UK mobile phone recycling business Cash4phones has filed for insolvency, according to a report by The Guardian. The company website is currently offline.
Around a thousand people are thought to be out of pocket, having apparently sent their old phones to the company but not received payment. Capital Books, which has been appointed to liquidate the company, is reported as saying it’s been handed 750 mobile phones.
Cash4phones was investigated by the BBC’s Watchdog programme last year after a number of customers complained that the company wasn’t honouring its quoted prices when it received a second-hand phone. An iPhone checked by mobile phone specialists and then submitted by the programme was initially said to be worth £105.52 but was only valued at £42.20 when received. When approached by the BBC, Cash4phones said a trainee had marked the handset as having ‘excessive wear and tear’.
[Insolvency details from London Gazette]