I'm part of the stupiest freecycle group Part II

[Riven]

I am part of the stupidest freecycle group, still. Some of you may remember the last time I posted about how people were always looking for big ticket or brand new items... for FREE.

Uhm, I need a new car, must be no more than 5 yrs old, and run good and look nice. Thanks.
Or the "pity stories" This is a real one, needing baby items, especially a swing, we are going to have our 5th child very soon and need baby stuff..

:thinking:

Well, I put up looking for homes for the strays around here, wanted a barn, someplace with shelter for them, etc. Said I would deliver ( I sure am not taking them out of the traps I enjoy my fingers) IN THE AREA...

I have had SEVERAL people interested, but most live OVER an hour away... Seriously, is that the Kearney area? No, I will NOT drive to St. Paul ( over 45 minutes) then another 30 minutes north to drop you off some free cats, that I can only trap one at a time.

Today I cleaned out my linen closet and put together a collection of sheets we don't use, pillowcases (I swear they're reproducing in there! ) and a feather topper.

I got one person wanting the feather top becuase they've been looking for a new bed... uhm this is NOT a bed, it's a feather bed yes, but you put it on top of your mattress, and I had to explain this to her. Luckily she was nice and agreed it's not what she wanted, and I pointed her to where she might find something, but why reply if you don't know what it even is? Or at least ASK what it is! Another gal sent a reply about the sheets that said:

um ware do you live if in GI i will take the sheets

Okay, the post said would need to be picked up IN OVERTON, or I could drop off in Kearney. Do you read?! I can tell you can't use proper grammar so maybe they can't read? But they got the word "sheets" so I don't know what to think..

Lets commiserate together! Tell me about some of your freecycle adventures that made you go... :thinking:

 

[VolunteerChin22]

Well I am not exactly sure what a freecycle group is but I did have some similar experiences placing ads and stupid people...I posted an ad in the paper for chinchillas and had at least 7 people call me about the "chihuahuas" I had to spend at least 5 min trying to explain to people that they were rodents and not dogs. I even went back to check the ad to see if I spelled it right because I had so many stupid calls...I agree people should learn how to read...

 

[SunshineChins]

Ugh... I so totally feel your pain! I posted a free kiddie pool this week (we used it for the guinea pigs to run around in and not get poop on the floor). I got about 100 "I will take it" emails but no one will show up! ARGGGGHHH!!

I set the stupid thing in my driveway about 100 times only to walk back outside and its STILL sitting there.

They are always looking for high priced items here as well. I cannot tell you how many times I see wants for Wii or Disney World / theme park tickets.

Craigslist is about just as frustrating with the no shows and weirdos. Don't get me started on trying to sell on that site.. LOL

 

[Riven]

Ahh come on! We'll laugh even if you don't!

 

[threewingedfury]

Oh boy, yeah I don't want to get started about Craigslist. I had a seven foot tall $1000 bird cage on there for $150 and I got SO many e-mails about how I needed to lower my price to $25 or $50 that they could buy a brand new macaw cage for $100. I asked them to show me proof of where they could get a brand new macaw cage for that price, no answers of course. Where can you find a 7 ft tall stainless steel special-made bird cage for $25?! Why?!?

 

[Twilight Chinchillas]

Oh boy, yeah I don't want to get started about Craigslist. I had a seven foot tall $1000 bird cage on there for $150 and I got SO many e-mails about how I needed to lower my price to $25 or $50 that they could buy a brand new macaw cage for $100. I asked them to show me proof of where they could get a brand new macaw cage for that price, no answers of course. Where can you find a 7 ft tall stainless steel special-made bird cage for $25?! Why?!?

Dang wish you lived closer to me! I can tell you that I've only seen one Macaw cage once for $150 and I jumped all over it! LOL
My favorite is you reply to an ad, agree on a time, and day that you'll pick up the item, they say SOLD to you, then email back 30 minutes later saying so and so offered me more, of you still want it pay me X amount. I'm sorry, but I don't do business that way! Just rude....:realmad:

 

[threewingedfury]

Also reminds me of this weekend when I went to the flea market and sold a few things to get it out of the way - by the end of the day, I was just ready to go and started handing out free clothes - I had this one lady come back 20 mins after I gave her a brand new pair of pants with tags that were $45 and cuss me out because there was dust on the inside of the pants! Well.. from being stored for 8 years, I'm surprised they were as nice looking as they were.. they were free.. don't complain!

 

[Riven]

I was looking at a horse and had him sold under me not long ago. We went and looked at it, told her we were very interested, she said no one else had looked at him. So I said we'll let you know by the end of the night. I emailed her to set up a time to get him and she replied saying oh, he's sold, sorry.

