Freegle in Norfolk - Making and managing Offers

Offering your items on Freegle

When you have an item to give away, post an OFFERED message to your group. You can do this via your group's Yahoo Groups home page (click on Post on the menu on the left hand side of the home page). You can also send messages via email - but we recommend you post via the web page if you are new to Yahoo Groups.

Yahoo Group home pages, and email addresses, for all Norfolk groups are listed here.
Not sure which group to post to? More information can be found here.

The three basics of an OFFERED message

1. Address: if you are posting via your group's Yahoo Groups home page, you don't need to worry about the address as your message will automatically go to the group. If you are sending your message by email, make sure you use the correct address (see link above).

2. Subject: the message subject line MUST begin with OFFERED, followed by a brief description of the item or items. Please also add your location. Use the town/village/area of the city and the first part of your postcode. Examples:

OFFERED: coffee table, CD rack, table lamp - Wymondham / NR18

For Norwich UK Freegle, don't just say "Norwich"! Your location could be a named place (e.g. Costessey, Dussindale), landmark (e.g. station area, university) or major road (e.g. Dereham Road, Sprowston Road) - plus the first part of the postcode of course.

Messages which do not have all three parts will be rejected, and you will be invited to re-post the message with full information in the subject line.

You can make writing Freegle messages easier by using Message Maker - an online tool which asks you for all the above information and produces a correctly formatted message. Note: for some groups, use of Message Maker depends on your email program and browser settings.

3. Message Body: the main part of the message might include:

Full description of the item such as colour, material, brand, size, age etc
What condition the item/s is/are in, especially if any repair is needed
Any additional information to help others understand what you are offering.
A more exact location, if you wish.
A reasonable time to respond and to pick up your offers.

Dos and Don'ts

See our Policies page for our time limits on repeating messages and sending to multiple groups.
More details on which group to post to.

Please do not include any of the following:

Phone numbers, full postcodes or street addresses.
Commercial messages about goods or services for sale/hire.
Requests for, or offers of, payment of any kind.
Requests to swap your items for others - just Offer what you have and request what you need.
Borrowing or lending - Freegle is for passing items on permanently.
Opinions, questions or information - please use the Café.
Long "signatures" (four lines max, please) or those pointing to commercial, religious or political sites.
More details of behaviour not allowed on Freegle.

The following items are absolutely forbidden on Freegle groups:

Anything that is not free
Anything that is not legal to own and pass on
Firearms or weapons
Alcohol, tobacco or drugs of any kind.
Live animals are allowed on some groups.
More details of items not allowed on Freegle.

Dealing with replies to your Offer

Consider waiting 24 hours before choosing a recipient (Fair Offer Policy). Not everyone is online all the time.
Select the response you feel happiest with and offer the item/s to that member, then arrange a collection time.
If that person does not show up at the date and time you have agreed to, and has not contacted you in advance to rearrange, feel free to move on to the next member on your list to offer the items.
When you have passed on the items, post a TAKEN message to the list (matching your original OFFER). If you OFFERED multiple items make sure you list the correct item/s as TAKEN.
Please include the Yahoo! ID or name of the person you have given the items to in the TAKEN message.
Delete the details of the other responders. It would be polite to email them to let them know the item is gone, but the TAKEN notice will suffice if you dont have time.

Also see our page on Freegle etiquette.

NOTE: If you get inappropriate or unwanted replies to your Offer, contact your group's moderators.

Last modified: 11th March 2010