cinnamon]

Goodness

 

I am a member of 2 Freecycle groups & they are both very different.

The Henley one is quick,easy,friendly etc.

The Reading one is a right pain in the nethers.

 

Is there another one in your area you could maybe try instead?

 

And you are right,you have EVERY right to post a request if you want!

[Tessa the Duchess]

I’ve heard so much about Freecycle so I thought I’d give a go at the weekend. Never again – what a parlaver. It was really hard getting logged into it, but eventually I did.

 

Anyway, I’m in the process of sorting things out to give away, but not quite finished, so I thought I’d put a wanted on Freecycle for some scaffolding boards in the meantime. Shortly afterwards I got a reply saying that I’d been refused, that it was a privilege to use Freecycle and not a right and that I should not be putting a ‘wanted’ post in and should be offering instead.

 

I wrote back and said that I’d only just joined and was in the process of sorting things out. Surely Freecycle is about keeping things out of landfill – and me wanting to take something that somebody else will be throwing out is helping!!!!

 

Because of this I asked to be unsubscribed and I certainly will not use Freecycle again.

 

You also get hundreds of hits into your inbox as well - a nightmare!!!

 

Karen

 

When you join Freecycle you are sent an e.mail informing you of the do's

and dont's of your particular group. I suspect your group has a rule that

before you post a 'Wanted' ad you have to 'Offer' something first.

 

I am a huge Freecycle fan, I just posted a wanted ad for a covered

cat litter box, and was offered a brand new one about 3 minutes later

You do get a lot of e.mails but surely this is a good thing? You can

easily delete the 'Wanted' mails and the 'Taken' mails and just

concentrate on the 'Offered' mails if you are looking out for something.

 

Sorry you had a bad experience.

 

Tessa

[BeckyBoo]

Hi there, you can tick an option not to receive stuff in your inbox, I forgot to do this when I joined one group - nightmare And plenty of people put wanted ads, maybe that group likes you to offer stuff before you ask for it, I don't really see what business it is of theirs though, like you said, you're taking another persons stuff and keeping it out of landfill. Probably a real jobsworth

Don't give up though cos you can get some really good stuff, I got a full set of le Creuset pans with the rack the other week, plus loads of stuff for the garden. You've got to be quick tho (or mention to the persons offering that you have free range eggs or lemon curd )

 

Mrs B

[Chooks Aloud]

I joined 3 that are very near to my area and I have now unsubscribed (a) due the email I received back and (b) due the enormous amount of hits you get in your inbox.

 

I shall just take things down the dump in future.

 

Karen

[Olly]

Sorry you've had a bad experience, but it does depend on the group and it's right that some of them have a rule about not posting 'Wanted' ads before offering anything.

 

When you see some of the frankly ridiculous posts on one of my groups asking for plasma tvs, Wiis, and so on, I have some sympathy with this - and there are, sadly, some people who use it as a free source of material for car boots and Ebay, so I guess that's why the rules exist.

 

Look around for another group to join, and set up filters so that you just get the 'Digest' emails. In fact, I keep a totally separate email address for Freecycle to avoid all those emails. I still think it's a brilliant idea, and I'd much rather dispose of stuff this way than take it to the dump.

[Cooks]

I have tried to subscribe to the cambridge one, and have sent the request, but I ahve not heard anything yet... same as a friend of mine, she hasn't heard either..

[Laura & CTB]

Our local group says you have to have to "offer" first.

 

I use a seperate email account which I just switch on and off to receive mail if I have something to offer. Have never used the "wanted" bit myself yet.

 

I gave away four huge bags of sand last week

[Tessa the Duchess]

 

When you see some of the frankly ridiculous posts on one of my groups asking for plasma tvs, Wiis, and so on, I have some sympathy with this - and there are, sadly, some people who use it as a free source of material for car boots and Ebay, so I guess that's why the rules exist.

