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Stuff you need - Stuff you don't | |||
| Help & FAQs | ||||
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Need help using NeedStuff? If you're having problems using NeedStuff, take a look here; we may have the answer for you. If your query isn't answered on this page, feel free to contact us and we'll do our best to help you out. Common queries: These are some of the most common questions we get at NeedStuff. See if your query is in this list before contacting us. Most problems can be solved from the information on this page.
How do I register? Registering is fast, simple and free! Simply click the link at the top right of this page, called "Register for FREE!!!". On the page that appears, choose your country. We only cover the United Kingdom at the moment, but we are expanding! Once you've chosen your country, click "Continue". On the next page, you need to enter your first name and surname, and choose a username. Your username can be from 4 to 20 characters and consist of letters and numbers only. Next, enter a password for your account, between 8 and 12 characters. Make sure you remember this, as we cannot retrieve it later. If you forget your password, follow the instructions here. You now need to enter your email address, and enter it again to confirm it. It is important to enter the right email address, as an activation email will be sent to that address with instructions on how to activate your account. To combat fraud, we don't activate your account the moment you register; instead, the email contains a link to click that will activate your account. This is to ensure that the person who signs up for the account, is actually the person to whom the email address belongs. Finally, you need to choose which towns your items will appear in. You can choose up to three different towns, which gives you many postcodes that your items can cover. For example, if you live in Wolverhampton, you may want to list your items in Codsall, too. Simply choose up to three towns from the lists. The postcodes for those towns will appear below the lists. Click "Finish" and the information you've entered will be checked. If you've made any mistakes, you'll see a red bar at the top of the screen telling you the problems, and the areas of the form with problems will show in red. If everything is okay, you'll be sent the activation email. Just click the link and you'll see a page requesting your email address and password. This is simply a check to ensure that you have the right activation key. If clicking the link in your email doesn't work, copy and paste the link into your web browser. You can now login and start using the great features of NeedStuff! How do I activate my account? After registering, you should have received an activation email from us. If not, this is likely because you have entered the wrong email address. You can register again straight away, but with a different username (because the original is in use). Accounts not activated within 7 days are automatically deleted, so you could wait 7 days for the original registration to be deleted. It's up to you. If you would like to retain the username you chose originally, get in touch with us providing your chosen username and email address and we'll do our best to help you out. We send an activation email to your registered email address to conmbat fraud, and to make sure that the person who signed up for the account, is actually the person to whom the email address belongs. In the activation email is a link to the activation page on NeedStuff. Simply click the link in the email, or copy and paste it into your web browser's address bar. You will be asked for your email address and password. This is just a check to ensure you are who you say you are. Once your account is activated, you'll get a second email from us confirming that your account is now active. If your account has been deactivated because you have tried to login more than five times with the wrong details, click the link in the reactivation email you will have been sent. How do I login and logout? Once you have a valid NeedStuff account, you login by visiting the home page and entering your registered username and password into the boxes on the top right, and clicking "Login". If all is well, you'll be returned to the home page and you'll see a link to your items and totals of all your current items. If you cannot login, make sure you have the correct username and password. Usernames are not case-sensitive, i.e. Chris is the same as chris and ChRiS. Passwords, however, are case-sensitive, so MyPassword is not the same as mypassword. If you still cannot login, click the "Lost your password" link at the top right. Details are here. If you attempt to login more than five times, your account will be locked and a reactivation email will be sent to your registered email address. This stops people from trying to guess your password. You'll see a message on the website saying that your account has been locked. If you no longer have the reactivation email or did not receive it, there's a link to send another one to you. To logout, just click the "Logout" button. For security reasons, make sure you close your browser afterwards so no one else can try to login as you. I've forgotten my password, what do I do? If you can't remember your password, we can send you a new one. On the home page, click "Lost your password?". On the page that appears, enter your username and registered email address, then click "Email Me My Password". You should receive a new, random password. Use this to login to your account - remember, it's case-sensitive. Because the new password was randomly-generated, you may want to change it when you've logged in to something more memorable. I entered the wrong email address If you entered the wrong email address when you signed up as a new user, you would not have received the activation email. After 7 days, the unactivated account will be automatically deleted, so you can sign up again immediately (but with a different username) with the correct email address. If you have edited your details and changed your email address, you will have been logged out straight away and an activation email has been sent to the new email address. However, if you entered the wrong email address, you won't have received the activation email. You must contact an admin user, using this link. An administrator will receive the email and change your email address back to the original. How do I add a new item? Once logged in, you'll see an option called "Add a New Item". Click it and you'll see a simple form for you to enter your item's details. You can add an Offered item or a Wanted item. Offered items are things you want to give away. Wanted items are those that you are in need of, and are hoping someone in your area has the item to give away. There are traditionally going to be more items that people want to give away, but there's nothing stopping you from requesting an item by posting a Wanted item. Once you've chosen the type of item, you now need to enter a title for the item. This will be shown on the main page and is shown to all users and visitors to the website. Please make your title as interesting and descriptive as possible, within the 100-character limit. The "Description" and "Additional Info" fields are there for you to add more detailed information about the item you're offering or want. There is a maximum of 255 characters in each field. You are not permitted to enter any foul or abusive language in any of the fields, so please refrain from doing so. Any user whose items are found to be in breach of our terms & conditions, will be banned from NeedStuff. Finally, you need to choose the towns that your item will appear in. The first town will always be your home town - as taken from when you signed up - but the other two can be changed to whatever you like. This allows you some flexibility in where your items can go. When done, just click "Add My New Item", and that's it! If there were any errors, you'll be shown where they are and given