Frequently Asked Questions

Emails from La Récup' will almost entirely be 'transactional' emails, i.e. related to your activities on this site.

For example, to confirm that you have posted an ad, to let you know that you have a reply to your ad, or to remind you if your ad is about to expire, and so on. Sometimes, particularly because these emails are automatically generated, some of them may be filtered into your spam folder by your email system. 

How to prevent this from happening depends on your email provider. Sometimes all you need to do is add our email address to your contacts. But to be sure, you need to add our email address ([email protected]) to what is called a "whitelist": email addresses that you trust and from which emails should go to your inbox and not to spam. 

For full instructions, click on Gmail or Hotmail/Outlook. For other email services, please click here. 

Gmail

1. Sign in to Gmail at gmail.com.
    
2. Click on the gear icon at the top right (settings):
   
   
   
   
   
3. Select "See all settings": 
   
   
   
   
4. Click on the "Filters and blocked addresses" tab and then on "Create a new filter":
   
   
   
   
5. In the pop-up window, enter the email address you want to be whitelisted in the "From" field. If you want an entire domain to be whitelisted, you can simply enter the domain (i.e. "@larecupfr.ch") and then click on "Create filter":  
   
   
   
   
   
6. Check the "Never send it to Spam" box. Click on "Create filter" 
   
   
   
   
   
7. Click on the Gmail logo at the top left to return to your inbox 

Hotmail and Outlook

If you use Hotmail or Outlook, this is what you should do :

1. Log in to Hotmail or Outlook at outlook.live.com.
   
   
2. Click on the gear icon at the top right (settings):
   
   
   
   
3. At the bottom, click on "View all Outlook settings":
   
   
   
   
4. Click on the "Email" tab and "Junk email":
   
   
   
   
   
5. In the 'Approved senders and domains' section, click "Add":
   
   
   
   
   
6. Enter the domain 'larecupfr.ch':
   
   
   
   
7. At the bottom, click on "Save":
   
   
   

Other Email Providers

For other email providers, Google "how to whitelist xxxxx emails", where xxxxx is the name of your email service. Or, if you need help, feel free to contact us.

If you have a Bluewin email address, the information we have indicates that it is not possible to add email addresses or email domains to a whitelist. Therefore, our advice is to add [email protected] to your contacts and, if any of our emails end up in your spam folder, mark them as not spam. 

1. Make sure you are logged in to your account. If not, select Login from the menu
   
   Computer:
   
   
   
   
   Mobile:
   
   
   
   
   

2. Click the icon of a person, and select My Ads
   
   Computer:
   
   
   
   
   Mobile:
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Against each of your ads there are three buttons (note that on a phone it is easier to turn the phone to landscape and slide across)
   
   
   
   

To edit an ad, click this button: 

To deactivate an ad, click this button: 

To delete an ad, click this button: 

If an ad is already deactivated, instead of the deactivate button, there is the activate button: 

Deactivating an ad may be useful if you already have had enough response but the item has not yet been collected. It enables you to reactivate the ad if, for any reason, the item isn't collected. It can also be used if you want to be able to refer to your ad in the future, as once an ad is deleted, it's deleted :).

When editing an ad, there are two distinct parts - the Ad Details part, where you can make changes and click Save, and the Manage Images part where you can upload additional images, delete images, and change the order in which they are displayed.

The orientation of images is determined automatically using information contained within the image. Sometime the image may not be in the correct orientation e.g. turned by 90 degrees, which will usually be due to the phone used to take the photo not having been held in a clear orientation. You can modify the image orientation yourself before uploading it, but usually our moderators will spot this and correct it for you.

All your messages are shown in your personal inbox on La Récup'. There you can reply to any messages you have received. 

To access your personal inbox, you must be logged in. Please click on the envelope icon in the main menu or on "Messages" in the submenu under the person icon in the main menu. You can also go to  https://larecupvs.ch/oc-panel/messages.  

On a computer: 

Or, on a mobile phone:

To send a message to a person in response to an ad, please click on "Send message" at the bottom of the ad.

La Récup' is designed to work well on mobile phones. So to access the site quickly and easily, this is what we recommend you do.

For an iPhone:

1. Open Safari and go to larecupvs.ch.

2. Click on the sharing icon at the bottom of the page:

3. Select "Add to Home Screen":

4. Then "Add":

And that's all there is to it. You'll see a stylish icon in the next free space of your iPhone screen!

Pour un android:

1. Open Chrome, then go to larecupvs.ch

2. Click on the menu at the bottom left:

3. Then click on 'Add page to':

4. Then choose 'Home screen':

5. Click on 'Add':

6. Finally, click on 'Add' again. With the La Récup' icon on your home screen, you now have a direct link to our website.