We're hopefully looking at a horse this weekend for the girls to use in 4-H! Yippeee!!

Tiffany, that's when you say, yea, well don't worry about it, I didn't charge you any extra for the dust and smile innocently! :thumbsup:

 

[threewingedfury]

Tiffany, that's when you say, yea, well don't worry about it, I didn't charge you any extra for the dust and smile innocently! :thumbsup:

Haha.. if only I could have thought of that at the time! My blood just boiled. I've never been rude to anyone when it comes to generosity. Even when buying items off of Craigslist, I've always shown gratitude to those who hold things for me because I usually drive an hour or an hour and a half to pick them up.

I know what you mean about the kittens though. I had a stray litter hanging around here last summer. I put them on Craigslist and had 20 or so e-mails from people wanting them but when they found out they weren't spayed or neutered and didn't have shots, they didn't want them. Again, they were free. I got an e-mail from a lady from a rescue who told me I needed to spay and neuter them before I gave them away since I was allowing the population to increase by not taking them to the shelter and having them put down.

 

[Melissa]

So this kinda reminds me of my dads ad for help with tile layers for my new house. He said he would pay $10/hr thinking it would be a week long job around 10ish hours a day and would also supply meals and snacks all day and if they came from far away would pay gas money. AND dad was going to help to the work! NO BAD IMO

He got a reply from one guy with a bunch of four letter words in it that went along the lines of "I wouldnt take my tools out of my truck for under 1500 and are you just trying to make of out of work tile layers mad by offering so little. Its insulting and good luck finding someone who will do it for less than I would." Remeber there were a lot of swears in there and it was MUCH MUCH longer.

We did the math.. It came out to $50 an hour. MY eye doctors dont make that much and they went to school for YEARS! No wonder, with his high prices and nasty attitude, he was out of business.

Oh yea! And with in 2 hours of posting the ad dad got about 12 other emails from people offering to do it for $10/hr. Guess the first guy didnt need the money that badly.

 

[greychins]

I posted an ad in the paper for chinchillas and had at least 7 people call me about the "chihuahuas" I had to spend at least 5 min trying to explain to people that they were rodents and not dogs. I even went back to check the ad to see if I spelled it right because I had so many stupid calls...I agree people should learn how to read...

I've had this happen so many times it's not funny. For me, though, it's when they run across an internet ad I've placed or my website... and these ads we're talking about have PICTURES!! Does a chin look anything like a chihuhua to you? The best part was that once, when I explained, no, it was a rodent... he was like oh well maybe my kids would like that instead of a chihuhua. Nope. Sorry..

Oh boy, yeah I don't want to get started about Craigslist. I had a seven foot tall $1000 bird cage on there for $150 and I got SO many e-mails about how I needed to lower my price to $25 or $50 that they could buy a brand new macaw cage for $100.

That's like a few years back I had some college books for sale at my parent's garage sale. Older editions, I mean like they now were on the 7th ed and I had the 6th, so not OLD, but not the newest ones that the students needed... I had them labeled at $3. I'm sure I could have sold them on amazon/ebay for something, but I figured it wasn't worth the hassle. The ORIGINAL price tags were on several of them for $120/$150...and I had people wanting me to lower the price to 25cents!!! Honest to god, prices for paperbacks that were originally $5.99 AREN'T 25 cents at the used book store, much less for books that were originally $120+. It just KILLS me how people want something for nothing...

I've also put up some stuff for free on craigslist/freecycle... and it just drives me mad how EVERYONE wants whatever-it-is delivered, or they expect YOU to work with THEIR time schedule (even though they're the one that wants the free thing), or they complain it doesn't look new or something.

I once had a decent sized chin/rabbit cage that I gave away free with water bottle, food dish, the few things you'd need if you were gonna get like a chin or a rabbit. I scrubbed the thing clean, made it all pretty... (and mind you, if you SAW how grimy the cages look that people try to SELL on the craigslist...)...and this was FREE...and the person was like "oh I'm not sure I want it, it's a little scratched up." She ended up NOT taking it (I found someone who DID appreciate it), saying "oh well I'm sure I can find a new one." Yes, lady, someone's just gonna buy a NEW cage and then HAND IT OFF to someone else without ever using it. She would've gotten a $70+ cage and all accessories FOR FREE, but it wasn't good enough, because it was "scratched." We're not talking about deep gouges either, just some minor things.

