Do you have things in your house that you don’t want but you don’t want to throw away? Are they things that the charity shops just won’t take? Are they surplus to your requirements but could be used by someone else? If so, then this site is for you.
We have produced a simple, easy-to-use Internet site for you to list your items free. The formula is quite simple. You list what you want to give away. People search the site. They contact you through the site or by telephone. They arrange to collect the item. You then ‘hide’ the item. That’s it!
The site is also arranged by localities. So, when you list your items, you can be sure that is visible locally. When you click on a local area, you will be shown items available in your local area. Of course, you can see what is available in other areas but by focusing on a specific locality, we hope the site will be more useful.
Unlike other sites, you do not need to attach photographs to emails. You can upload up to five photographs of each item. You can choose whether people contact you by email or by telephone. If someone lets you down, you do not need to enter the details again. All you have to do is to make the hidden item visible again. This puts you in control with the minimum of effort.
In addition, you may list items for sale like you would with a classified advertisement on a local paper. We will make a small charge of 10 pence per day for your advertising listing and that is all. No commission or percentage of sale price will be charged.
We will also list a diary of events for the local area and provide links to sites of local interest. There will be an open forum for members to discuss local issues. Finally, we will provide an editorial section where articles of local interest will be posted. These articles will be moderated by our local editors.
In this way, we hope to provide a resource that will allow people to interact with others in their local neighbourhoods.
Setting your local context
On the left hand side of each page, the first panel shows a list of counties and towns. By clicking on the appropriate entry, this will set the context for your searches. So, for example, if you click on 'Buckinghamshire' when you then select Recycle, Sales, Wants, News and Events, you will only see the entries for Buckinghamshire. You could restrict this further by clicking on the town entry. So clicking on Chesham restricts the views to just Chesham entries. At any time you can return to the highest level context by clicking on 'UK'.
Searching for recycled items
People who have items for recycling list these with a description (and optionally, photographs). You can see a list of these items by clicking on the "Recycle" link. Just browse down the list until you find an item that interests you.
How to get an item
If you see an item that may be useful to you, just click on the entry on the list or or the link 'More' for more details. You can then send a message to the owner of the item through the site or contact them directly if they have shown contact details, you can contact them directly. If they have not displayed their details, all you need to do is fill in the contact form with your email address and wait for the donor to contact you. When you contact them through the site, you will have to give them your contact details either a telephone number or an email address.
The rest is up to you to arrange with the giver. We normally expect the recipient to collect the item from the giver’s address.
Listing items for recycling
Before you can list an item, you must become a member of the site. Membership is free and requires you to fill in minimum details. Depending on your security settings, our email may be directed to your junk-mail folder by mistake. Please check this and unblock our site from your mail filters. Once this is done, we will send you an email to you and only after you have responded to this can you list any of your items.
In submitting your details, we will require you to enter your county which will determine the locality for your listing. This will also define the local sections that you will access by default. Of course, you may look at other locations but if you wish to post to other localities, you must change your default county.
You can put your address, telephone and email details on to the site’s membership record. We will not display this as a precaution against spammers unless you ask these to be displayed by ticking the display option.
Once you have become a full member, you can list any items for recycle by clicking on the "Add item" tab in the Recycle menu. You should describe the item as fully as possible stating condition. You may also load photographs of the item. The site assumes that the recipient will collect from you but of course, you may vary this. Once you have completed the listing, the item will be displayed on our site as available.
Once you have agreed to a collection from someone, you can change the items status to "Hidden". You can change this back if this falls through.
Listing Items for sale
This is very similar to listing for recycling except that you will need to have credits against your membership account. You click on the "For Sale" tab and select ‘add item’. If you do not have sufficient credit, the system will direct you to put some credit against your account. This can be done through PayPal using your credit or debit card. Just enter the amount you wish to credit your account and we will add the PayPal charges to it, then direct you to the PayPal site. Once this is complete, your account will be credited with the amount less charges and you are ready to post your advertisement.
In addition to the details for the free recycling, you will need to put in the last date you want your advertisement to be shown. The system will check that you have sufficient credit to proceed. Then, you just list the item and it will appear on our items for sale list and will be searchable by all users of the site.
As an introductory offer, you will receive £3 credit to be used for your adverts when you sign-up and confirm your membership. We have also dropped the price for advertising from 10p per day to 1p per day until further notice to help people get through the Financial Crisis!
Use the site free
For every new member you introduce to this site, when they confirm their registration, you will be given additional £1 credit. The Editors, at their discretion, may award credits for articles published on the site. To submit an article for the News section, write an email with the text of the article to david@eventprompt.co.uk with the title "Xchange News Article".
News and Events
In addition to the items for recycling and for sale, we will maintain a diary of events by days and also items of local news. If you wish to contribute news items, just write to david@@eventprompt.co.uk with a draft of the article stating which area it relates. This may be edited but all reasonable items will be published.
Similarly, if you have an event that you wish to publicise, write to david@eventprommpt.co.uk with details of the event including a description, date, start and end times. We will do our best to publicise your events.
Your rubbish could be someone else's treasure!
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