the opportunity to correct them. Your item will be posted immediately. How do I find one of my items? There are a few ways of finding one of your items. Only active items within the last 100 days are kept on the website. Exchanged & deleted items older than this are automatically deleted. Also, offered and wanted items that are not awaiting collection will also be deleted. The first way to locate your items is via the "My Items" link on the home page. This lists all of your active items, and will show 25 items per page. This lists the item title and which postcodes it appears in, the type of item (Offered or Wanted), its current status (Offered, Wanted, Awaiting Collection, Exchanged or Deleted). It also shows you the date the item was posted, and when it has ended. You will also see a selection of actions that you can take on the items. Deleted and Exchanged items cannot be altered, but other items can have their status changed, or can be edited or deleted. The second way is from the home page. The home page shows the latest 10 offered, wanted and exchanged items, so it's possible your item may not be shown there. If it is, you'll see the different actions you can take. The final way to find one of your items is to search for it using the "Search for Items" link on the home page. Simply choose the item type you want to find, or choose "Any Status", enter the title, description and additonal info that you want to find. You do not have to enter text into all three fields, but the search terms are additive, i.e. if you enter a title and description, the search will only find items that match both the title AND description. You also need to choose which postal towns to search in, or choose "-- All Areas --" to search in all areas. This will take longer, but will return more items. Items that match the search will be displayed in a list. How do I edit or delete one of my items? You need to be logged in to edit or delete one of your items. Once you have located your item, you can click the "Edit" or "Delete" link by the item. If you are viewing the item on its own, i.e. not in a list, there will be "Edit This Item" and "Delete This Item" buttons. Just click whichever button you require. If you are editing an item, you can change it from Offered to Wanted and vice versa, in csse you chose the wrong type when you added the item. You can also edit all other fields, as if you were adding a new item. When deleting an item, you must tick the "Delete Item" check box, or the item will not be deleted. When an item is deleted, it will no longer show up in searches or on the home page, but it will still be listed in your items list. How do I request or offer an item? You need to be logged in to request an Offered item from a user or to offer a Wanted item to a user. If the item is in a list, click the "REQUEST ITEM" link. If you are viewing the item already, click the "REQUEST THIS ITEM" button. You will be able to enter some text that will be sent to the user offering the item. Please be polite and courteous at all times. An email will be sent to the user offering the item, and it is then up to them to decide who gets their item. Requesting an item is not a legal contract and the user is under no obligation to give you the item. To offer an item to a user, click the "OFFER ITEM" link if the item is in a list, or press the "OFFER THIS ITEM" button if you are already viewing the item. Again, you will be able to send a message to the user. Once you've made your request or offer, we send an email to the user. It is then up to the user whether they choose you to receive the item or whether they accept your offered item. They will arrange this with you via email. I saw an item on the home page, but when I logged in it wasn't there If you aren't logged in, the home page shows items offered, wanted and exchanged in all areas. When you login, the home page shows the items in your chosen areas. If you would like to request or offer an item that isn't in your area, edit your details with the "My Details" option, and change one of your towns to one of the towns that the item is listed in. Remember, you will need to collect the item from or present the item to the other user, so you should ensure you are actually able to do this, as some items can be quite far away from your local area. Note that changing your towns will change the towns that all of your items are listed in. We are currently developing the site further such that it will not be necessary to do this. Stay tuned! How and why do I change the status of an item? You need to be logged in to change the status of one of your items. Find your item and click the "Change Status" link if the item is in a list, or "Change Item's Status" if you're viewing the item. You can change the status of your item at any point before it is Exchanged. Here's the order of status changes:
I need to change my account details/password You need to be logged in to change your account details. Simply click the "My Details" link on the home page. You're able to change all details in your account except your username. If you want to change the towns that your items are listed in, you are able to do this, but any items you have currently active will be moved to the new towns. You can also change your registered email address. If you do so, you will be logged out straight away and an activation email will be sent to the new email address. However, if you entered the wrong email address, you won't have received the activation email. You must contact an admin user, using this link. An administrator will receive the email and change your email address back to the original. If you are an admin user and you change your towns, you will no longer be an admin in the towns that you are no longer active in. If you don't want to change your password, leave both the "New Password" and "Confirm New Password" fields blank. To make any changes to your account details you must enter your current password in the "Current Password" field. How do I change which emails I receive from NeedStuff? You need to be logged in to change your email preferences. Click the "My Preferences" link on the home page. Simply set the emails you want to receive to "Yes" and those you don't to "No"; then click the "Update" button. By default, "Deleting an item" and "Exchanging an item" are set to "No". The others are set to "Yes", and include receiving a daily digest of items added or exchanged in your local areas, emails for when you add a new item, and emails from us. Emails from us are rare and only include administrative notices and changes to terms and conditions etc. We promise not to spam you! I'm not receiving any emails This could be due to a number of reasons:
What's with the adverts? NeedStuff is a completely free service, and as such makes absolutely no money from any items posted or exchanged. The only income we have is from users clicking on the adverts on each page. This is the only way we can afford to pay the hosting fees for the site. We would be grateful if you could click on at least one advert per visit, it would go some way to keeping us online! And, it's the right thing to do. We provide a free service, and you take a moment to click an advert. It's only fair! Thanks!!! How do I delete my account? Obviously, we'd rather you didn't, but if you really want to delete your account, please contact us using the link at the bottom of any page. As long as you have no active items, we will delete your account immediately. If you have any active items that you are not currently exchanging with another user, please delete them all (log in and choose "Delete" for each item) so that we know you really want to have your account deleted. When you contact us, please put your username into the email. Thanks! |
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| - S P O N S O R E D L I N K S - | ||||
| Please click the adverts below, as it helps to keep this free service online. Thanks! | ||||
   
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| Please click the adverts, as it helps to keep this free service online. Thanks! | ||||