So we've now moved from "they want something for nothing" to "they want something, and it better be perfect and new and shiny, for nothing." *sigh*

 

[Diva Chins]

Also reminds me of this weekend when I went to the flea market and sold a few things to get it out of the way - by the end of the day, I was just ready to go and started handing out free clothes - I had this one lady come back 20 mins after I gave her a brand new pair of pants with tags that were $45 and cuss me out because there was dust on the inside of the pants! Well.. from being stored for 8 years, I'm surprised they were as nice looking as they were.. they were free.. don't complain!

I know most of what you feel. During the summer me and a girl set up at the flea market because she was trying to get rid of puppies, I had some stuff to rid of. One little brat who escaped from the lower depths (I just really don't like kids if anyone has guessed) was playing with a cigarette roller I had, broke it and ran off like the wind. I got mad, tracked down his parents and asked them VERY politely to pay for it. His dad tried to fix it, couldn't. His mom said "I'm not paying for it" which lead to me getting mad, yelling, flailing my arms (Heat + Chinchilla person used to 65 or so = Bad ) and even went to the manager of the flea market to see if he would ban them. No such luck, though he did recommend that the next time that boy came around that I bend him over and spank him like his parents should have, in his words. Although tempting, assault on a minor can't look that great.

 

[pricklesnquills]

Hey...it's free...not costing them anything...why would they read or think!?!

 

[Nancy]

I could write a book on the free cycle here and how stupid it and some of the people are. I rarely post to it anymore.

I'm on moderation because I made some stupid mistake like not capitalizing OFFER, or not giving my location in the title or something stupid. So I'm on moderation, my post hasn't been approved yet, but I get emails about it. Hmmm, Like it isn't obvious how that is happening.

Last summer we did some cleaning and I had about 200 items and I listed them in two posts. Being on moderation they didn't let it go through and wrote back that I'd have to list each item separately. Yeah, like I have time to make 200 posts. The stuff went to goodwill.

No shows drive me insane and I long ago reached the point of just leaving the item on the step.

I've posted multiple things, separate posts of course and someone will write back they will take everything.

People who continually email about the item even after I've posted it's gone.

People who want everything and then expect it to be delivered.

I could go on and on.

 

[Riven]

People who continually email about the item even after I've posted it's gone.

I get those too! Or they contact you for something you not only listed as gone, but was up over a month ago.

We should compile all of our stupid replies and responses and put together a book! Chronicles of Free Stuff Givers, and their Mentally Impaired Adversaries.

 

[pricklesnquills]

I've never had someone actually show up. I just bring it to good will...

 

[Nancy]

The ones who tick me off the most are those that search for my phone # and then phone me about it. They get told that since they annoyed me by phoning, they're out of luck.

 

[Ash]

Don't take it to Goodwill. Take it to the Salvation Army or you local homeless shelter. Goodwill THROWS 90% of the stuff they get away. My step-dad works in the truck/reception area, and you wouldn't believe the nice stuff they HAVE to throw away. They're not even allowed to keep it. Brand new clothes, jewelry, etc.

 

[SunshineChins]

Don't take it to Goodwill. Take it to the Salvation Army or you local homeless shelter. Goodwill THROWS 90% of the stuff they get away. My step-dad works in the truck/reception area, and you wouldn't believe the nice stuff they HAVE to throw away. They're not even allowed to keep it. Brand new clothes, jewelry, etc.

Why do they have to throw it away? I don't take things to either Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Goodwill sells stuff online and their prices are stupidly insane at the store ($5.99 for a used shirt??) and all the Salvation Army's around here will not allow you to give them toys or used furniture. Which is insane as who is going to give away brand new furniture??

As much as I hate dealing with the mods and the freecycle peeps its the only place I have for giving stuff away. The mods on freecyle do annoy me a bit. I posted a free ad for gerbils a while back. Got a responce from a mod that I need to "think about not giving my pets away and that I am a turn around home". I was like WTH? Turns out that someone had gone back about four years and looked up all the pets I had put on freecyle. Which was a hamster, a couple of gerbils and a friends cat that she brought to my house.

I had to email them explaining that these animals were not my pets but had been surrendered to me by their owners. And that I was looking for them a proper home. Sheesh.. I figured that posting these guys on freecycle with all their stuff someone might be interested. Instead I get attacked and told I don't keep my pets. I did tell the woman she was more than welcome to come over to my house and see all of my pets.(my cat that I have had for five years) UGH!

Okay.. end of rant.. LOL

 

[Ash]

Honestly, my step-dad doesn't even understand why, but a majority of the stuff they get in gets trashed. It's crazy.