I used to be part of freecycle.org… I used to be part of freecycle.org for the St Catharines, Ontario (Canada) group. My account got deleted without being notified ahead of time or even told why. A few years later (this week) I rejoined to try and give away a desk and drawers that I had got from someone locally. I then tried posting an ad for the free desk and had copied over my ad from another free ad site. My post about the free desk was not approved TWICE without any admin stating why. Then on the third time, it got deleted again and an admin wrote why it had not been approved, something about not having a phone number in the ad or even referring to one(!!). Since I had copied my ad from another site, I had forgotten to take out the reference to calling which is why it was deleted. It took 3 days for me to be told why. Not very good. I have deleted my account with freecycle as it is not what it used to be.

Mixed review I use Freeview mostly to give items that are too good for the tip away for free to people who need/want them in the local area, but honestly, it's just such a faff and you often end up sitting in the house for hours waiting for people who never show up. I've had good experiences with people being really responsive and collecting quickly, but more experiences with people not responding / being no-shows / not having space in the car for it. For balance, the one time I used it as a 'customer' - I got a lovely piece of furniture in great condition that I still use to this day. The issue with Freecycle isn't the concept, it's some of the time wasters who use it...

A great idea frustrated by its users Unlike others who’ve posted here, I haven’t had problems with the website functionality or with moderation. My disappointment has been with the users. I see people here referring to “time wasters” and I have to agree. I get the feeling there are people who just sit on the site and pounce when they see something they either might like for themselves or, think they can sell. They respond enthusiastically, promise they can come and get the item at any time and then at the last minute come up with excuses as to why they can’t after all do so or don’t, after all want what they’ve been adamant they must have. Of course not everyone’s like that but enough are for me to have wasted hours of my time and to have decided, reluctantly, to delete my account.

Overall very good experience Overall very good experience. Have been able to give away seamlessly loads of things Vs sending for recycling or landfill. One young woman from the Ukraine was looking for warm clothes for her mother. We ended up talking about her journey. No complaints - great idea.

too hard to post to the Cardiff site too hard to post to the Cardiff site, they moderators keep rejecting my posts for being duplicates when they are edits of live posts. Really useless volunteers who just want to make it impossible to post!! WHY!. I am surprised anyone gets a post of my local site, but as I only see 1 or 2 a day others must be having the same problems, am looking for a better alternative