O2 Recycling Scam

I recently upgraded my phone with O2. I’ve been an O2 customer for 15+ years. As part of the upgrade process they give you an option to Recycle your phone through O2 Recycle and provide you with a quote of what your phone is worth to them. I have used this system before and have never experienced a problem until this time.

My old phone was an iPhone 7 (128GB). It was in full working order and was not damaged at the time I sent it to them. They quoted me that the phone was worth £170 and in a bid to get some money back towards my new upgrade purchase price and also to save the planet I decided to go ahead and Recycle it. As I said, I had used O2 Recycle before and never had any such problems.

O2 Recycle provided me with packaging to send back the phone in and also provided quite specific instructions about how to package my phone before sending to them, which I followed thinking that this would ensure it’s protection in transit. Therefore you can imagine my sheer disbelief to receive an email from them yesterday suggesting that they can only offer me £34 due to the phone having a cracked screen. I know that it is possible it could have been damaged in transit but I do find it quite hard to believe given that I followed all of the methods of packaging required and other phones I have sent in the past have been packaged in the same way and not been broken.

I also looked into how much a new screen would cost on an iPhone 7 and it seems that it could be anywhere between £70 and £100, so why the £136 reduction?

I have emailed O2 Recycle requesting a photo of my phone to prove the damage as it was in excellent condition when I sent it to them on Wednesday and have had a very shoddy response simply saying they don’t want to receive people’s phones back in that state and they would get a photo to me in due course but I am yet to receive this.

They give you 48 hours to tell them if you want your phone back and this runs out tomorrow. I have a suspicion that they will simply pay me the £34 and keep my phone as I don’t believe for a second that it is even damaged and of course all the while, they are quids in because they have my expensive iPhone, which is probably worth more to them than £170.

I have made a formal complaint to O2 about this as well as complaining to O2 Recycle and I am minded to report them to Trading Standards.

Tonight I have looked on Trust Pilot and as well as leaving my own review of the company I read many very similar stories to my own and it is really quite shocking to see how many people are being affected by this. I also googled and it seems this is a problem throughout mobile phone recycling companies.

I work in the legal progression and am minded to take this to the small claims court because whilst it perhaps isn’t worth the time and effort I do not think these companies should be able to continue to keep getting away with what seems to have been a problem for many years.

Has anyone else experienced these problems?