Will I get my money from Skyphones for recycling my phone?

I sent two Nokia N95 8GB mobile phones to recycling company Skyphones in February. I requested payment by bank transfer and I received an email on 10 February confirming receipt.

The email said the phones were at the testing stage and I would be contacted shortly with the payment information. I have still not received payment.
Christopher Ali

Sadly it’s unlikely that Mr Ali will receive any payment. Skyphones appears to be a mobile phone recycling website, much like the better-known companies such as Envirofone and Mazuma.

A quick search online, however, showed that Mr Ali is not alone in having a complaint about Skyphones not paying people for sending in their handsets.

We found a number of alerts on many forums including Money Supermarket, with some going back as far as last autumn. We checked out the company’s Facebook page, which had no recent updates.

Also, despite setting up a Twitter page, the company has not logged a single tweet. We have used the web form provided and emailed the company to contact it. We have tried to call the phone number given by Skyphones but no-one answers.

We found it concerning that the addresses for the company given on the website and at Companies House were different; they were both in Footscray Road, Eltham, London, but one was for Unit C, 4 Footscray Road and the other for 401 Footscray Road.

So we did a little more digging, because Mr Ali was out of pocket to the tune of £230, and we contacted Greenwich Trading Standards. We wanted to know if it had received any complaints or queries about the company and were told that Skyphones was well known to them.

We don’t currently have much more information about its investigation but will update you with anything Trading Standards can give us in a later issue.

We also contacted the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit. This specialised unit handles mobile phone theft and suggests people register their mobile phones and other belongings on the Immobilise website.

Using the Immobilise service
Immobilise is a search database containing the details of millions of mobile phones and other property. You will need the IMEI number of your phone together with the make and model number; you will not be able to register without them.

To get the IMEI number press *#06# on your phone keypad. If a lost or stolen phone turns up, the police can establish the real owner very quickly and there is a much greater chance of you getting your phone back.