Get paid for recycling! (envirofone.com)

Member Name: salem_witch

Product:	envirofone.com
Date:	24/09/07 (385 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You get cash or Argos vouchers for old mobiles

Disadvantages: Your mobile might not be worth much

For those of you who’ve never heard of Envirofone then you’ll be pleasantly surprised if you have any old mobiles lying about the house. They basically pay you for your old mobile and they recycle it at no extra cost to you. They even pay for your postage and packaging as well so you have nothing to lose! After reading a review about Envirofone I went off to investigate as I had an old Sony Ericsson K700i lying about and figured I may as well find out if it’s worth anything.

The homepage is professional looking and has everything you need to know at first at a glance. Like most people I went straight for the drop down box to put in my mobile to see what it was worth. So you can have a look how much it is worth without joining. I did this and found out that my mobile was worth £21.87 or £25.26 in Argos credit. For a phone that I hadn’t used in almost 2 years I was delighted with that and I was glad I hadn’t thrown it out! So I quickly signed up which was very easy to do. You can register from the homepage but I didn’t do it this way. I simply pressed the continue button from the page I was already on to trade in my mobile. I then had to choose if I wanted a cheque or Argos credit. I went for Argos simply because you get more money for it. They actually say that you get 15% more for choosing Argos credit, which I thought that was a good amount.

Once I’d gone through the registration process I received a welcome email and a confirmation email of my trade in. Not only did it tell me, which phone I had traded in and the amount but it told me what to do once I get the welcome pack and how long it should take to get to me. They state that you should get it within 5 days but mine came much sooner than that. It’s important that when you do get it you try and post off the mobile as soon as you can as the offer is only open for 20 days from the trade in date. If they get the mobile after that then they might not honour it, which would be very annoying.

I’ve also noticed that the prices that they offer for various mobiles can change quickly. I traded in my Sony Ericsson K700i on the 23rd May and by the 1st June the amount had already dropped from £21.87 to £13.98. So I was lucky to have got the price I did for a phone that is 3 years old. So it could be worth trying to sell your mobile on eBay if you think you could get more for it than they offer here. Also just because you have a fairly new mobile doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get more money than an older one. I recently upgraded from a Motorola V3 to a Sony Ericsson Z610i. Yet when I looked out of interest to see how much that would get me it was a mere £3.99! Not that I’ll be getting rid of that for another 18 months now but I hope that when the time comes I’ll get more for it then!

As I’ve mentioned Envirofone will send you what they call a welcome pack. This isn’t as big as it sounds though. You get a covering letter welcoming you and explaining that all you need to do is send them your phone in the enclosed jiffy bag which already has a sticky label on with their address. They also include a card, which you need to fill out and put in with your mobile. This is your name, username; post code, telephone number and email address. This is so they obviously know who to credit. Also included is extra address labels in case you need them and your Argos eCard. This is given to you even if you’ve asked for a cheque as it means you can be paid this way in the future if you choose it.

Before you just stick your mobile in the jiffy bag they do ask a few things. Don’t leave your SIM card in the mobile, as they don’t want that as it has your personal information on it. They do say that if they get any SIM cards then they’ll destroy them so you don’t want to leave it in by mistake! Plus they ask you to have it fully charged as they test and grade it when they receive it. The mobile should be in working condition and be able to switch on although mild cosmetic damage is acceptable. You also need to include the battery and any memory cards it came with. They do ask that you send any manuals and chargers with it but this isn’t compulsory. I still had the box mine came in so I put everything in there and sent them everything. The one thing that I found that the jiffy bag was only big enough to send them a mobile. Luckily I had some larger ones so I was able to enclose both my mobiles in their boxes in that. The postage is free so you don’t need to worry about the weight of the package. If this had been the case then I’d not have bothered sending it all in the box I got it in.

Envirofone won’t take any responsibility for any damaged or missing mobiles. So you need to make sure that you pad the package well to avoid any damage in the post. As I sent mine in the box I know the chances of mine being damaged is nearly impossible. They recommend that you send it Recorded Delivery as well. I wasn’t going to bother at first until I realised that if it never got there I’d be missing out on nearly £50. I thought it would be a few pounds but as the address is freepost it cost less than a pound. With this you get proof of posting, a signature on delivery and online tracking. This tracking only works once the package has arrived though. I put in my reference number on the Royal Mail website a couple of days after it was posted and I was told “Recorded Signed For™ items are only tracked after the item has been delivered. Depending on whether the item was sent first or second class, this may be a few days after posting. Please try again later.” But at least you can keep checking to see when it gets there and more importantly when you expect Envirofone to pay!

I’ve also read in their small print that if they receive any mobiles that don’t meet their conditions then you’ll not get your agreed amount. However, they do say that they’ll contact you and possibly make another offer so you may not lose out completely. I suppose if you sent the wrong phone or clicked the wrong mobile on the website when you were trading in this could happen.

What is good about the site is you can track your progress throughout the various stages. This is found under ‘My Account’ and then ‘View orders’. Once you’ve completed a trade in it’ll say ‘Waiting’ and this will change once they’ve processed your mobile. When you click on the order ID it opens up a box which goes into detail of the status of your mobile. This is good, as you know at a glance whether they have your mobile and if they do what stage it’s at. Once they’ve got it the status will turn to ‘received’ and this shows that it’s being tested on or about to be. Depending on the outcome of the tests it’ll change to one of the following:

*Grade A to D
*return - if it’s been sent back to you
*recycle - if it’s being recycled and not worth anything
*problem - which obviously means there is a problem and they’ll be contacting you
*barred - if it’s a stolen mobile.

So fingers crossed your mobile passes the tests and is graded. Once that happens your status will change from ‘Waiting’ to ‘Ready’ and then to ‘Actioned’ where your details will be processed and you’ll be paid.

It took 5 days (this included the weekend) for Envirofone to receive my mobiles. They sent me an email informing me of this and told me that they were doing the tests to make sure they meet their terms and conditions. It took them 3 days for them to test them which I thought was reasonable. I got an email for each mobile informing me that they had been tested and they had passed the testing. I then popped on the website to see what grade they have been given. Both were given a B so I can only assume that A is perfect and D is acceptable. I say this as both my mobiles were in very good condition and had no scratches on them (not that I could see anyway!) Not that it really matters what grade you’re given as you get paid what you were offered initially unless it doesn’t pass the tests. I was actually away for a few days after I had the email to say they had been tested. When I came back and checked my emails I was disappointed that there wasn’t one from Envirofone saying that my payment had been credited. However, when I logged on to my account the mobile status for both mobiles were ‘actioned’. They do say to allow up to 20 days to receive your payment so I was surprised when this was done the very next day after the tests.

Since I traded in my mobiles they have a referral scheme. You can get paid £5 for each friend that you recommend that trades in at least one mobile with them. This is very easy to do as they have a link from the homepage at the moment and you can find it under 'My account'. So if you have several friends or family members that have old mobiles lying around then you can benefit from it too! I've personally not done this but I can only assume that payment is prompt from the two trade ins I did.

So as you can tell I’m more than happy with Envirofone. The good thing about them is that your old mobiles will get reused if they are in good enough condition. If they’re not in good enough condition then they’ll recycle all the parts of the mobile. So it won’t end up in a landfill and you get paid for it as well. If you are considering doing this yourself then don’t forget to go via a reward site as I got 75p for each of my mobiles for going through one.

Summary: Recycle old mobiles and get a little something for them