FreecycleReviews of freecycle.org

Well, I have used Freecycle previously and very successfully. This tim e I've had a couple of successes, but now seem to have attracted the nutters, or is it Freecycle themselves playing silly buggers. I have had the same 'person' message me, each time the message is exactly the same, word for word, when I answer I get no respone, until that same 'person' messages me for the next offer I post, with exactly the same worded message. It is totally impossible to contact a local moderator, or even delete my profile. After posting this I will pass this on to the UK media, this sinister operation needs to be taken to task.

Overall, an excellent site, though I do have a couple of gripes/suggestions. Consistency between mods seems a bit lacking; same item, description c&p between groups, yet one was accepted, the other not. Made no sense, but got rid of the item OK. Also, and I know this has been mentioned before, but PLEASE can we have a means of rating givers/receivers, eBay style, ie a simple positive or negative, as giver and receiver, with a comment. Surely this would help givers see who was genuine, who were the much complained about time-wasters, and who were over frequent receivers (i.e. probably taking to sell on). Overall though, happy enough, and will continue to use the site as and when I need to. Thanks :-)

I posted two short simple offers yesterday. About 36 hours later my posts are still 'awaiting approval'. Why does this take so long?

Lots of time wasters. Some seem to disappear when they get your address which makes me paranoid! Why not rate users same as Ebay do, then you could give to the more reliable ones?

I have had good experiences in the past. But recently I was ignored when I tried several times to contact my local moderators after a scary experience. I was giving away some paving materials. Many people replied, but I offered it to the first person, as I felt I should. He texted and showed up promptly. But he also tried to completely control the pickup, and made me extremely uncomfortable. He was verbally abusive and very creepy. He told me that he was friends with the moderators, and basically knew more than I did. And I got no reply to any of my complaints to the moderators. No response at all. I am much more wary now, and hesitate to use freecycle. I recommend that you do not have someone pick up from your home if at all possible. Vet the person if you can, and have someone with you at any pickup. My experience was traumatic. Follow-up. I did eventually hear from the moderators at Freecycle. They said they had had Internet issues and that was why they hadn’t returned my messages. It is still unclear if any action was taken on my behalf.

I used to be part of freecycle.org for the St Catharines, Ontario (Canada) group. My account got deleted without being notified ahead of time or even told why. A few years later (this week) I rejoined to try and give away a desk and drawers that I had got from someone locally. I then tried posting an ad for the free desk and had copied over my ad from another free ad site. My post about the free desk was not approved TWICE without any admin stating why. Then on the third time, it got deleted again and an admin wrote why it had not been approved, something about not having a phone number in the ad or even referring to one(!!). Since I had copied my ad from another site, I had forgotten to take out the reference to calling which is why it was deleted. It took 3 days for me to be told why. Not very good. I have deleted my account with freecycle as it is not what it used to be.

I made a post asking for any digital camera and this person told me they had one and we could meet. I said sure but somewhere where there’s people and then sent me their number. I checked her picture on whatsapp (around 60 years old woman) and decide to check if it’s AI generated or not, and it was 99.9% generated. The way she was talking and how she looked didn’t match either. The person was also being quite insistent on meeting… why are you insisting if you’re giving it away? I’m not meeting up with this person but be careful with this!!

Full of people that engage you in endless chat and then disappear. I haven't cleared anything on this site for over a year despite offering good quality items for recycling. I would have been messed around by at least 10 people in that time saying they will turn up and never do. Came home early for someone to collect an armchair. Never turned up. Never responded. Absolute total waste of time. Just throw stuff out. Far easier.