[tiggyT]

Hi,

I don't think that there are any guidelines on my situation so am looking for peoples' opinions.

Another JTer advertised a sofa; I stated interest and asked for specific measurements, as my space for it was slightly restricted on one side (in a corner). Luckily it would just about fit, so I organised to collect it at the user's convenience and arranged for a van driver to bring it all the way from far north county dublin to my home in the south of the city on their appointed day (yesterday).


However, when the sofa arrived it looked far bigger than stated measurements. It was in fact almost 20cm deeper and far too big to fit into my space. The van driver and I couldn't even get it into the lift.

I had spent ages beforehand measuring sitting room, doors, corridor and lift to make sure that it would fit, so I wasted a great deal of time, along with the €35 it cost for the van to bring the item such a great distance; not to mention all the credit I spent ringing around van drivers to get a quote and the morning I took off work to be home to receive it.


It was also problematic to have it taking up space in the lobby of my apartment building and I had to post ads online ASAP to find another taker, lest I get in trouble with building management. Luckily my ads were answered very quickly - lots of people were willing to take it, presumably because I live so close to town and it's a convenient place to collect from. It was still a hassle having to get rid of it and spend yet more time waiting around for someone to come with a van and helping them to load it up.


The reason jumbletown works so well is because each side does the other a favour. In this instance I did a favour and got nothing for it in return except major hassle and loss of time and money.

To be fair to the other JTer, they seemed like a nice person and supplying the wrong measurements was an honest mistake. I can forgive the huge waste of time because they said sorry and I know it was a genuine error. However, I'm a little bitter about the money, as it means that I'm the one who is literally paying for their mistake. Obviously most people getting their furniture here don't have a ton of spare cash to throw around!

My question to jumbletown users is what their opinion is on the situation - is there any etiquette that should be followed; what is the right and fair thing to do here; should I just accept being out of pocket and move on; what would you do and what do you think they should do?


I've used jumbletown for years but always as a giver. I've rarely had problems outside the annoyance of takers who didn't show up. I think that if I had been the giver here I'd feel guilty and be extremely apologetic - admittedly if asked for a refund of costs I'd initially be wary of it being some kind of scam to get money. However it's often easy to judge if someone is genuine based on interactions you've had with them and in this instance there were multiple phone calls and emails when making arrangements. I've also supplied contact details for the van driver and the subsequent taker to verify how much it cost, that it wouldn't fit and that it was taken away again. I don't think the user can be in any doubt that I'm being genuine; in which case, if it were me the very least I'd do is repay the costs and probably make some nice gesture to compensate for the time and effort wasted!

I'd really appreciate any comments and opinions - thanks JTers!