“They are a scam, they quoted a total of £450 for my 2 phones, an iphone 8 plus 256GB and an iphone 8 64GB. Both were less than 2 years old and were in excellent condition. iphone 8 plus had one small scratch on the casing otherwise no cosmetic damages nor any software damages. But when the phones were sent, i was given a revised quote of £205 in total stating crackling earpiece, scratches on screen, charging port being loose, etc. and none of these existed until the day i sent my phones over to them. Was asked to pay £20 to return the phones as apparently i mis-stated the conditions of phones when i applied for an online quote. As stupid as I'm, I went online to check their reviews which is when their scam dawned on me. I should have done this even before sending my phones over. I wanted my phones back asap as i was concerned my phones would never be returned or in damaged condition, which is when another nightmare occured. I realised there is no contact number for them, only an email which wasn't responded to quickly. I was starting to panic at this stage and i found out their phone number from one of the other reviews which had a screenshot of their previous webpage with a phone number on. Someone answered and when i asked if it's handsetrecycle, they said yes and stated i will receive an email with instructions of making the £20 payment. And indeed i received an email with a paypal email addresses to which i made the payment and again, there was no further comms. I called the same number the next day and the person that attended the call said they are not handsetrecycle (even though it was the same voice that answered the previous day). I challenged that i spoke with them the previous day and it was indeed handsetrecyce, he said they help handsetrecycle with deliveries, not actual repairs. He then checked the status of my phone and said they were dispatched the previous day. I asked for a tracking number to which he responded emailing them back. I did receive my phone in 2 days and there were scratches on my iphone 8 screen which werent there before. They didnt give the money they quoted and on top of it, have damaged my phone. I have went on to sell both my phones for £500 in total via FB marketplace. I will now reach out to paypal to receive a refund of my £20.
Beware there are a number of red flags (which a cautious person as myself missed, huge money does it!):
1) No contact number
2) Their T&Cs state a charge of £20 for returning phones where as a no. of other companies state they will return for free
3) they offered the highest price of all, even higher than mazuma or musicmagpie
4) there is no way to write from their website
AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!!”
“This is a scam. Avoid at all costs.
Offer a good price, but when they received it they claimed it was faulty and made a stupidly low counter offer. They then point to their T&Cs that say it costs £20 to get your phone back. It’s a scam. Go to one of the bigger recycle companies instead and don’t be ripped off like I was.”
“Wish I had known this before sending my tablet and phone off ive been scammed and stolen from gutted they could do this to me in amongst a pandemic to a nhs nurse thanks a bunch”
“WHAT AN ABSOLUTE BUNCH OF SCAMMERS!! Do not use this company. They offered the most money for my Samsung smart watch and then tried to say that the battery was faulty and reduced the price by £35. There is no way the battery was faulty as I had everything tested before I sent to to them and now having looked at numerous other reviews it seems that this is their method of operating and they now want £20 to send the item back. No way I'm paying that. Their T&Cs say 'It is the responsibility of the customers to ensure that the correct information is selected at the point of sale and, therefore, if the device received does not match the sales order, i.e. it is a different model or the network is not correctly selected or the condition is overly estimated than the actual condition. We have the right to apply for a postal charge return, to send these items back to you. The charge is £20 and you must contact us via phone- to arrange the payment of £20 before your device is sent back to you.'
Well the thing is I did supply the correct information to them at the point of sale and they cannot supply any reliable information to the contrary as far as I'm concerned so I'm going to fight these scammers all the way. How these cowboys are allowed to operate in this way I will never know but companies like this shouldn't be allowed to go about things like this without being held to account. Bottom line DO NOT USE THESE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!”
“This company, goes under the name of Handset Recycle and Tech Mania are nothing but con artists. They will NEVER pay you what they quote on their site and will question the condition of your item no matter what condition it's in.
They then charge you £20 service fee if you reject their ridiculously low offer.
After having no joy at all getting the phone returned, I reluctantly paid the £20 and they are now ignoring my emails and have not returned the phone.
DO NOT USE TECH MANIA OR HANDSET RECYCLE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.”
“Terrible company, I had to chase up whether they had received my phones after they said they would reimburse me if I paid to send them off, which they didn't and they paid much less than agreed or it would cost £20 to have them sent back. They are dishonest, DONOT use them.”
“Its true they are a scam. Sent them my phone to buy off me but they kept saying they "are processing/testing it", and "should be ready by tomorrow". All this after keeping it for over 2 weeks. Stay away from them.”
“Please please do not buy from these people-they are scam artists. They give you a price and then once they get your handset they half the price stating something is wrong with the phone. They also ask you to post and then do not refund postal charges. Police, press, watchdog etc all involved. They will be shut down soon. Do not use these people. Check out the reviews on Facebook, Twitter etc.”
“This company will scam you out of a minimum of £20.
After their "testing" they will come back with ridiculous reasons why your device is worth 40% of the promised online quote and you have to choices, either lose a lot by selling elsewhere or pay £20 to get your device back.
My situation: PS4 in very good condition with all original accessories
-Online quote - £110
-Their "testing" came back with grade E (overheating, disc not reading)
- Paid £20 to get it sent back, they forgot to send back the power cord. Spent two weeks sending emails with no avail, they did not even answer to the Paypal and only after raising a complaint to support team, the company actually sent me the power cord.
-I went to Cex the next day and got £92 for the same Playstation.”
“BEWARE ITS A SCAM! This company will tell you after assessing your phone that it has a fault & is damaged & offer you substantially less than first stated, if you decline the offer you have to pay them £20 to return your phone. My phone which was less than 2 years old was neither faulty or scratched & sent to them in original box. Lesson learned READ ALL REVIEWS 🤨”
