Frustrating Freecycle

The idea behind Freecycle is sound. It is an online forum where you can give away unwanted items and not dump them in a landfill site. There are local Freecycles around the world – I've used one in Auckland, New Zealand.

In my case, I've listed items I no longer need in the forum. People who want the items email their interest, arrange a meet up and the item is then given away. There's an alternative approach where people who need things can ask for them.

It sounds simple enough and I've used it to unclutter my garage ahead of a house move, but I've run into a number of problems with Freecycle, which make me question its value.

Problem 1: Can't be bothered. I've offered a number of items on Freecycle, had them requested and then found the person at the other end of the deal fails to pick up the item. I'm guess here that because an item is free, it has little perceived value by the recipient. Maybe there are other reasons. Either way, my first three forays into Freecycle resulted in receivers not picking up the items they had requested from me.

Problem 2: Slackness. This is closely related to problem 1. Receivers make appointments to pick up items, I wait at home for them, they don't turn up. Then they start to mess me around making more broken appointments etc. While  rescheduling is fine, we're talking about people who constantly shuffle appointments. It's rude and, from my point of view, costly.

Problem 3: Greed. I've noticed some of the receivers turning up to pick up items ask for more. In one case the picker-up wandered into my open garage asking if he could take items than were clearly not for recycling. This makes me uneasy with the process. I also don't like it when I offer item X, and get tons of emails asking if I'll also be giving away a loosely related item Y.

Problem 4: Inefficiency. When someone requests an item, I post a taken message on Freecycle. The matter should end there, but emails pour in for days and weeks after, asking if the item is still available. Not taking notice of "Taken" posts is just plain rude.

Problem 5: Venality. Some of the stuff I've distributed via Freecycle has turned up for sale on TradeMe (if you're outside New Zealand this is the local equivalent of eBay). On one level I don't care when happens to the items I've given away. Once they've gone, they've gone. On the other hand, I suspect some Freecycle users are professional scavengers – which disturbs me. Apart from anything else this undermines the idealism of the project.

Have you run into problems with Freecycle? Or are you happy with it? I'd love to hear your opinion.