I've said before that Freecycle/Freegle is a last resort for me -- not because I'm averse to giving things away or desperate for the odd pounds that selling groups provide, but because people who pay even small amounts of money for things are overwhelmingly polite and pleasant, and people who get things for nothing? Well, not so much. Perhaps 50% polite instead of 99% polite. On the local selling group I often swap things for bananas, and everyone who's prepared to bring bananas is lovely. Every single one.
The social reformer in me thinks that part of this is that the poor and downtrodden lead lives of such mayhem that normal social manners are beyond them. I'm trying to sell an old phone at the moment, to a mum who clearly has no cash. I'd really like to sell it to her, because I think she's likely to appreciate it a lot more than some other people -- but after three weeks of 'I'll have the money next week' and never getting in touch until *I* chase her, I'm about to give up. And honestly, I'm very soft on pickups; even a single message saying 'can you keep it till the end of the month' would have done.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2015-02-12 10:19 am (UTC)The social reformer in me thinks that part of this is that the poor and downtrodden lead lives of such mayhem that normal social manners are beyond them. I'm trying to sell an old phone at the moment, to a mum who clearly has no cash. I'd really like to sell it to her, because I think she's likely to appreciate it a lot more than some other people -- but after three weeks of 'I'll have the money next week' and never getting in touch until *I* chase her, I'm about to give up. And honestly, I'm very soft on pickups; even a single message saying 'can you keep it till the end of the month' would have done.