FreecycleReviews of freecycle.org

Good idea let down by bad moderators or the sites admin system, been waiting 4 days for things I've listed for offer to be approved and I've seen several things in my group getting added daily so either the system isn't showing the moderators my offers for approval or they for some reason are ignoring them... will wait a day or two more then its off to the landfill.

I will never use Freecycle again. I tried 5 different people to give things to and got blown off by 4 out of the five. I put stuff on my porch & wait all day long & they don’t show or let me know or even respond. And, by the time I find out I’m dealing with another loser, of course, they have my address. I can’t even tell them what a loser they are because they have my address & I don’t even know who they are. I would never subject myself to this again. I will throw everything in the trash from now on. It’s not worth the hassle & annoyance. This sounded like a great idea but it does not work.

Ssssoooooo frustrating I totally love the concept but there is a new message service with people writing the same thing over and over and I keep getting emails even though I have asked for them to stop I will never sign up again Once I get them stopped

Good idea to get rid of items that still have life in them

Trying to sign up for Freecycle would be funny if it was not so irritating. Every time I found a username it said was available the system decided it was already taken after I had completed the rest of the form. Then it said my e mail was already registered. I wish I was so lucky. Then when I got through this I kept failing the Captcha. Eventually I gave up.

I've been on Freecycle for many years and had success giving away many items. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. I'll share some tips that I've learned along the way. 1. Always do a "porch pickup", meaning that you leave it outside somewhere and they come and take it. Obviously, this won't work for everything but you can do this for most items and and it saves you from waiting around for people. 2. Even with porch pickups, ask for an approximate time that they will come. If they don't show up, move on to the next person who requested the item. 3. Freecycle will send emails to you with their name in both the subject line and in the sender field. Set up a rule in your mailbox to collect all of those emails in one folder. This makes it much easier to keep track of your requests. 4. Feel free to deal harshly with anyone who acts inappropriately. For example, someone who rings your bell instead of just picking up their item because they saw other things on your property that they want. Nothing wrong with saying "If I was giving it away, I would have posted it. Have a nice day." You don't have to be nice to rude people. There is one thing that I haven't figured out how to deal with, though. When giving away multiple items, every now and then someone will take everything that I've left out, instead of just what was intended for them. The only time I was able to prevent this was when they rang the bell and asked for help putting everything in their van. I knew that I hadn't given "everything" to any one person and I told them to leave immediately. They did. No matter how many precautions you take, you will still run into people like this from time to time but I think by taking the steps that I've listed above, I've managed to reduce the aggravation greatly.

I have given away many excellent items on Freecycle and have had many grateful people receive them. What concerns me are the resellers. When I was new to Freecycle I gave a ceiling fan, a beautiful desk, and a nearly new bed to the same couple on three separate occasions. Now, every time I post they respond. I suspect they are resellers and that is not what Freecycle should be about.

Freecycle is a great idea. In practice, although you do occasionally find that someone doesn't turn up, it works, and recipients are mostly very grateful to have a free item. In my opinion, the personal inconveniences greatly outweigh the importance of reusing things rather than consigning them to the oblivion of the rubbish tip. Do persevere even if you encounter the occasional d*ckhead!