Charity Handsets
ReCellular's Newman says that his Michigan-based company now processes some 15,000 phones a day, from recent models to oldies dating back to the Motorola Star-tac. Most of them arrive via carrier recycling programs: "Virgin Mobile, for example, includes a recycling envelope with every phone that they sell," Newman says. Companies such as Best Buy and Verizon Wireless encourage phone recycling by giving any proceeds from the donated phones to charity.
Older phones that are still functional but banged up typically go to third-world countries, Newman says. But ReCellular also spruces up more-recent handsets and distributes them to U.S. resellers.
Houston-based Wireless Galaxy sells a variety of refurbished handsets (as well as new ones) online, says manager Shabaz Khan. Customers who buy refurbished phones often are people who have lost or damaged a fairly high-end phone midway through a contract and don't want to pay the unsubsidized price the carrier will charge for a replacement, Khan says. A cheap, refurbished phone can bridge the gap between the loss of the expensive phone and the end of a contract, at which time the customer can again qualify for a carrier subsidy on a new high-end model.
The other big market for refurbs is the prepaid-service business (hence the high proportion of $30 GoPhones in Cingular's refurbished-handset list). Pay-as-you-go customers are usually the most price-sensitive of cell phone users: Many cannot qualify for contracts and subsidized phones, and are trying to keep their up-front costs down, Khan says.
Regardless of where you purchase your phone, a reputable dealer will typically offer at least some warranty protection: "Buying from [Wireless Galaxy] gives you a 30-day warranty, and we usually extend that to 90 days," Khan says.
If you are contemplating buying a refurbished phone, check the warranty closely--and not just its length. Find out exactly what it covers, and who's going to be responsible for it. Don't expect support from the manufacturer; you'll probably be at the mercy of the outfit that manages the refurbishing program. Get all the details in writing, Newman says.
A good phone-refurbishing company will supply all of the equipment and manuals you'd get with a new handset. And reputable factory refurbishers will always properly remove data from old phones. (If you're giving away a phone and are concerned about protecting your privacy, ReCellular provides free data-erasing software for assorted popular models at its WirelessRecycling.com Web site).
And if you're shopping for a refurbished phone, don't expect to see a lot of superhot models. Carriers typically use refurbished versions of popular new handsets as replacements for defective phones under warranty, and ReCellular's Newman says that there simply aren't enough of them left over to satisfy the demand. Oh, well--it's back to prowling the shopping pages for me.
Yardena Arar is a senior editor, for PC World. Send e-mail to consumerwatch@pcworld.com.
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