Why are Freecyclers so Obnoxious?
I freecycle. A little. When I want to get rid of my worthless stuff I post something. When I need something and I don’t want to pay for it, I put it out there. I will occasionally claim something being offered.
But I am not a crazy go nuts freecycler.
And there are a couple of things that really ummm… crack me up about the people that are giving away their garbage.
Here are a few of the choice phrases often used by freecyclers that I find annoying amusing.
"Preference given to whoever can get here sooner."
Now this one is kind of obnoxious to me, and sort of seems unfair, and all freecycle groups are different. My old group in Utah, said we needed to draw names to pick and couldn’t give it to the first person that responded. Here in the Rainy Place, no such rules apply. But I don’t like this phrase because some of us don’t have infinite, drop everything kind of time and an item might be really, really, really useful to someone who can’t get there until Tuesday.
"Come and get this stuff now, because I am tired of looking at it"
Okay, now I have only seen this once, but it just made me chuckle. Really? Because you’re some kind of royalty and feel like everyone should come and remove your "treasures"just because you don’t want to look at them anymore? Get off your bum and haul it somewhere! (I believe this offer was like a pile of rocks or cement pieces or something)
"Must Take All"
Aka: "Even if you drove thirty minutes to see my crap (that you’ve never seen, because I am too lazy to post pictures of all of it), and you decide there is only one shirt you like out of the box, these are your problem now, because I don’t want to deal with it." This one is really funny when the box is all random things.
Now, here’s the last thing that bugs me. And it’s not a statement it’s an attitude of impatience and lack of compassion. I was supposed to get something from a freecycler once and I didn’t pick it immediately because when I went to get the gal’s address from my email my computer was down. Two days later I emailed her and she was like, "Well, you weren’t fast enough so I gave it to someone else." I can see both sides of the story– no one likes being dogged, but I would have at least emailed or called me to see if I still wanted it rather than just give it to the next person… Anyway…
It’s the sense of entitlement these people seem to have that drives me batty. It’s like they believe it to be their right to just have someone take away the stuff they are sick of looking at– because a.) they consider their stuff worthless or b.) they are too lazy to sell it on craigslist or c.) they are too lazy to drive it to the donation box.
I believe Freecycle was started to keep things out of landfills, not pass on your junk that you’re too tired to deal with. And that’s what bugs me, is that not everyone is a believer in that principle.
And that’s it.
