A couple of days ago, I bought a new desk and bookshelf. I had planned to post my old desk on Freecyle, which is a terrific message board/mailing list where you recycle things you don’t want or need any longer. I saw a ‘wanted: computer desk’ post, and instead responded to the poster, offering her the desk.
She was very happy for the offer, and said she would pick it up on Saturday morning at around 11:00. No problem, I said. We made plans for her to call before she came over to make sure we were here, as I had to be elsewhere.
When I got home at 12:30, I asked Dave if she had called. Nope. So I emailed her, asking what the plan was. I got back the following:
No, I’m not willing to bring it to you. You want free stuff, come and get it. Clearly, you didn’t knock very loud, because Dave would have answered the door. Wait, didn’t I say to call first? Oh, yes I certainly did. So I responded to her, asking if she planned to return for the desk, and letting her know that the desk was still hers if she wanted it. I got this:
Call me crazy, but when you make arrangements to call first, you should call first or run the risk of your plans being fucked.
In short, Snippy Freecyle Bitch, screw you. Don’t ever respond to any posts I make, because I will fart at you as soon as respond.
What kills me is she thought arriving 40 minutes later would be to her advantage. Because you certainly couldn’t have anything better to do than wait around for someone for close to an hour. Especially when they can’t be bothered to call to let you know that they’re coming, and that they’re running late.
What bothers me most, is she practically begged for a desk in the offer, and then pooh-poohs my offer to keep it for her - over a $2 toll. She can avoid the tolls by just crossing downtown rather than taking the tunnel, but I guess her time is too valuable for that.
Helloooo, you asked for a free desk - and your time is too valuable. If your time is that valuable, spend it working to buy a new one.
I hate freecycle. I tried to give away a good TV, and three people begged me to give it to them. We emailed back and forth until the point I actually tried to finalize the pickup. Then each one suddenly stopped responding to emails. It happened exactly the same way with each person. Is it a game to beg for things just to see if people will offer them to you?
I use to like Freecycle. I really enjoyed giving away the stuff I no longer needed to someone that did. But I got tired of the begging very quickly. I always posted a message immediately when the item was taken. Did that stop 6ooo people from e-mailing me and begging for it? No. I made it clear in my offers that the items had to be picked up within a certain time frame (usually by Sunday afternoon). I would make sure the person could come out and pick up as we arranged, “sure, no problem as I really want that item”…Monday morning comes along and guess what I still have in my possesion? Did they ever bother to say they were not coming so I could repost? Did they ever bother to re-schedule? Did that stop them for beggin for the next item I put up? NO This happened so many times, and our weekend plans were disrupted too often, I finally quit.
Fuck em.
I can’t believe how fucking heartless you people are. Don’t you realize that this woman is immature and clinically depressed? No doubt about it! You can also be sure that she had a shitty upbringing and thus has no self-esteem. All that baggage she’s carrying and you can’t forgive her this minor faux pas? Are you so cynical that you actually believe people are naturally just assholes? That every negative action can’t be excused? Damn jerks!
Maybe you should also add something to the effect of, “If you say you’ll call before showing up, and then don’t call, it’s your problem if you show up and I’m not here, genius.” After all, Snippy Bitch is probably going to read your ad next time too.
I went to www.freecycle.com to see what it was all about (just guessing at the address), and I can’t find any way to post anything, nor even any links that aren’t a business. No private party stuff at all. Even searching from that page for a MB simply brought out offers from companies to host my own MB for a minimal fee.
These are Yahoo Groups, so you need to register for a Yahoo account at www.yahoo.com . Don’t worry, it’s free, and you get a 100 MB e-mail account and space to host your own Geocities web site too. Then search the Yahoo Groups for Freecycle in your city or area, and that’s where you can join the individual Groups and read, post, or reply to the messages.
Thanks, Lou. I’ve got a Yahoo! acct due to fantasy football, but that’s the only place I ever used there. I think I may have signed up way back in '95 or so, but that was several computers and ISPs ago.
(I can hardly wait til I get my own bitch to pit!)
You don’t actually need a Yahoo account to subscribe to Yahoo Groups. And freecycle is at freecycle.org. Most, but not all, of the groups are run as Yahoo Groups.
Just out of curiosity, what part of freecycle do you go to for the postings about private citizens giving away stuff? Not there’s likely to be anything in my area, but I couldn’t even find that part. Maybe I was clicking on the wrong links, but I just kept going to all of the ad type links.