 

I am a moderator on our Freecycle group and we do keep a very eagle

eye out for people who post outrageous requests or people that are

'Wanty' as we call it. We can easily put these people on moderation

to keep track of what they are doing. Some people are on permanent

moderation

 

Tessa

[Chooks Aloud]

I've tried blocking the emails but all I get is the Yahoo site - most frustrating. Now I know I'm not very good with computers, but hubby is and even can't find a way to stop them.

 

I would prefer to freecycle rather than dump but with all the hassle - I don't know. Perhaps I'll give it another go sometime.

 

Karen

[Chooks Aloud]

Hi Tessa

 

I can understand that - but this was my first time of using. I'd never considered Freecycle before but people, when I asked them where I could get hold of some used scaffolding boards, told me to go to Freecycle.

 

I have never put in a request before and I'm not the sort of person which is always on the take. Perhaps I've jsut had a bad experience.

Karen

[Tessa the Duchess]

I've tried blocking the emails but all I get is the Yahoo site - most frustrating. Now I know I'm not very good with computers, but hubby is and even can't find a way to stop them.

 

Go to Yahoo Groups. Go to My Groups, a list of Groups you belong to

will pop up. On the right hand side you will see a drop down menu of

possibilities, one of them is 'unsubscribe me from this group' click, save

changes and you should receive no more Freecycle mails.

 

Tessa

[Chooks Aloud]

Thanks Tessa

 

I'll try to block them.

 

Karen

[a30lady]

I use the Kennet group here in Wiltshire - it's brilliant! I've even freecycled a surplus Welsummer cockerel who is now living with 12 new wives in the next village! However, I have heard that some groups are all 'Want want want' - our seems to be much more about offering goods. I just get one email a day (the 'daily digest') listing all the recent posts - no trouble at all. I would recommend anyone to try it (as mentioned above, you can always unsubscribe if it doesn't work out for you).

Edited May 7, 2008 by Guest

[Guest]

I have filters that shove all the WANTED mails and the TAKEN mails direct to my junk mail, most days there are not too many offered mails but at the weekend they are very prolific.

 

Its worth persevering to try and keep things out of landfill - whenever I go to the dump its with junk that I couldn't give away, broken things or garden waste (oh yes I compost - but I can't compost all my waste, nor can I fit it all in my 5 garden waste wheely bins!). I always want to cry when I see what fantastic things people have thrown away, sometimes if "Ooops, word censored!"ody is looking I even do a bit of recycling by taking more home than I went with!

[Cooks]

if you use outlook you can set up it's own folder for all the mails to go there I think.. so it doesn't cram your inbox.. but I have to wait until mine is activated until I can do that..

[Snowy]

Sorry you've had a bad experience Karen. I am in an area between three different groups, two not so busy and the big city group which is very busy. There is a big difference in the type of messages you see! But I haven't had a bad experience yet. I've just managed to get rid of some childrens clothes and an old barbeque and have had quite a few things in the past. I have to say one of the moderators from one of the groups is a bit of a jobsworth - consequently very few things appear on that group nowadays!

[Tessa the Duchess]

Putting Freecycle on daily digest is good because you only get one big

e.mail a day. However, if you are looking out for something that is

being offered, you will never be lucky enough to get it, because most

people seem to give stuff to the first person who posts asking for it.

 

I wish our Freecycle would start a policy that you have to wait 24hrs

before giving something away to let the people on daily digest have

a fair chance of getting something. Also if you are on dial up, like

I am, it's harder to get stuff, those on Broadband are 'on line' all

the time and can snap stuff up in a second. Oh well, nothing is

perfect.

 

Tessa

[AnnieP]

I think the whole point is that if you are giving it away, you want to get shot of it as soon as possible!

I have given away some great stuff that would have been a real pain to dump: 12 double glazed windows when we had our extension, an old trailer, lots of magazines and in return, I got lots of very old wrought iron estate fencing, which a blacksmith was going to charge us £3,000 to make! and a load of topsoil when I started off our veggie beds!

 

By the way, moving this topic to "green thinking"