In order to help people when they are publishing ads and also to avoid misuse of the site, we try to check all ads within a few minutes of them being posting. At certain times of the day this is not possible, for example when our volunteers are sleeping 🛌, and so we activate moderation.

This means that the ad is not published until we've had time to check it. But you can edit it in the meantime if you wish from My_Ads, and add photos, etc. You'll just have to wait until we wake up 🥱 to see it live on the website.

After a certain number of attempts to login with an incorrect password, your account will be blocked for a period of time. This is a security feature to prevent 'brute force' password hacking.

If your account is blocked, you can unblock it by resetting your password. Go to Reset Password and enter your email address. You will receive an email (please check your spam) with a link that allows you to create a new password for your account.

Once you have reset your password your account will be unblocked and you will be able to login again.

When you first sign in to La Récup' using your Facebook account, an account is created for you on La Récup'. The information that is saved is your email address as it is stored in Facebook, and your name. 

Within a few minutes, you should receive an email welcoming you to La Récup', containing your email address and an automatically generated password. If you do not receive this email, it is most likely:

a) in your spam folder (see spam for help to prevent our emails going into your spam folder); or

b) your email address on Facebook is incorrect.

In the latter case, this means that you will not receive important emails from La Récup', for example to inform you that you have received a message. So here's the solution:

Solution 1

1. Change your email address on La Récup' via 'Edit profile'
2. Change your email address on Facebook via https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=account&section=email&view

You must do both if you want to continue using your Facebook account to connect to La Récup'.

Solution 2

1. Change your email address on La Récup' and don't connect using your Facebook account. 

Note: if you do this, and you don't change your Facebook email address, and then you log in to La Récup' using your Facebook account, a new (different) account will be created with the incorrect email address stored on Facebook.

Looking for something in particular? On La Récup' you can receive an alert as soon as an ad is published!

Some items go very quickly on La Récup'. Of course, others take longer, but if you're looking for something in particular, especially something that's popular (e.g. children's items or sports equipment), then you might want to be quick.

This is why we have introduced "email alerts". You can find them under the person icon, option "email alerts", or click here.

Here you can create an alert by indicating the category or categories of ads you are interested in, as well as the district/commune or all. Then you will receive an alert email whenever an ad that meets these criteria is published.

NEW : You can now receive an email every morning providing a list of ads (max 16) that were published in the previous day.  Simply go to Email alerts, click on Receive latest ads email : 'Daily', and click Save.

This is a good problem to have, but it can prove a little difficult!

It's not a bad idea to wait 24 hours after you've posted you ad before you decide who to give it to. That will give more people the opportunity to reply to your ad. 

Of course, it is up to you how you decide. For example, you can choose the most polite answer; or the person who lives closest; or the person who has said something about what they are going to do with it; or some other criteria. But it is your choice and your decision is final. 

It is worth making sure that the person you have offered it to actually turns up to collect it, before telling others that it is no longer available. But if you can, as a matter of courtesy, please try to respond to all enquiries and let people know that you have given it to someone else. 

You've offered your item to someone and you don't want to remove the ad in case they don't show up. What can you do to prevent others from contacting you in the meantime?

a) Nothing, and this way you always have other contacts if the first person is a no show;

b) Edit the ad to read "RESERVED" at the beginning of the ad title;

c) Deactivate the ad, in the knowledge that it can always be reactivated if the person you've offered it to doesn't turn up.

To do either b) or c), please go to "My Ads" (https://larecupvs.ch/oc-panel/myads) :

To edit the ad, click on the button:  

To deactivate the ad, click on the button:  

To reactivate an ad that you've deactivated, click on the button:  

This is a potentially difficult issue. That's why we decided that free should be really free. Absolutely free, no strings attached. That's the only way to avoid blurring the lines. Of course, sometimes a grateful recipient may decide to give a small gift to the donor, but there should be no demands or expectations in this regard.

There is, however, an expectation, in fact a requirement. And that is that people treat each other with respect, that they are polite in their interactions, that a recipient shows up when arrangements are made, and that they say "thank you". It costs absolutely nothing and it makes the world a better place.

With pleasure! Please follow the links below to find a leaflet you can use. Thank you in advance - the more people who know about and use La Récup, the better!

Flyer A5 on Dropbox

Flyer Carte de Visite on Dropbox

Flyer A6 on Dropbox

It's a fair question. La Récup' is not the only site where you can post ads for free items. So, why La Récup'? 

La Récup' Valais is the only website: 

• dedicated specifically and uniquely to free items; and 
• which doesn't make any money at all on anything, and 
• which does not use* or sell your data in any way, and 
• which focuses exclusively on the canton of Valais, and 
• which exists solely to help people donate items they no longer need to others within their community. 

Our goal is to become the no.1 site in Valais for donating items to others. With your help, we can achieve this. Thank you for your help!

(*=except of course for the effective use of the site and to keep you informed)