1 review for Freecycle is not recommended
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Minnesota
7 reviews
19 helpful votes

Once User Friendly--Now Clunky
March 24, 2022

I've been a Freecycle member for at least 10 years. I may have learned about it through Mary Hunt's "Everyday Cheapskate" column. It was a pretty straightforward way of letting other members know I had something to give away; it was also easy to respond to other folks' postings. I periodically would do some purging and list items. If I recall correctly, I usually had at least one response to a posting.

For those unfamiliar with Freecycle, one signs up for an account (it's free). When a post is made, an e-mail is sent to all the members in that particular town group. If a recipient is interested, it used to be that one simply hit the reply feature on your e-mail and the poster would then get an e-mail from the recipient. Then the two parties could communicate back/forth via e-mail to arrange pick-up of the item.

Also, once an item was no longer available, the poster could update the listing by saying it was taken. Then, an e-mail would go out to all members advising that the item was no longer available.

I noticed in the last year or so that when an item is marked as taken by the poster, an e-mail to that effect is no longer sent out. Instead, if a person tried to send an e-mail to the poster to see if it was still available, the sender would get a response saying something like the item is no longer available.

I don't often post and seldom respond to a posting, but in recent months I've noticed that one can no longer simply hit the reply on the Freecycle e-mail. Now, if one wants to express interest in an item, one has to log in to his/her account, find the listing, and then send a message.

A couple days ago I made three offer posts. The first one (10:12 a.m.) was for two partial sheet/pillow case sets, the second was for two framed pics, and the third was for some fragrances. The third one was approved and appeared in my e-mail inbox almost as soon as I submitted it. The sheet post wasn't approved until 9:48 p.m. The next morning the framed pic post was still not approved. When I went into my account, it was gone. Now, my first thought would be that perhaps I hadn't hit the final button to submit the post once I had typed the info and attached the pic. However, once a post is submitted, the poster also gets a screen showing how the post will appear when it goes out and I'm pretty sure I saw that screen. I then sent a message to the moderators, expressing surprise that my third post went right through, that my first post was pending for 11 hours, and my second post mysteriously disappeared. THREE DAYS later I'm still waiting for a reply. Based on other reviews on this site, I guess I shouldn't hold my breath that anyone will ever get back to me.

Another thing that is a change--and not for the better--is that when making a post, one no longer has a large box in which to write. Instead, you get a one-line high horizontal box. You can type a lot--nearly 1000 characters--but you can only see a portion of it. So, when one is done typing and wants to go back to the beginning to proofread, you have to use the cursor and go backwards to the beginning and then cursor back again to the end to read what's typed.

In the last year or so (probably since the new web format came out spring 2021) I've noticed a drop in the number of e-mails for new Freecycle posting. I suspect that people are moving away from Freecycle and to other platforms (i. E., FB buy nothing groups) that don't make users go through as many hoops as Freecycle now does. Not saying that FB is perfect but listing items and responding to others' posts are more user friendly.

So, while I'm not planning to close my Freecycle account (at least not yet), I will probably quit posting items on it and use FB instead. I may still reply if there's an offer of something I'd like.

Tip for consumers:

There are better sites (more user friendly) such as FB Marketplace for giving away items. Freecycle has become too cumbersome after its revamped website went into effect in 2021.

Products used:

N/A--this is a buy nothing site.

Date of experience: March 24, 2022
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