Power on recycling service is a scam!

I feel as though this needs to be brought to attention. My 3GS supposedly had water damage and I never knew about it until I sent it off to Power On Recycling Services and they gave me a quote of 125$ for it, I sent it to them, and I get an email with a new quote of 25$! They claimed it had water damage, scuffed housing, and the headjack port was messed up. The phone was in perfect condition when I had sent it to them. I get it back and the apple logo is half scratched off, looks like it was done by a machine and there is water damage in the ports. I called and bitched about this to them and they kept dancing away from the subject. They would not give me an answer as to what the hell had happened to my phone, they just kept saying it had water damage, which it had not. I'm seriously thinking about taking them to court as I have evidence of the phone before and after I sent it to them. I'm not the only one who has had this kind of experience and I think they should be shut down. I cannot believe Apple would associate themselves with this shady "company".

I'm not the only one they have done this to. Its all over the Apple community forums.

appleofmy"i";14099386 said:

I would have a legal letter sent to them saying you plan on taking them to court

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how would i go about doing that?

Jordan921 said:

Shoulda did some research first before you sent it to them.

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lol. Well, they are affiliated with Apple. Do you really think people would suspect this from a company that is contracted with Apple? I sure didn't. And for the record, I did do a little research on this "company" and couldn't find anything like this until yesterday. Just glad I am not the only one.

Applejuiced said:

Yes, you should expect the worst and do a scan on google before you send in your device. There's tons of scam sites like that everywhere. And just cause they're listed on Apples site doesnt make them 100% legit or equal to Apple.
Do your research before not after you get scammed.
Go ahead and downrank this comment too, since its probably not what you want to hear.
Learn your lesson, wasting time and money trying to take them to court for $100 is not worth it. They probably didnt even send your iphone back but some other one they had laying around.

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Lol. Pretty sure it was mine, just because i had changed the back housing to a different color. And I haven't downranked anyone's comment...?

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Applejuiced said:

Yes, you should expect the worst and do a scan on google before you send in your device. There's tons of scam sites like that everywhere. And just cause they're listed on Apples site doesnt make them 100% legit or equal to Apple.
Do your research before not after you get scammed.
Go ahead and downrank this comment too, since its probably not what you want to hear.
Learn your lesson, wasting time and money trying to take them to court for $100 is not worth it. They probably didnt even send your iphone back but some other one they had laying around.

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Yeah, actually it isn't what I wanted to hear. I don't want to be criticized by people on here when all I'm trying to do is warn people. Carry on.

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Jordan921 said:

Guess you didn't do enough research

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Yeah, I said that when I said "a little research".

Applejuiced said:

Supposedly a little research was done by the OP but then she says



So if its all over the Apple forums you could have pulled it up.
And doesnt seem like you're here to warn but find out what to do next but whatever.
Best of luck to you.

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The day before I shipped the phone off to them I literally typed into google "Power on services recycling scam" or "Power on service scam" and nothing came up. Didn't really care enough to search anymore and I figured whats the worst that could happen? Oh well. I ended up getting the phone back and selling it on ebay however the person I sold it to says it won't work with AT&T. How odd...I used it with AT&T before I shipped it to them. I do believe it'd be worth it to take them to court, because this is just wrong. I'm pretty sure if this happened to you you'd be pretty pissed yourself.

TWD98j said:

I sent my 32GB 3GS to them after I upgraded to my 4S back in October, and the process went smoothly.

They quoted me $100 and that's exactly the amount of the gift card they sent to me. I was happy to get that, since my 3GS was from launch day, back in June '09.

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Strange. Well I'm glad it worked out for you. Maybe its just my luck haha

Applejuiced said:

Well if like they say it now has water damage then its probably giving the new owner sim card problems. Who knows what happen by the time you mailed it and they received it assuming what you say is 100% true. You gotta remember sometimes those sensors turn pink/red just by moisture and most people would have no clue.
Or could have been done by them or during shipping for example.
Either way its not a very pricey mistake and obviously for $100 it wouldnt be worth to take them to court, or paying for everything that you would need in order to get that done. You'd be looking to spend thousands to get your $100 back. How would that be worth it to anyone unless you have lots of money to waste just to prove a point and plenty of free time.
Im sure it wont be your first or last mistake in life and $100 is not that much IMO to be so pissed off about.

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I actually paid about 500$ for it out of contract. Yes it would be worth it cause these people are fraudulent

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SporkLover said:

The sad thing is that this is the official Apple recycling program. Because of that a lot of people have high confidence in it. Apple actually contracts PowerOn to execute the program for them.

Browsing the Apple Support forums would have saved you some angst, there are a lot of hit and miss stories there.

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Don't know why your comment was down ranked cause you're right. I definitely did not expect this from a company that is affiliated with Apple. Puts a bad name on Apple, sorry to say.